What The Muse’s Kathryn Minshew learned about successfully pitching investors
Before The Muse co-founder Kathryn Minshew became a celebrated entrepreneur she struggled through failure. It took getting turned down by hundreds of investors for her to find a formula for success.
Minshew and her two co-founders launched the career development platform, originally called The Daily Muse, in 2011. “We didn't have money. We didn't have a budget. We didn't have anything,” she recalled. They applied and got into Y Combinator, a startup accelerator that counts Airbnb, Dropbox and Reddit among its alumni. Minshew explained, “The culmination of the three-month program is this date called Demo Day, where all of the startups that are part of Y Combinator take the stage, and in two and a half minutes, they pitch their business to about 450 investors.”
Despite “feeling pretty great at the end of the pitch,” Minshew said, “We ended up not closing a single investor.” She was certain they had a great idea, bolstered by the incredibly positive feedback they were getting from people using the platform. She wondered if she “was perhaps just an insufficient messenger.”
Minshew approached some of the investors who had turned her down to get a better understanding of how they thought about deals and why they weren’t interested in The Muse. She realized they had very different career paths and backgrounds than the people who were actually using and finding value in her product. Once Minshew changed her approach to better explain who The Muse was for and why those it wasn’t for would benefit from investing in it, backers started to come on board. During her tenure as CEO of the company, she raised over $40 million dollars.
“Nothing would've changed if I hadn't taken the time to get to know my audience,” Minshew said.
Her advice for any situation in which you’re aiming to be persuasive, such as a job interview: “Take a step back and think, ‘What does the person on the other side of the table believe? What are their motivations? What do they likely care about?’ I love, in an interview context, when people ask, ‘If someone is hired into this role and is wildly successful, what does that look like? What are the things that you're hoping to get from someone who comes in and really crushes it in this role?’ Because it really puts the focus on their orientation, their benefit, and that is ultimately how a lot of people make decisions.”
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Bespoke Tailor specializing in Costume Design and Attention to Detail
1dVery helpful!
3x Founder, Investor, Advisor with hands-on experience in IoT, Infrastructure & AI
2wSuch an important message here for founders. It can be so easy to get wrapped up in the romance of telling your story or unpacking the nuances of the product/platform you've built. What Kathryn outlines and what I've heard from other world-class entrepreneurs underscores the importance of deeply knowing your audience. Great founders are able to empathize with audiences that might not look like themselves and may have had a different life story - being able to bridge that gap authentically can mean the difference between success and failure. Really impressive video, well done LinkedIn and Kathryn Minshew 👏
MBA, Partner, NNN Retail Advisors | Net Lease Advisors | Single-Tenant NNN Properties | Based in Dallas, Texas | Licensed Broker in Texas and Tennessee | gavin@nnnretailadvisors.com
2wVery informative
Business consultant
2wThis look is so good and professional. Outstanding understanding to help the younger generation understand natural beauty and get some work done. Studying daily in different areas and understanding it from a world view through literature in ur field is astronomically beneficial. It’s not plagiarism it’s actually deeper understanding at the root level
Business consultant
2wThe problem is that everyone is focused on improving failure and learning from it. In psychology we focus on a strength mindset which is critical for success with continued improvement ( failure as steps in rising up). Without a strength mindset and understanding what you learned from ur environment and culture and reading and work. Like understanding ur strengths at a deeper level and working in different areas to increase knowledge in many subjects and disciplines from a young age. Anything u read is easier and faster and ur understanding is at a high level. Of course application of knowledge in everything helps like discussions with husband parents in laws cousins siblings extended family children children’s friends other parents coworkers etc etc. but my point is focus on strengths in urself and then learn to focus on ur family’s strengths.