Why Most Founders Never Get a Dime From Investors. Dave Romenesko - Hiero Exclusive #4

Dave Romenesko spent 31 years at Dow Corning as an intrapreneur, accumulating 46 U.S. patents (34 of which actually went to market) and inventing the soft-touch silicone material you've probably felt on your Apple Watch band. Today, he runs Tempo SPE Group, manages 10 active startup investments, sits on 8 boards, and has helped deploy nearly $24 million on behalf of more than 100 investors.In this episode, Dave and I talk about why the market always beats the material, what most first-time founders get wrong when they pitch for capital, and the difference between inventing something cool and building a business someone will actually pay for.Dave shares the five questions every founder has to answer before he'll write a check (features, benefit, value, volume, time to market), why he left a comfortable angel group to start his own SPE so investors would actually get the information they deserved, how he chooses which boards to join and why being on them is the only real way to protect capital, and the patterns he's seen across 36 startup bets — including the ones that failed.He also gets into the personal side of investing: why Peptanova's chemotherapy delivery system matters more to him than any return (he's a cancer survivor, his mom died of cancer at 57), why Advanced Battery Concepts is solving a problem the lithium-ion industry can't, and what "all startups are broke until they're not" really means for founders trying to raise their next round.If you're a founder thinking about raising capital, or an investor trying to figure out how to evaluate one, this conversation is a masterclass in what actually separates the companies that scale from the ones that stall.Connect with Dave: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daveromenesko/Hierographx is a Saginaw-based digital agency specializing in website design, app development, and AI solutions. Built for businesses that want to grow with purpose, Hierographx turns big ideas into tools that actually work. Learn more at hieroart.com.Connect with Hierographx:https://www.hieroart.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hierographx.agency/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hierographx.agencyTwitter: https://x.com/Hierographx_