The Complete Guide to Raising Venture Capital *By Lily Wang, Partner at Expon Capital*
Every year, we look at around thousands of opportunities. We fund a small handful of them. So when founders ask what it actually takes to get funded, the honest answer is unsatisfying: it's not one thing. But after enough board meetings, watching which companies make it and which don't, a pattern does emerge. Here it is, plainly, without the usual fundraising-guide fluff.
What we're actually evaluating
When we look at a company, we're really looking at four things: **team, product, market, and business model**. That's it. Not "vision." Not "disruption." If a founder says "we're an AI company," that tells us nothing. What matters is: what problem is being solved, why this specific product solves it, whether there's evidence people will pay for it, and whether it can become a real business.
A good pitch doesn't try to impress. It tries to answer those four questions as directly as possible.
The team question comes first, and it's not about the resume
We're investing in a company run by real people, not a slide with logos on it. What's actually being assessed is whether this specific team is positioned to solve this specific problem — and whether they'll still be solving it three years from now, when the excitement of launch day is long gone. Building something from nothing takes a lot of time and a lot of resilience. A founder starts with only themselves, and a product that isn't perfect on day one. Then customers still have to be convinced. The teams that stand out are the ones that clearly understand that's the job.
Product and market: prove it's real, not just big
Market size slides are easy to inflate. What matters is whether a company can show, with real numbers, that there's a problem worth solving and that its product solves it in a way people actually pay for. A $50B TAM slide with no math behind it convinces no one — 50 or 500 customers who've shown, with their wallets, that this matters is worth far more.
The fund is sector agnostic with a focus on AI, Space, Fintech and Cybersecurity. That's not a trend call. It is based on our investment expertise and track record.
The business model has to survive contact with time
This is where patience matters, on both sides. The fund has a 10-year life, which means most of those 10 years are spent solving problems, not celebrating wins. Long-term business opportunities have to be separated from short-term hype, because some trends last six months and some last three years, and figuring out which is which happens before committing, not after. The same discipline applies to founders: build something durable enough to survive being unfashionable for a while.
What a "no" actually means
A rejection doesn't mean a company is bad. Every fund has its own sweet spot — geography, stage, sector — and plenty of good companies simply fall outside it. The more useful takeaway from a "no" is specific feedback about the gap, not a verdict on the business.
What happens after a "yes"
Getting the check is the beginning, not the finish line. In most cases, the fund sits on the board, which means roughly 12 meetings a year with a portfolio company — on strategy, pricing, international expansion, hiring, whatever the critical problem is that month. With around 30 companies in the portfolio to date, there's a lot of pattern-matching to draw on: good decisions and plenty of mistakes, across sectors and stages, so founders don't have to relearn every lesson from scratch.
The honest summary
Getting funded isn't about a perfect deck or a clever narrative. It's about proving, with real evidence, that a team, product, market, and business model can hold up under 10 years of scrutiny — not just one pitch meeting. Founders who take the time to understand their own critical problems, rather than paper over them, are the ones who end up getting backed.
The fund has a strong pipeline of opportunities it is excited about right now, and we are actively seeking more good deals in the next year ahead. Companies building in AI, Space, Fintech, and Cybersecurity are encouraged to get in touch.
