287: Why investors fund non-technical founders (and why they don't)

It is harder to raise funding as a non-technical founder as a non-technical one.

Some of this is silly stigma, but some of it is reasonable risk awareness.

Investors aren’t worried that you can’t code.

They are worried you’ll burn through their money because you don't know how to get a tech product made - and they don't want you to learn on their dime.

I get that. 

In this episode, I break down why non-technical founders face more skepticism in fundraising — and what actually changes the conversation. 

In this episode, you will hear:

• Why investors don’t care if you can code — and what they’re actually judging instead
• How non-technical founders accidentally burn $100k+ before product-market fit (and how to avoid it)
• The fastest way to turn investor skepticism into confidence without pretending to be technical
• What a credible product and hiring plan looks like when you’re asking for someone else’s money

Resources from this Episode

FREE class: How to raise capital as a non-technical founder.

Join this class to learn:

• The system I used to raise $1 million from investors
• Mistakes non-technical founders make when fundraising & how to avoid them
• Key points you must include in your investment pitch if you're a non-technical founder

Sign up here: https://www.techfornontechies.co/capital

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TRANSCRIPT (Unedited)

[00:00:00] An investor once asked me, why would I invest in you when I can invest in somebody who can build the product themselves? And this is the answer that most non-technical founders really dread. But you know what? I raised a million dollars anyway, not by becoming technical or winging it, but by understanding what investors actually want.

[00:00:21] And that's what we're going to cover in today's episode.

[00:00:29] Sophia Matveeva: Hello and welcome to the Tech for Non-Techies Podcast. I'm your host, Sophia Mateeva. If you're a non-technical founder building a tech product or adding AI to your business, you are in the right base. Each week you'll get practical strategies, step-by-step playbooks and real world case studies to you. Launch and scale a tech business without learning to code.

[00:00:54] And this is not another startup show full of jargon, venture capital, theater or tech. Rob bravado. Here we focus on building useful products that make money without height and without code. I've written for the Harvard Business Review and lectured at Oxford London Business School and Chicago Booth, so you are in safe hands.

[00:01:13] I've also. So it helped hundreds of founders, both from concept to scalable product, and now it's your turn. So let's dive in. 

[00:01:23] Speaker: This podcast is sponsored by Tech for Non-Technical Founders. The program that helps non-technical entrepreneurs go from idea to market ready product without wasting a hundred thousand dollars on avoidable mistakes.

[00:01:36] And if you are a non-technical founder who has spent thousands of dollars and months of time on development. Only to end up with nothing. Release ready to show for it. You are not alone. And if you haven't hired developers yet and are wondering where to start, that's even better because the biggest mistake I see after coaching hundreds of non-technical founders is not hiring the wrong people.

[00:01:59] It's actually hiring before you know what you're doing. And this is especially critical if you are planning to raise money, because investors don't just ask, what are you building? They ask. How will you build it without wasting our cash? And if you can't answer that confidently, then you wouldn't get funded.

[00:02:20] And this is why I'm hosting a free class on January the 19th called How to Raise Capital as a Non-Technical Founder, and I'll show you the system that I use to raise $1 million. I'll show you the mistakes that non-technical founders make when fundraising and what you must include in your pitch to prove you know how to lead product development.

[00:02:42] You can register for that at tech for non-techies dot slash capital. That's tech for non-techies dot slash capital. And the link for that is in the show notes. And if you want the full system, so if you want the template, the playbook, and one-on-one coaching from somebody who has already raced capital, then join techon Nontechnical founders before doors close on January the 20th.

[00:03:08] This January, you have an amazing opportunity to get one-on-one mentoring and coaching from Rags. Vidali, who launched Instagram filters to 600 million people. So if you ever made yourself look nice on Instagram, basically rags helped you do it. He also founded the YouTube partner program and he has raised funding for his own AI startup.

[00:03:30] So he knows what investors want to see from both sides of the table. This is a super unique opportunity to get advice from literally one of the world's top product leaders. So my question is, could 2026 be the year that you go from idea to tech founder? It's up to you.

[00:03:55] Hello, smart people. How are you today? Happy New Year. Before we get started talking about fundraising, I want to address something that might be clogging up your inboxes and that's this whole new year, new you messaging, and I don't agree. Because I don't think you need a new you. I think you are fabulous as you are, and I think that of myself too.

