Interesting post. I guess I "agree" with the headline that you can raise without a prototype. Should you? Unclear. I can only speak to this from my own experie

Interesting post. I guess I "agree" with the headline that you can raise without a prototype. Should you? Unclear. I can only speak to this from my own experiences with fundraising (2x) - I've seen entrepreneurs raise bigger rounds with zero code and I've seen entrepreneurs struggle to raise with product in the market, customers, traction, the whole nine. At the end of the day, all definitive conclusions are suspect. If you're a single founder first time out of the gate (I was), you increase your chances a great deal with a working product in the market IMO. If you're like my former bosses (angel investors in FB, 1 big exit to AMZN back in the day, several smaller exits as investors to GOOG), yes, you can raise without a prototype. Or a PowerPoint, for that matter. Or an idea, for that matter. Maybe even if you lose your voice in the pitch meeting and just kind of sit around for an hour and then ask for a check. The point is, every situation is different. On balance, I'd rather go into any pitch meeting with a prototype.