Most LPs and investors are full of it. When I was raising my first fund, they told me: “I don’t want to be first. Make it real.” So we grinded. We got our first believers, called capital, and made our first investment. Now we were real. Then it became: “Show me some markups.” So we made more investments and got markups. Then it became: “Okay, but show me DPI.” It had barely been a year. But we did it anyway. A little over a year in, we returned 1x DPI. And guess what? They still didn’t care. The goalposts just moved again. That experience taught me one of the most important lessons in fundraising: Stop obsessing over what investors tell you they want. Most of the time, they don’t actually know. They’ll give you a rational reason for why they’re not investing today, then turn around and invest in the hot fund, founder, or company that breaks every rule they just gave you. Watch what investors do, not what they say. And never forget the people who believed before everyone else did. Love those who love you first.