[00:04:19] But you might need some new habits and some new skill sets. And that's definitely how I'm thinking about 2026. What things do I want to learn? What skillset sets do I want to learn? What do I want to experience this year? And that's. Different from, you know, new you, which is completely overhauling your personality.

[00:04:39] And this is the way that I also think when I'm thinking about making programs for tech, Fanon techies, I think about helping people to build new skillsets rather than turning them into a completely new person. So building on your existing strengths and your existing insight. Let's say you run a retail store and you're really good at it, like my student, nor from whom you heard about two episodes ago.

[00:05:04] So when she joined Techon Technical Founders, we did not completely change her because you know, we didn't need to, but we gave her new skillset. So we helped her use her current insight and her existing talents, and we taught her the new skill set of how to build a tech product and how to lead product development.

[00:05:24] As a result, she won $65,000 in equity free funding in startup competitions. And then she used that money to hire professional developers. Those developers then created her product, and that product went from idea to existence literally within seven months. And when it came into existence, it already started making revenue, and now basically.

[00:05:45] It can only grow exponentially. It can only really grow way beyond what she could envision as somebody who is only running a retail business. And that started with her learning a new skillset. So this is why I want you to think about, okay, what skillset do I want to learn this year as opposed to, okay, completely overhauling who I am.

[00:06:06] Because if you're listening to this episode, then I think you're pretty great. And if you're listening to this episode, you want to learn the skillset of fundraising as a non-technical founder, and that's what we're going to cover today. So I've got some good news and I've got some not so good news. And by the way, if you want to delve more into this topic, yes.

[00:06:27] You already heard that there's going to be a fundraising class happening on the 19th of January, but if you want to go really. Deeper into this topic so you can actually have a fundraising strategy with high chances of success. Then join the Tech from Technical Founders program because we have a course on fundraising, and you could also get support one-on-one support from two founders who have actually raised money from investors anyway, now.

[00:06:52] Let's talk about the basics of fundraising. As a non-technical founder, as a non-technical founder, it is harder for you to raise money than technical founders, and some of those reasons are legitimate, and some of those are basically just bias. We can do something about the legitimate reasons. We obviously can't do anything about the bias.

[00:07:12] So I remember I was sitting in a cafe in New York and I had met this investor side up. Meeting planned in a cafe with this investor. And I told her about my company and she literally just sat there like this with her arms crossed if you're watching on video, like throughout my entire pitch to her. And at the end of it she said, well, why would I invest in you when I can invest in somebody who can build the product themselves?

[00:07:40] And you know, I'd love to tell you that I then turned her around with my persuasive pitch. But no, that. Didn't work. It felt pretty horrible. I still remember it. I don't want that to happen to you, but you know, it might. However, I did raise a million dollars from other people, from people who didn't think that way.

[00:08:00] And so essentially it's not all bad if you're a non-technical founder. So here is some good news, which I've already covered on this podcast for a long time, listeners. So it is getting better and better for us. And I have the data to prove it because a venture capital firm called Cowboy Ventures has researched.

[00:08:19] Who runs unicorns in the US and unicorns are young companies valued at a billion dollars or more. And basically about a decade ago, 90% of the people who are running unicorns were technical founders. Today that figures about 60%. So basically the proportion of non-technical founders running billion dollar companies has risen four times in 10 years.

[00:08:46] Now, this is. Really, really good growth. So literally, if you're looking at this as an investor and you are looking at this trend, you're like, okay, if something is growing four times in 10 years, then okay, that's maybe I wanna be part of that. So clearly there are investors who are funding non-technical founders and writing very, very, very large checks because that's how you get a billion dollar valuation.

[00:09:10] So there is lots of opportunity for non-technical founders, but the thing is. Because there is more stigma and there are also legitimate concerns. We basically have to work harder than technical founders to capture that opportunity. So the opportunity is there, but you, you can't wing it, basically. So now I want to tell you why investors are.

