Jeff C. Snider — Founder to Acquirer: Fundraising, GTM & Soft-Landing in the US

In this Dawdle episode, Rishikesh interviews Jeff C. Snider — serial founder, operator, advisor and M&A veteran — on practical founder playbooks for fundraising, finding repeatable GTM, and how international startups should validate & “soft land” into the U.S. market.

Key topics covered:

Why resilience and timing are the CEO’s two non-negotiables.

The three fatal fundraising errors: wrong investor targets, drinking the Kool-Aid, and losing attention on the first slide.

How to know you’ve achieved repeatable, scalable GTM: hacking value → building a funnel → scaling.

Why focus trumps variety: “1 × 50” vs “50 × 1” (sell the same use case 50 times — better than 50 different use cases once).

Soft-landing framework for global founders entering the U.S.: re-validate market fit, test hypotheses, and run sales sprints.

How VCs evaluate AI companies today: data-moats, learning velocity, cost per inference and unit economics.

Mindset traits of founders who survive downturns: vigilance, willingness to adjust, and founder commitment.

Who should watch: Founders (pre-seed → Series A), GTM leaders, startup mentors, investors, and product leaders planning cross-border expansion.

🕒 Chapters / Timestamps (YouTube chapters)

00:00 — Intro & Jeff’s background (computer science → founder → exits)
01:58 — Early operating lessons: resilience, fundraising as a CEO’s job, timing
05:38 — Top founder mistakes in fundraising: wrong investors, Kool-Aid, weak first slide
12:10 — Signals of repeatable & scalable GTM: hacking value → funnel → scale
16:50 — Focus vs scatter: “1 × 50” vs “50 × 1” — why narrow beats broad early
18:24 — Soft-landing into the US: market re-validation, hypothesis testing, sales sprints
25:04 — Interviewing vs selling: market discovery techniques for new geographies
26:35 — What VCs look for now (post-AI boom): data moats, learning rate & query economics
31:12 — Founder mindset that thrives: agility, vigilance & founder commitment
35:22 — Is fundraising required? Pros/cons of venture capital vs building independently
38:23 — Closing thoughts & final advice

#Founders #Fundraising #GTM #MarketEntry #StartupAdvice #Dawdle