After thousands of pitches, here's what matters: 1. 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫. Not "understand" them. LOVE them. If you don't obsess over making their life better, you won't make it. 2. 𝐁𝐞 𝐨𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜. Pessimists don't build trillion-dollar companies. They give up when it gets hard. And it WILL get hard. 3. 𝐁𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐞𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞. "A spouting whale gets harpooned" is the OPPOSITE of what I want. I want founders who speak up. Who don't care what everyone else thinks. You're going to have dark moments. Jesus Christ had moments of doubt and pain (shoutout Rolling Stones). You will too. The question isn't whether you'll face hard times. It's whether you'll push through them. That's what separates the founders I back from everyone else.(Tim Draper)