Investors are sitting in on live prospect calls
Investors aren’t just checking references anymore, they’re testing live market pull.
If you’re a founder or operator supporting a fundraising process, be ready for more than references in an investors diligence process.
Be ready to be on a live prospect pitch with them.
Often, what happens behind the scenes while investors are conducting diligence is they will talk to experts in this space, other investors, and customers (if applicable).
But there’s a problem with some reference calls: they are backward-looking. They tell you who already bought, not who would buy.
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Amanda Robson (GP of Modern Technical Fund) is a great example of this. She does something different.
Instead of calling references, she introduces the founder to a real buyer in her network – someone who has never seen the product before. Then, she sits in on the pitch as a fly on the wall.
Why it’s powerful:
1. It removes access bias
The customer likes the founder, perhaps they have a favorable early-adopter contract, and they want the company to succeed so their tool doesn’t disappear. They are incentivized to give a rosy review. A live buyer has no skin in the game. Their feedback is raw, clinical, and objective.
2. It tests real positioning
Can the founder clearly articulate:
What problem they solve?
Why it’s urgent?
Why it’s different?
Why now?
Watching someone lead a call and someone react to it in real time tells you more than a 15-minute reference call ever will.
3. It measures “urgency-to-budget”
Would someone create budget for this?
The most critical question in diligence isn’t “Does this work?” it’s “Is this a priority?” By watching the pitch, the VC can see exactly where the product sits in the buyer’s mental hierarchy: The “Nice-to-Have”
Reaction: “That’s interesting, let’s touch base next quarter.”
The “Urgency” Reaction: “How fast can we get this integrated? Who else are you working with in my industry?”
From the investor side, this is gold because you get an expert’s fresh perspective in real time. You’re not just hearing a polished narrative after the fact – you’re watching how the founder handles objections, where they lean in, where they hesitate, and how they adapt. You get a deeper understanding for the founder and how the product will resonate.
From the founder side, it’s also a win. It can turn into a net new lead, but even if it doesn’t, it delivers immediate market feedback. You learn how a true buyer reacts, what resonates, what falls flat, and where the story needs tightening. In the process, it sharpens the positioning and makes the company stronger.
More details on how investors are assessing founders in 2026 coming next week on The GTMnow Podcast - you can listen and subscribe on YouTube, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts to receive the VC series episode drop.
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Anthropic just raised a staggering $30B Series G at a $380B post-money valuation. The AI arms race isn’t slowing down, and this round makes one thing clear: frontier model companies are becoming the new infrastructure layer, with capital and expectations to match.
Get a sneak preview here. For the full thing, listen on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts by searching “The GTMnow Podcast.”
Lindy - just launched Lindy Assistant, positioning it as a true AI EA that lives in iMessage, connects to your tools, joins meetings, and actually takes action. It’s less “note taker” and more orchestration layer for your day. If this works at scale, inboxes and laptops start looking optional.
Monaco just raised $35M led by Founders Fund to build an AI-native alternative to legacy CRMs. Co-founded by Sam and Brian Blond, it pairs AI agents for prospecting and outreach with experienced human sellers in the loop, giving Seed and Series A teams real sales leverage without piling on headcount.
Mutiny - is leaning into a new archetype: the GTM Athlete. In a world where AI compresses workflows and teams stay lean, the advantage shifts from narrow specialists to operators who can run across strategy, execution, and systems. It’s a strong point of view on where modern GTM talent is headed.
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See more top GTM jobs on the GTMfund Job Board.
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Some GTMnow community (founder, operator, investor) love to close it out - we appreciate you.
love this approach. live buyer pitches inside diligence are 10x more revealing than backward-looking references. u see the real positioning, and whether there’s actual urgency behind the problem. It’s a much cleaner signal for both founder and investor
So many reasons this is so wrong.
- the goal at seed (gtm fund stage) is not to get one random buyer to like the product.
- the best products are non-consensus and… right. Meaning most reject . That’s how you build categories.
Incremental point solutions are easy to get a random yes.
And how painful to be working the possible opportunity while balancing the VC on the call. I would never agree to this. Vc’s job is to create value not make a founders life more difficult.
Founders need to prove they can get a cohort of buyers to be wildly passionate about what they are building. Not the one. We get 1k nos before the yes. And the best founder keep going. Most buyers don’t want to be first . So it’s not that the product isn’t great but it’s very hard to get buyers to go out on a limb to buy.