Pitching in public — 200 days to YC #W4

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!”

Alright, my fellow weirdos, time to encourage Esther: 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!