Pitching in public - 200 days to YC #W4

New mindset on pitching

This time, when I returned to Taiwan, I started pitching our ideas to everyone I met—literally anyone who would listen! People would ask, “How are you?” and I’d take it as an invitation to unleash a full-on brain dump.

Pitching my ideas and getting feedback has been incredibly valuable. I shared them with founder friends, lead engineers, and business professors. Of course, not everyone was interested—I had my fair share of responses like, “Yeah, you can send me a message to my inbox.”

But here’s what surprised me: I didn’t feel sad, hurt, or discouraged anymore. After hunting rejection and tough treatment while job hunting, a simple “send me a message” felt like the politest form of rejection ever! Compared to hearing “I don’t trust you,” this was almost… sweet?

After all, in San Francisco, I once heard a famous founder say that in their early days, VCs would literally yawn—or even fall asleep—during their pitch!

That made me rethink: What is pitching, really?

I used to see it as selling, as asking for something—usually money. I thought it required a perfectly crafted PowerPoint, a flawless delivery, and proving how great I was in a bunch of scary people. And that made me feel shy and uncomfortable.

But now, I see pitching differently. My new mindset is:

1. Getting feedback. It’s a way for people to refine my ideas with me and even collaborate.

2. Validating my hypotheses. Instead of working in isolation and reinventing the wheel, I put myself out there and test my assumptions.

3. Building confidence and resilience. Rejection? Hurts a little, but I move on. Criticism? Great—how can I improve my idea?

One thing that helped reshape my mindset was something the founder of Replit said—he never felt particularly excited when meeting famous people like Sam Altman. Why? Because he firmly believed he was on the path to a great vision, and people would naturally want to support him. But whether they helped or not didn’t matter—he was going to keep moving forward because he was destined to achieve great things.

Look at this messy whiteboard! I was pitching ideas to people without even realizing it. It wasn’t about making a pitch—it was just me explaining my thought process to friends, having fun along the way.

I even pitched to my old business professor… right after he walked out of the bathroom (sorry, Professor 😅).

I ran up to him and said, “Prof! I can’t believe you’re still alive! Want to hear my new ideas?” (Okay, I agree I need to work on my delivery and respect more.)

But all in all, I’ve realized pitching doesn’t have to be stiff or formal. It doesn’t have to mean booking a meeting. It can be as simple as, “Let’s brainstorm and have fun together!”

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Alright, my fellow weirdos, time to give Esther some encouragement: Dear Esther, good job taking the first step! Your friends say you’re so proactive. Great work putting your ego aside—now let’s have even more fun!