2023 has been a hard year for fundraising.  

Investors (and employees) look for proof that your company is likely to succeed and, thus, is worth investing time or money into.

NfX calls this the Ladder of Proof. The higher up the ladder, the more attractive you are to an investor. And the red rungs are more critical than the others.

Go through this from bottom to the top. Be brutally honest with yourself:

• What can you check off?
• What are you missing?

Work your way up the ladder.

I'll repeat: Don't be the best, be the only.

Otherwise, it'll be a bloody battle.

If you doexactly what other's are doing, it'll be a hard fight and margins will evaporate, particularly if they're wealthier and more connected than you are. 

You need to focus on having a unique offering. (2 weeks ago, I talked about one of the ways to do that with Contrarian Value.)

But once you have a strategy in mind, how can you tell if it's any good?

In No Bullsh*t Strategy, Alex details a few ways. Let's focus on two:

#1. Remove all subjective language.

A strategy should be completely objective:

• Not a strategy: "The world's best tasting yogurt"
• Strategy: "Replicate ice cream flavors in yogurt"

The first is all subjective and provides no clarity. What flavors do we make? How do we know it's the best? Who judges that? Why would someone choose us?

The second is a legitimate strategy that provides clarity of action and differentiates you from all your competitors who focus on fruit flavors like strawberry and blueberry.

#2. The Opposite's Game

Would the opposite of this strategy also make logical sense?

• If yes. Then it's probably a decent strategy.
• If no. Probably not. You're probably focused on being "better."

 The purpose of a strategy is to have a strong alternative to other offers on the market.

• “Low-cost option” vs “premium” ✅
• "Portable" vs "stationary" ✅
• “Win the most cases” vs “lose the most” ❌
• “Punctual” vs “most late” ❌

As Alex says: "Anything that everyone would want to do is not a good strategy." 

And once again: "Don't be the best, be the only."

Content creators (of all sizes) get stuck into two ruts:

1. Top of Funnel only. They're continuously pumping out broadly appealing content with little substance. TOFU prioritizes new audience and shallowness of content. (Think AI creators sharing their 100th "Top 10 free AI tools that murder ChatGPT."
   
   
2. Bottom of Funnel only. They're always in the weeds of their core topic and offering, like SEO or fundraising. BOFU prioritizes current audience and depth of content.

The problem with #1 is that it erodes trust, turns people off after a while, and doesn't convince anyone to buy from you. It's hard to resist the dopamine rush of 10,000 likes.

The problem with #2 is that you're not discovered by new people. And you might be too in the weeds for potential buyers (founders), and instead you attract your peers (SEOs).

TOFU and BOFU

Content marketers created the concept of TOFU content (#1) and BOFU content (#2), and suggest mixing and matching the two in your content calendar.

But YouTube strategist Paddy Galloway (he's worked with the likes of MrBeast), says the true sweet spot is doing both at once in the same piece of content:

Find a concept your core audience loves, then wrap it into a big idea.

Couple examples from recent students:

1. Ed Cravo helps companies create in-house dev teams based in Brazil. BOFU is detailed hiring practices. A big idea to embed into is "equal pay for equal work."
   
   
2. Nikolas Konstantin is a leadership coach + meditation teacher with a focus on self-awareness. BOFU is mindfulness. A big idea to embed it into is "work-life balance."

Leverage the popularity of big ideas and trends. Use it as the lens to share your core message. This is hard to get right. But if you can, you get the best of both worlds.