I think there is a subtlety here where the effect can reenforce itself and become the cause. When we were raising our first round of capital, we didn't know wh

I think there is a subtlety here where the effect can reenforce itself and become the cause. When we were raising our first round of capital, we didn't know what we were doing. We weren't good at analyzing markets, managing product, or managing people/dev process. So to raise money we were forced to lift with our back and do it on the strength of the pitch/story telling, rather than the strength of the company. Working through the pitch and raising capital helped us get good at all the aspects of building a company. Now that the company can stand on its own two feet, it's much easier to just tell our story and simply explain what we're doing without worrying about the pitch too much. It wouldn't have been possible if we didn't do the first round on the strength of the pitch (since we wouldn't have raised money, wouldn't have gotten good, and wouldn't have built a company that speaks for itself). I guess the moral here is that it takes a while to build enough confidence to spread your wings. It's an iterative process. You fake confidence while you have to, which in turn gets you the resources to get better at what you do. The next time you don't have to fake as much. The time after that you have to fake even less. Until eventually you're knowledgable enough and confident enough that you can just tell your story and not worry about the pitch at all.