How to get funding in this economy: advice from an angel investor

The first company I built was in 2008; we closed our seed round in May, the housing crisis hit in August, and the world collapsed. I distinctly remember Sequoia Capital’s “RIP good times” slide deck that September, which effectively killed the VC market overnight. We had only raised $500K and had overscaled our team. We tried to last as long as we could, but in March 2009 we had to raise again. I personally pitched 36 firms in person and they all said no.

That experience forever changed...