Fundraising Tips From Vungle Founder Jack Smith – Hustle Con 2016

TL;DR

Jack Smith recounts how Vungle went from being the "joke of the class" at AngelPad to raising a $2M seed round led by Google Ventures and eventually $25M total. He advises founders to change the power dynamic by not begging for money, to use a picture-book pitch deck that structures a conversation, to highlight a single memorable traction metric with a time frame, and to describe the business in o

Key insights

• Seed fundraising is not about a polished presentation; it is a relationship where the VC should feel they have to pitch you.
• Having part of your round already raised (e.g., half of $500k) flips the dynamic: VCs start selling you on why you should let them invest.
• The best meetings happened without ever showing the deck; the deck should function as a mental outline for a natural conversation, not a reading document.