If your pitch deck or investor emails are full of words like "tremendous latent potential," "highly efficacious," or "flywheels of growth" — this episode is for you. In this Backchannel episode, Jason breaks down why flowery language and SAT words are one of the biggest red flags for investors, and why stripping it all back to simple, clear language will almost always get you further. He reads a real (anonymized) founder blurb as an example, breaks down exactly what's wrong with it, and shares a simple fix you can apply to your own pitch today.

Most founders treat cold outreach like a numbers game — blast enough investors and something will stick. It doesn't work that way. In this episode of The Back Channel, Jason breaks down why cold outreach is inherently at a disadvantage, why it should only ever be 5% of your fundraising strategy, and the specific tactics that can actually make a cold email land. From the traveling founder trick to warming up relationships on social before you ever hit send, this is a practical guide to using cold outreach the right way — without wasting your most valuable resource: time.

On this episode of Funded, Alex Bazzell, co-founder of Unrivaled, shares how he went from training NBA players to building one of the most talked-about new sports leagues in the country — and convincing investors to bet on it before a single game was played. He talks about getting passed on by VCs who invested in women's sports, what it felt like to fundraise without a prior exit or operator background, and how being completely not in fundraising mode turned out to be his biggest advantage. Then, mid-season, Bessemer Venture Partners — backers of LinkedIn, Shopify, and Twilio — came knocking unsolicited and delivered a term sheet the very next morning. It's a real look at what happens when deep belief, hard work, and the right timing collide.

On this episode of Funded, Emilė Radytė, co-founder and CEO of Samphire Neuro, shares how she went from academic neuroscientist to building a regulated neurotechnology company for women's hormonal health — a category most investors didn't even recognize. She talks about raising with no VC network, why hardware and women's health made investors nervous, and the mindset shift that changed everything: counting the nos instead of waiting for the yes. We also hear from her lead investor Kevin at In Venture, who cold-messaged her on LinkedIn, found out the round was already closing, and flew to London the next day to fight his way in. It's a real look at what it takes to hold conviction in a market no one has mapped yet — and why the right investor might find you before you ever find them.

A lot of founders jump straight to trying to sound impressive in a pitch. That usually backfires. In this episode of Back Channel, I break down the step most people skip, getting the investor to actually care before you show them anything clever.

I talk through why context matters more than complexity, how to think about an ideal investor who already “gets it,” and how to reverse-engineer what you need to explain so someone can lean in instead of getting lost. We cover opportunity size, credibility, unfair advantages, and why your real goal early in a raise is just to keep the page turning.

If you’ve ever felt like your pitch makes sense to you but not to the room, this one’s for you.

I want to walk through a real example of a founder who is doing the fundraising work the right way. Not theory. Not vibes. Actual behavior that leads to calendar density.

I talk a lot about calendar density as the punchline, and I’ve realized that for a lot of founders the obvious follow-up is, okay, but how do I get there. This episode is my answer to that question.

I break down what I saw this founder do before he ever “started” his fundraise. Starting earlier than feels comfortable, making warm intros incredibly easy for busy people, following up the right way, and treating fundraising like a written process instead of a handful of one-off asks.

If you’ve heard me say “get to calendar density” and felt a little stuck on the mechanics, this is the episode to copy.

I’ve been thinking about a fundraising idea that keeps showing up once you’ve pitched enough rooms. I call it the resonant frequency of investors. It’s that moment in a pitch when someone stops evaluating you and starts dreaming alongside you.

In this episode, I break down what that state actually looks like, how it feels when an investor is nowhere near it, and why the difference matters more than most founders realize. We talk about the myth of only pitching people who “already get it” and why that mindset leaves money on the table.

I share how narrative, framing, and a few small changes can move someone from skeptical to fully bought in. There’s a real example from a founder I’ve worked with where a single shift in context changed everything for me personally. One and a half slides in and it all clicked.

If you’re raising and wondering why some investors poke holes and others fill them in for you, this episode is for you.

I finally brought a guest onto The Back Channel, and it’s for a good reason. A founder hit me with a question about SAFEs that made me pause a bit longer than I’d like to admit. The topic: whether a startup can accept money from someone who isn’t accredited in the US, and what that even means when the investor lives abroad.

So I called up Aaron Ginsburg, partner at Fenwick, who spends his days helping startups and early investors avoid mistakes that later turn into headaches. We get into why the accredited investor rule exists, who actually carries the risk if you bend the rules, how foreign investors fit into the picture, and why Reg S sometimes solves things but adds its own twists.

If you’ve ever raised on SAFEs, are about to, or have no idea what you signed last time someone wired you money, this one clears up a bunch of stuff founders usually gloss over. Casual chat, real details, zero legalese overload.