[00:09:34] Wary of non-technical founders. So yes, there is unfortunately some herd mentality and I've literally heard some VCs saying that they're looking for Mark Zuckerberg clones. So they're looking for young computer science dropouts from top colleges. Uh, and literally when you're in Silicon Valley, you just see guys in their twenties are raising millions of dollars.

[00:09:56] And you know, most of that money goes up in smoke because, you know. With all my love 20-year-old boys when they're left with millions of dollars, can you guess what happens? And also data actually shows that most successful founders are people in their thirties and in their forties. And this makes sense because you need to, you know, have a certain level.

[00:10:21] Personal maturity to do something as difficult as running a company, but also you just need the network and the professional reputation, which you just, you know, need time to get anyway. So we can't change that industry bias. I just want you to know that it exists. Sometimes it sucks. Okay, be that as it may, what we can change is how we address the legitimate concerns that smart investors have.

[00:10:46] So for this, I'm going to tell you a story. So there was a founder with an idea for a language learning app, and this founder had a background in education and so she really knew how people learned languages. And so she decided to create an app to help people learn languages, but she had no idea how to build software because, you know.

[00:11:08] Why would you? Nobody knows they're coming out of the womb Anyway, so she went straight to developers and she basically said, this is my idea. This is what I want it to look like. This is how it should work because I am the expert in how people learn languages. They'll build this thing. And so the developers built it.

[00:11:25] So next she went to advertise it and that advertising campaign was successful. People were downloading her app, but what she saw was that people were downloading her app and only using it once and not coming back, which is obviously a problem. You know, if you create something and you give people the opportunity to try it.

[00:11:45] They literally look at it once and then say, okay, no thank you. I'm never doing this again. You have a problem. So after she had been doing this for a while, she came across a design firm and she asked these designers, okay, can you just have a look at what's going on? The designers looked at it and they said, well, it's really easy to tell what's going on.

[00:12:05] This app is really hard to use. It's not intuitive. You know, you're expecting people to kind of read instructions for what they're supposed to do. Nobody can be bothered to do that anymore, right? We all just poke around a new abs. This app is too bulky. People can't be bothered to figure it out, so they leave it.

[00:12:23] And so basically in order to have something that actually works that people want to use, she ended up having to scrap everything and start over. And by the time she had looked at what she had spent on developers and on advertising this whole. Failed experiment. She realized it was about $180,000 just up in smoke.

[00:12:45] Now I usually tell the story to emphasize the importance of prototype testing. So you know, creating a prototype, which you can now do with AI before you hire developers. And that's exactly what we help you to do in the Tech for Non-Technical Founders Program. And the person who is helping you do that in January is the person you heard from last week Rags.

[00:13:07] He actually launched. Instagram filters and the YouTube partner program and led product management at six startups, so you couldn't be in better hands, but I digress. Today, this story is to show you why investors don't fund non-technical founders because essentially they're worried that you don't know what you are doing, and you're gonna blow almost 200 grand on a failed experiment because you don't know how a product goes from idea to scale.

[00:13:35] The story I told you is actually very, very typical. I told you about this language learning person, but actually lots and lots of founders make this mistake. This is extremely, extremely typical, and because investors know that this is extremely typical, they don't want to fund this learning experience, right?

[00:13:55] This is not bias, this is not stigma. This is a really sensible approach to risk, and once you understand it, you can mitigate it. So think about this. When you're fundraising, you're essentially fundraising for two pillars in your business. You are asking for money for two things, product development and marketing.

[00:14:17] Investors need to know that you know how to do both. You know how to build a great product and how to get customers to pay for it. Now. Even investors think that you are clueless about either of those topics, then they are not gonna fund you and they shouldn't fund you because you are probably gonna lose their money.

[00:14:34] Right. This is why understanding how a product goes from idea to scale is so, so, so important. So when you are speaking to investors and you're explaining your hiring plan and you are estimating your budget correctly, and you are. Talking about how you can embed growth into your product from day one.

[00:14:55] Basically, investors stop seeing you as a liability. They see you as a leader with a plan to make money, and this is what investors want because ultimately investors don't care if you code. They don't care if you are building the product themselves. They care if you're going to get a return on their investment.

[00:15:13] Literally, they are people in the money world. They want you to multiply their cash. So if you prove that you are a good steward of their capital and you know whom to hire for what job and how to set KPIs for them, it really doesn't matter whether you are technical or not. And this is, this is basically the key.

