The sad truth is if you don't have presence or aren't perceived as "likable" it's impossibly hard to get people to work with you. The video is a way of testing

The sad truth is if you don't have presence or aren't perceived as "likable" it's impossibly hard to get people to work with you. The video is a way of testing for presence. Personally, I've never care at all if people knew me or my name. Still don't. I didn't work on building a following for a blog, comment in places like HN, speak at conferences, or practice being on mic/in front of a camera. It's hobbled me. I've watched people who with a "following" attract a good sized group of volunteers to build their projects for them while I've struggled to ship code by myself. In terms of effort we're talking about having to work 4-6 hours/day vs having to wokr 12-16 hours/day. People don't scale but their "public personas" can. If you have presence people will see you in a video or hear you on a podcast and come running to you. Crowdfunders, investors, partners, potential employees. Your life gets easier. Potential investors aren't your friends or a charity, they're trying to protect themselves from bad investments. If things are easier for you because you've practiced and can demonstrate presence, you're an easier sell to an investor. I'm an introvert who grew up poor, so I get where you're coming from. You options are: 1) Find people to handle messaging for you.. Which is dangerous because if you're unable to project an image of yourself or your company you may lose control over the way it and you are perceived. 2) Practice. You can do a lot with the camera/mic on an iPhone 5+ given the right lighting.