Inside the boot camp that teaches startup founders how to raise millions of dollars

Going straight for the jugular

The startup trap

"One of the things that you notice about founders when they pitch is that three to four weeks into the process, they're three or four or five times better than the first meeting they take," Berson says. "And it's always a bummer because it's like if you did that before, you'd be three or four times better for your first meeting."

Berson wanted some way to turn the First Round partners' experience of seeing its companies close over 1,000 finance rounds into more than just a sheet on best practices. CEOs had to set aside the time to go through the boot camp, but it's worked.

"It's understandable why founders are bad at this. In the life of their company, they probably do it once every two years," says Trenchard. "It's just not something that is a regular, repeated skill but it just makes such a big difference."

Since the program was created, more than 25 startups have honed their pitching skills and gone on to raise roughly half a billion dollars in follow-on rounds, according to First Round.

Don't stack your strengths

All in, it took the startup one month to go from dissecting its burning questions to pocketing its next round of funding. Moreover, Pitch Assist has changed the way Pilarinos explains his business to everyone from friends to potential partners.

"I was super impressed," he said. "The benefits of that conversation has paid off numerous dividends since then, in presentations I've done, in conversations that I've had with people."

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