• Rejection from investors is common, even for great products with traction.
• InVision, a medical device startup, was rejected over 50 times before getting funding.
• The founder, Surbhi Sarna, convinced an investor by betting on herself and taking no salary for 2 years.
• The first funding round was only $500,000, but the company was later acquired for $275 million.

You don't need every investor to like what you're building.

The reality is that no matter how great your product is, how much traction you have, investors are going to reject you, and that's okay.

InVision is a medical device startup for cancer detection, and it was started by Surbhi Sarna, who's a YC Group partner today.

When Surbhi started building Envision, she was rejected more than 50 times by investors to just get the first money for the company.

The way that she was able to convince someone to write that first check and to help her get this company started was she told them she was gonna bet on herself and take no salary for the first 2 years if the investor was willing to bet on them.

Her first round of funding for the company was only 500000 dollars, but she got it done even though she got rejected over and over again.

And since then the company was acquired for 275000000 dollars.


Speaker 0: You don't need every investor to like what you're building. You just need a few of them to believe. The reality is that no matter how great your product is, how much traction you have, investors are going to reject you, and that's okay. In fact, it puts you in great company. Here's a great example, InVision.

InVision is a medical device startup for cancer detection, and it was started by Surbhi Sarna, who's a YC Group partner today. When Surbhi started building Envision, she was rejected more than 50 times by investors to just get the first money for the company. The way that she was able to convince someone to write that first check and to help her get this company started was she told them she was gonna bet on herself and take no salary for the first 2 years if the investor was willing to bet on them. And that was for a $25,000 check. Her first round of funding for the company was only 500000 dollars, but she got it done even though she got rejected over and over again.

And since then the company was acquired for 275000000 dollars.

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Investors don’t validate your startup — users do.