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The best VCs aren't just evaluating your pitch — they're evaluating you. And most founders don't realize the bar they're actually being held to.
Top-tier investors see thousands of founders a year and back a handful. What separates the ones they move on from the ones they pass on has less to do with the deck and more to do with the founder themselves. In this session, two seasoned VCs share exactly what puts someone in that top 1% — and what quietly takes most founders out of the running.
We focus on the two questions that matter most:
- The Standard — What does a top 1% founder actually look like, and how do investors recognize it before there's much proof?
- The Differentiators — What specific traits, behaviors, and signals separate the founders VCs move fast on from the ones they don't.
There'll be time for Q&A at the end. Most useful for founders who want an honest, unfiltered view of the bar they're being measured against.
Speakers:
- Paul Grossinger: Paul founded Gaingels in 2014, growing it from a small angel syndicate into a venture firm that has deployed $900M+ across 1,500+ companies — with 75+ unicorns in the portfolio, including Databricks, Weights & Biases, Figure AI, and Shield AI. Having backed more founders than most VCs will ever meet, Paul has a sharp eye for what separates the ones who break through from the ones who don't — and he's not shy about saying it.