[00:15:35] You know, there are other tactics that we teach you in the technical technical founders course, which are really, really important. But this is like, this is the big mindset shift that I want you to have because it's not about are you building the product? It's about. Do you know what you are doing and do you know how to allocate money properly so the product gets built?

[00:15:56] Because when the product gets built, then you need to have an appropriate sales and marketing strategy to actually make money so the investors get their capital back and you know, hopefully 10 times it. So now let's talk about the concrete steps that you should take to raise money as a non-technical founder.

[00:16:15] Before you start speaking to investors, before you go anywhere near an investor, build your prototype using ai. Then test it properly with your target users. I've spoken a lot about this, but this is really, really important. Learn to test it properly so people tell you the truth about your test product and about your idea.

[00:16:37] So get real feedback and evidence of demand. Then after that, you can create your product roadmap based on real insights from your target market as opposed to what you think should be happening or as opposed to, you know, reading in the McKinsey quarterly and deciding that you understand market trends, that you gotta speak to people and then base your product map based on those insights.

[00:17:02] Then understand your hiring plan and your budget. Once you do these things, you look like a very credible investment opportunity, and this is when you can start regularly updating potential investors about your program. So this is something that we're going to cover more in the webinar on the 19th, so this is why you should definitely come if you're interested in this topic, because.

[00:17:27] You need to understand what you are doing, but you also need to have a strategy for how to tell people that this is what you're doing. So definitely come to the class on the 19th of January about fundraising, but if you want to go deeper into this topic, and if you want to get support from me and from rags who have both raised money, then join the Tech Funnel Technical Founders Program.

[00:17:49] The doors are open for enrollment from the 13th of January till the 20th of January. I'll be going more in depth into this topic on the 19th of January in our free class on fundraising for non-technical founders. The link to register for that is in the show notes and it's tech for non-techies co slash capital.

[00:18:09] And in that class I'm going to talk you through the system that I use to raise $1 million from investors. As a very obvious non-technical founder, I'm going to talk to you about the mistakes that non-technical founders. Make when fundraising and basically how to mitigate them. And also this will lead to your understanding the key points.

[00:18:29] So we're going to talk about the key points that you have to include in your pitch as a non-technical founder to basically mitigate the concerns that we've talked about. This is tactical, detailed stuff. That basically, we just don't have enough time to cover in this podcast episode. So if fundraising is on your roadmap this year, then you definitely need to be in this class.

[00:18:50] And if you want hands-on guidance, which really increases your chances of success. So if you want the exact system, the templates plus one-on-one coaching from me and from rags. Who also launched the YouTube partner program, you know, no big deal, but definitely joined the Tech Nontechnical Founders program before doors close on January the 20th.

[00:19:13] In the program, you're going to get lifetime access to our courses on. Fundraising on product development, on growth, on data strategy, and on how to hire and lead a tech team. You're also going to get three one-on-one sessions with Rags, who is a product leader who has launched product to hundreds of millions of people around the world at Meta and at Google, and he has also worked with startup founders who literally, barely have any cash.

[00:19:40] So definitely not. Google and meta budgets, but people who are inventive and people who want to build an idea and go from idea to scale. So he has done both. The investment for the program is $2,000 and doors close on the 20th of January. And you know what? Before we end, here's something interesting because investors actually take this course, even though I don't market it to investors, and investors are not taking it because they want to build products, but because they want to understand what good product development looks like from a capital allocation perspective.

[00:20:14] Because think about it, a lot of investors are actually not technical themselves, and so what they're doing is they're evaluating risk, they're evaluating opportunity, and they're thinking, okay, out of all of the opportunities that I have, is this the one that's going to give me the biggest return? So if they're going to be investing in product development, they need to understand how to allocate that risk and how that capital should be allocated.

[00:20:39] So if you're planning to raise money in 2026, or maybe if you're not sure whether you want to raise money, but you just want to keep that option open, you need to position yourself as a founder who knows what they're doing, and this is exactly what the free class and our tech fund and technical founders program will help you do.

[00:21:00] And on that note, have a wonderful day and I shall be back in your delightful smart ears next week. Ciao!