Pitch me like you'd pitch an investor. I'll tell you what they won't.
Friends are too polite. Co-founders are too invested. And investors never tell you why they passed. So founders book 90 minutes, 1:1, with me: you pitch exactly as you normally would, and you get the honest read back. What's genuinely strong, where to focus, and concrete tips on business model, product, and tech, from a working CTO.
Book your session See the punch listWithin 24 hours, this lands in your inbox.
Every session ends with a written punch list. This sample shows the format and the depth. Yours will be about your startup.
Genuinely strong, lead with these
- Your retention curve for the first 40 users is the best slide in the deck and it's currently slide 14. Move it to slide 3.
- Founder-market fit is real here. You lived this problem for 6 years at ██████. Say that in the first minute, not in the team slide.
- The pricing experiment you ran in March is stronger evidence than the market size slide. Investors see invented market sizes daily. They rarely see real willingness to pay.
Where to focus before you pitch
- Your acquisition story assumes a channel that dies at scale. You need an answer for what happens after the first 200 customers from ████████.
- The "AI-powered" framing is working against you. Three competitors say the same words. Your actual edge is the workflow position, not the model.
- The numbers slide mixes one-time and recurring revenue. Any investor will catch it in 30 seconds. Separate them before anyone sees this.
Concrete tips
- Stop building your own ██████████ pipeline. Two vendors do it better, and it's not what makes you hard to copy.
- Rehearse the "why hasn't ██████ built this" answer out loud. Your current version takes 90 seconds. It needs to take 15.
Real perspective is the scarcest thing a founder can get.
This started with a favor. A friend asked me to look at his friend's pitch, and 90 minutes of honest back and forth changed how that founder saw his own company. Not because I'm smarter than him. Because I've spent a decade shipping products, seeing what works and what dies, and I had no reason to tell him anything except what I actually saw.
That's what you're booking. I run engineering at a company by day and build my own products on the side, and for 90 minutes all of that experience sits on your side of the table and looks at exactly one thing: your startup. You get my actual read, not a softened version, not a template. What's genuinely strong, where to focus, and what to fix first.
The earlier that happens, the more it's worth. The best time is before you've launched anywhere and before any investor has seen your name. Drafting a YC application, building your first product in public, or still deciding if the idea deserves a year of your life? That's exactly when to book.
What's genuinely strong
Most founders undersell their best material. We find it and put more spotlight on it.
Where to focus
The business model holes and idea risks that will come up, ranked by what to fix first.
Product and tech, from a CTO's chair
What to build, what to buy, and where AI actually fits your story. I build AI myself, so expect at least one "you could use XYZ for that" you haven't heard before.
The written punch list
Everything above in writing, within 24 hours, like the sample you just saw.
Book today. Pitch better this week.
Book a slot
Pick a time, payment confirms it. Usually available within a day or two.
Pitch me for real
No warm up, no coaching first. You give me exactly the pitch you'd give an investor.
The read, live
What's strong, where to focus, and the hard questions you'll face. We rehearse the answers until they're short and convincing.
Your punch list
Everything in writing, ranked by priority. Yours to keep and work through.
A working CTO, not a career coach.
I'm Dante Puglisi, CTO at YRW Tech, with 1 exit behind me. I've shipped more than 10 products of my own and helped teams ship over 100, for companies like Ledger, inCitu, and Sherpany.
When you book, you get me, not an analyst or a framework. I've been on both sides of the table you're about to sit at. I've made the build vs buy calls, watched good ideas die from bad framing, and seen weak ideas dressed up beautifully. The pattern recognition is the product.
Everything is public and verifiable on my LinkedIn. If we talk, you'll know exactly who's giving you the read.