FOUNDER ADVISORY · PRE-SEED TO SERIES A
Know What to Build.
Raise What You Need.
You're burning runway on features nobody validated and pitching a story investors don't buy yet. I help early-stage founders find PMF faster, build a fundraising narrative that lands, and make fewer, better decisions — backed by a real exit, $4M+ raised, and 180 investor rejections of my own.
NEW CHALLENGE · WAITLIST OPEN
Fundraising for Female Founders
An eight-week challenge for female founders getting a pre-seed or seed raise ready. The next challenge opens soon. Spots will be limited.
Forbes 30U30 / $4M+ Raised / Hopper Exit ($5B) / TechStars Alum / 500Startups Alum / 200M+ Customers Reached
SOUND FAMILIAR?
You're building fast. But you're not sure you're building the right thing.
You've shipped features, but your metrics aren't moving. Users sign up and disappear. You're not sure if it's the product, the positioning, or the market.
You're getting soft nos from investors and you can't figure out what's missing from your pitch. The deck looks good. The traction doesn't.
You're hiring, but you're not sure who to hire first — or whether you should be hiring at all yet.
You're burning runway on things that feel urgent but might not matter. Every week you wonder if you're focused on the wrong priorities.
You're exhausted. You've read the playbooks, listened to the podcasts, talked to other founders. But you still feel stuck.
You don't need another course or another Twitter thread. You need someone who's been there — and can see what you can't.
MEET SUSAN
I've been where you are. I know what's on the other side.
I started Journy as a spreadsheet and a hypothesis. I scaled it to seven-figure revenue, raised $4M+ (after 180 investor rejections), and led it to acquisition by Hopper — valued at $5B.
After the exit, I built and led three verticals and scaled teams from 0 to 120+ while serving 200M+ customers.
I know what it feels like to build in the dark. To pitch a room that doesn't get it. To wonder if you're solving the right problem.
Now I work with early-stage founders who are smart and scrappy but need a sharp outside perspective — someone who won't just cheer them on, but will challenge their assumptions and help them move faster with less waste.
If you're pre-seed to Series A and figuring out PMF, your raise, or what to build next — that's exactly where I do my best work.
THE ANCHOR OFFER
The Evolved Founder Intensive
A year of progress in a single quarter.
Ninety days where you essentially have me. An hour together every other week, plus the work I do between calls — the deck, the model, the funnel, the AI systems, the hiring plan. Not advice you then go execute alone. I'm building it with you, behind the scenes.
WHAT'S INCLUDED
30-minute intake call
Business audit
90-minute deep-dive strategy session
1 hour together every 2 weeks, for 3 months
Behind-the-scenes build work between calls
Ongoing email & text support as needed
$5,000
/ month
For 3 months — $15,000 in total, billed monthly rather than upfront. Starts with a $200 intro call: the required first step, and a quick way for us both to make sure it's a fit.
Piece this together from separate vendors — deck, financial model, landing page, content, coaching — and you're past $35,000, managing five people who don't talk to each other. Done with me, in one quarter: $15,000.
WHAT WE BUILD TOGETHER
RAISE
A clear product-market fit diagnosis
Your pitch story + investor deck
An investor-friendly financial model
A growth strategy investors can get behind
CONVERT
A landing-page refresh that tells your story
A founder-led content strategy + content pillars
Editing and shaping your first 10 posts
SCALE
AI put to work on acquisition, growth, and the busywork underneath them
Your next hire: who it should be, and why that one before the others
An interview process you trust, so you stop second-guessing offers
YOUR PATH
Three ways to work with me
WHAT I CAN HELP WITH
Four Areas Where Founders Get Stuck
01
Product-Market Fit
Finding signal in the noise. Most founders ship too much and listen too little. I help you design fast, effective validation loops so you stop guessing and start knowing whether the market wants what you're building.
02
Go-To-Market
Building the right distribution, not just the right product. Your GTM strategy matters as much as your product features. I help you identify your real ICP, build repeatable acquisition channels, and launch with traction instead of hope.
03
Fundraising
Narrative, timing, and surviving the nos. Investors don't fund decks — they fund stories they believe in. I help you craft the narrative, time your raise, and stay resilient through 180 rejections. I know because I lived it.
04
Scale Without Breaking
Team, ops, and decision-making as you grow. The things that got you to $1M won't get you to $10M. I help you build the systems, make the right hires, and create a decision-making framework that scales with you.
FOUNDERS WHO'VE DONE THE WORK
Bryan Dubno
Founder & CEO, JetBack
Susan was an incredible mentor and expert to talk with. Exactly the experienced founder perspective I was looking for. She had this perfect balance of strategic thinking and tactical advice. What I appreciated most was how she got in the weeds with me and challenged my assumptions, while also being genuinely supportive and encouraging. I left the call feeling both more focused and more confident about the path forward.
FREE RESOURCES
The documents from my own raise.
The whole ten-step process, the blurb that got the meetings, the term sheet terms I signed, the sprint that closed the round, and the way I validate before building. Four quick questions and each one is yours.
START HERE · THE WHOLE PROCESS
How to run a fundraising process
The ten steps, in the order I'd run them again. 180 investors and zero term sheets in 2016; one email to 12 funds, nine meetings in two days, and a signed $3.15M round in 14 days in 2018. What changed was the process, and a process is something you can copy.
GET MEETINGS
Stop sending your deck. Write a teaser blurb instead.
The one-page format that got me over 100 VC meetings and closed a $3M seed round when I was asking for $2M. The structure, the exact blurb I sent, and the replies it got.
NEGOTIATE
The Term Sheet Cheat Sheet
Every term that matters on a pre-seed or seed term sheet: what it actually means, what's normal to accept, and what's a red flag. Built from the real term sheets I signed raising $4M.
RUN THE RAISE
The fastest path to fundraising
The three-phase sprint I used to compress a seed round into two days of final meetings: the setup, the 48-hour blitz, and the close.
VALIDATE FIRST
The Minimum Buyable Solution guide
Build something people will pay for before you build a “real product”. An MVP proves it can work; an MBS proves someone will pay. The framework, five copy-and-paste offers, pricing, and a 48-hour sprint.
START HERE
The fastest way onto my calendar
Need quick advice? In 15 minutes I can help you troubleshoot what took me months — even years — to figure out:
Fundraising advice
Growing the business
Product-market fit
Hiring