Angels & Unicorns

Are You Ready For The Yes? -

What Every Founder Should Know Before The Wire Hits Their Account

Many founders spend so long fundraising, they lose sight of what is expected once the funds arrive. Many point to the mistakes they made at this point as the reason their start-up failed.

A founder I backed a few years ago sent me a handwritten thank you note when my money landed in his bank account.

He said he was grateful for my belief in his vision, excited to put the capital to work, and looking forward to building something great together.

It was a genuinely nice note. I read it once, put it in a drawer and thought: he has no idea what just happened.

Not because he was wrong about any of it. Because he was right about all the wrong things.

The wire clearing is not the beginning of safety. It is the beginning of accountability, and the two feel identical from the inside until they don’t.

The founders who burn through a seed round in twelve months and arrive at Series A with nothing to show for it did not make one catastrophic decision. They made a hundred small ones in the days and weeks immediately after the funds arrived, when the money felt like permission and nobody was yet asking difficult questions.

That window - between the close and the moment the investors start paying close attention - is one of the most reliably destructive periods in the startup lifecycle. The danger is not obvious. That is what makes it dangerous.

The startup ecosystem has produced a staggering volume of content about how to get funded. What none of it does is sit down with a founder who just closed their round and explain what they have actually signed up for, from the perspective of the person who wrote the check.

My second book in the ‘Angels and Unicorns’ series aims to give founders (and their investors) the knowledge and confidence to begin executing as soon as the wire lands.

“Are You Ready for the Yes?” covers the full arc of the angel relationship from the morning after the wire clears to the follow-on conversation, the pivot conversation, how to send bad news first, and what the relationship looks like after an exit or even after a failure.

What’s Inside: Twenty chapters that will give your potential investor the confidence they need to get that wire sent.

“Genuinely useful in a sea of content that isn’t” Pierce Brehm

Angels & Unicorns “Are you ready for the Yes?” - $24.99

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“The first chapter was already a good reality check. You have a way of seeing through the rose-colored glasses.” Jorge Reyna

“I felt like I was having a direct conversation with you, without the usual friction or wasted time. I found myself thinking it might be better positioned as required reading for clients rather than angels.” David H Friedel Jr


“Your directness and clarity is invaluable for a founder. I’m involved in LaunchCLT (Charlotte entrepreneurial mentorship program) and I know everyone in it would want a copy.” Steve


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