What You Need Before Pitching, Where Founders Get Stuck, How to Connect With VCs, Terra Energy Spotlight

For this month’s newsletter, we sat down with three experts in the startup ecosystem who’ve seen thousands of decks, taken hundreds of calls, and know exactly what it takes to make a company stand out in venture.

Hillel Fuld (startup advisor), Eric Reiner (Vine Ventures), and Lia Cromwell (UpWest).

What followed was a refreshingly honest, practical conversation about how VCs really think and where founders tend to trip themselves up.

We’re still taking it all in, but here are three clips we keep coming back to. If you watch them in order, they build a useful arc that we apply to our own thinking at LionRun:

1. What You Need Before Pitching

This one’s foundational.

Hillel made it clear: saying you have no competition doesn’t make you sound bold, it raises red flags. If there’s no competition, there might not be a real problem.

Eric doubled down on this. He said conviction isn’t about having the perfect solution. It’s about showing you’ve done the real work of understanding the problem. That you’ve sat with it. Talked to people. Gone deeper.

And Lia reminded us: VCs don’t expect a perfect product, but they do want signs that people care. You need to show that you’ve left the building, spoken to customers, and proven demand exists.

This is the kind of legwork you can’t skip and the kind of clarity investors notice.

2. Where Most Startups Get Stuck

This is where a lot of founders lose the thread.

Hillel noted that founders often get so excited about their solution, they forget to explain the problem. VCs hear pitches all the time that skip straight to the “how” without grounding them in the “why.”

Lia reminded us that standout founders don’t just have a good product, they have a unique point of view. They’ve spent enough time with the problem that their approach feels inevitable.

And Eric made an important distinction:
If your raise doesn’t land, that doesn’t mean you’re not cut out for this. Not every great business needs to go the VC route. You can be an entrepreneur without chasing venture, there are other ways to build, and other kinds of success.

3. How to Really Connect With a VC

This part is more tactical, but just as important.

Hillel made it clear: if you’re not resourceful enough to reach a VC, you probably shouldn’t be raising venture capital. Getting a meeting often takes less than you think, but it does take intent.

Lia talked about the power of warm intros, especially from other founders in the VC’s portfolio. That signal goes further than a cold pitch ever could, and shows that you're already embedded in the ecosystem.

Tying It All Together

Each of these clips highlights a different phase of the fundraising journey—but taken together, they track the exact progression we walk through with founders with our phased process at LionRun.

• Phase 1: Strategy — Before you pitch, you need clarity. What problem are you solving? Who’s it for? Why now?

• Phase 2: Story — Once the strategy is clear, we shape the narrative. What are you actually building, and how do you communicate it with conviction?

• Phase 3: Preparation — We help you get ready to raise: understanding what investors are really looking for, and how to meet them where they are.

That’s what we help founders do every day.

If you’re gearing up for a raise and want a team that’s asking the right questions, helping you get sharp, and cheering you on, we’d love to work together.

Client Spotlight: Terra Energy

Earlier this year, we partnered with Jaime Martinez, founder of Terra Energy, a rooftop solar company that’s already the largest in Mexico.

Their insight was simple but powerful: solar is still too expensive and centralized. So Terra built something different: a subscription model that brings rooftop solar to more people, more affordably, with less friction.

Now they’re expanding into the U.S., and we helped shape the story that will carry them there.

Building Out The Message With Terra

As Jaime put it, when you’re deep in the business, it’s easy to speak in shorthand. We helped the Terra team zoom out, clarify what makes their model different, and articulate the story in a way that feels structured, sharp, and visually clean.

We’re proud to have been a small part of Terra’s next chapter, and we’re excited to see where they take this energy next.

And a big shoutout to Barry Kupferberg for bringing Terra and LionRun together!

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Until next time— we’ll be on the lookout!

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