An interview with David D’Angelo, US Venture Investor: ‘A startup is a marathon, not a sprint’

David D’Angelo brings extensive experience in venture building, commercialisation, and go-to-market leadership. At VentureWell, he worked with hundreds of university-based hard-tech startups affiliated with institutions such as MIT, Stanford, Princeton, Northwestern, and Johns Hopkins, helping founders secure over $600 million in follow-on funding.

He has also held go-to-market leadership roles at venture-backed B2B technology companies, including Previ, where he helped scale annual recurring revenue (ARR) from $300,000 to $10 million in two years, culminating in a Series A valuation of $125 million, as well as Dónde. David is the founder of Executive Media Network, a Limited Partner in Companyon Ventures, which has invested in companies such as Micro1 and Flex, and an active angel investor in emerging technology ventures, including UnitZero. His international experience also spans entrepreneurial initiatives in Nepal and Laos, alongside work supporting Cultural and Educational Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu. BR Research had a discussion with David. Below are edited excerpts.

BRResearch: You’ve spent years working with hard-tech startups coming out of places like MIT and Stanford. When you look at Pakistan’s startup scene from the outside, what stands out to you, good or bad?

David D’Angelo: I’ve spent 10 days in Pakistan, so my understanding of the startup scene is limited. That said, what I’ve seen is a lot of talent density and a strong entrepreneurial spirit among young people who have a hunger and drive to build. One of the competitive advantages in this market is the cost base. It lets founders sustain their businesses cheaply and offer lower-cost, high-value products and services in international markets.

One area where I think there could be improvement is the mindset around raising venture capital. Many founders are obsessed with raising venture capital and prioritise that over selling and customer acquisition. That’s not a Pakistan problem. It’s a startup culture problem exported from Silicon Valley. Pakistan, along with the rest of the world, can benefit from exploring alternative models like bootstrapping. That approach forces discipline in how a company operates and keeps the focus on what matters: customer acquisition, value, and retention.

BRR: At VentureWell, you helped founders raise over $600M in follow-on funding. In your experience, what separates the university spin-outs that actually get funded from the ones that never leave the lab?

David D’Angelo: The spin-outs that succeed have a few things in common. Their founders take a long-term view and have the courage to change course when they need to. They know when to bring intensity, directness, and accountability into the team without losing sight of respect and kindness. And they are hyper-focused on what matters in the business: building a customer base, innovating on products and services, finding ways to land and expand accounts, and staying financially disciplined along the way.

Some spin-outs also benefited from great market timing, so we have to remember that luck plays a role. But what separates the companies that get funded from the ones that never leave the lab comes down to people. It’s the team, and leaders who embody the values and behaviours that create the conditions for success.

BRR: Pakistan has a lot of strong engineering talent, but very few deep-tech companies. Why do you think that is, and is it something that can change?

David D’Angelo: Deep-tech companies can be very capital-intensive. The US deep-tech ecosystem wasn’t built by investors. It was built by programmes like SBIR, funded by institutions like the NIH, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Defense, which provide non-dilutive capital to pre-revenue startups that need help with technology development and commercialisation. If institutions in Pakistan start providing grants to deep-tech startups, we could see a deep-tech ecosystem emerge here. That will need to be complemented by a venture capital ecosystem that is ready and willing to make risky bets across medtech, agtech, cleantech, and other categories that have historically been passed over because of how capital-intensive and high-risk they are.

BRR: You helped take Previ from $300K to $10M in ARR in two years. What did that growth really come down to? Was it the product, the sales approach, or timing?

David D’Angelo: We benefited from great product positioning, an excellent sales team, and market timing. One of our biggest unlocks in go-to-market was channel partnerships. We found corporate discount programmes with millions of employees on their platforms who were looking for exactly our offer. The partnership leaders running those programmes had a strong incentive to work with us, both because the offer was compelling for their consumers and because the revenue share was structured to reward them properly.

We also drove a lot of demo opportunities through thought leadership: webinars, podcasts, and LinkedIn. We offered the solution to HR teams for free in exchange for promoting it to employees. That was a rare model when we launched, and it took most of the friction out of buying. We monetised through employees instead and could forecast annual contract value from a conversion rate across the employee base.

You never get to $10M ARR without an amazing team. The team at Previ was exceptional, and leaders like Brandon, Jared, Josh, Jefferson, Derek, Dallin, and James were instrumental to the company’s early success.

BRR: For a founder in an emerging market trying to sell to customers in the US or Europe, what are the biggest go-to-market mistakes you see them make?

David D’Angelo: Five mistakes stand out to me. First, pricing as though you’re competing on cost. If you’re 60 percent cheaper than the US alternative, the buyer assumes you’re 60% worse. Price to the value in the buyer’s market, not your cost base. Second, trying to sell to everyone. A US VP gets 200 cold emails a week. “We help companies grow” gets deleted, while “We help retail brands running 30+ A/B tests a month” gets a reply. Third, failing to establish credibility. Without a case study featuring a recognisable logo, a reference call, or relationships with industry leaders, it is difficult to build trust. Business is earned through trust, so a network and proof of results have to be established to achieve buy-in. Fourth, relying solely on cold outreach. Nobody trusts a stranger. They trust someone they’ve heard speak. Build a reason to be known before you ask for the meeting. Fifth, neglecting timezone and follow-up discipline. Deals in the US die from slow replies more often than from bad products. Answer in their business hours, every time.

BRR: You’ve worked and built things in Nepal and Laos, and you were at the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu. What did those places teach you about doing business where infrastructure and capital are limited?

David D’Angelo: Building in a country unfamiliar to me forced me to understand the language, the culture, the history, the business environment, and much more. Startups are hard enough to build, and adding a new country compounds the difficulty. The best thing I did was listen intentionally and use curiosity and compassion to unlock the learnings that could support my journey. You have to be especially patient with yourself and others in these environments.

A resource-constrained environment is actually an advantage. It forces you to be creative, resourceful, and disciplined. A lot of meaningful learning and progress happens when you treat constraints as catalysts for breakthroughs.

BRR: As an angel investor and an LP in a fund like Companyon Ventures, what do you look for in a founder before you’ve seen any numbers?

David D’Angelo: Conviction, humility, resourcefulness, and intensity. The founder has to be inspiring enough to recruit top talent, know their market deeply, and be very hands-on in the business. If they have those qualities, the numbers usually fall into place and it becomes a startup worth investing in.

BRR: Global venture funding has been choppy for the last couple of years. How has that changed what investors expect from early-stage companies, especially ones outside the US?

David D’Angelo: Funds have very high expectations of companies today, partly because a small subset of startups are reaching $1B valuations faster than ever. For a lot of top-tier funds, if you can’t get to a $1B valuation in four years or fewer, you may not be a priority. Given those expectations, I’d argue this is a great time for startups to focus on bootstrapping over venture capital. The best thing a startup can do is drive revenue. If you can build a repeatable model for generating sales opportunities, the investment opportunities will follow.

BRR: A lot of investors still treat markets like Pakistan as too risky or too small. What would it take for that perception to shift?

David D’Angelo: Investor confidence climbs when startups succeed. For the perception of Pakistan to shift, startups here need to build meaningful, profitable businesses that reach high valuations. They can do that by raising funds or by bootstrapping. The key is hitting milestones like $10M+ ARR, which is where international venture capital starts paying attention.

BRR: Last one: if you could give one piece of advice to a young Pakistani founder sitting in the audience today, what would it be?

David D’Angelo: Be patient with yourself and your team. For most founders, a startup is a marathon, not a sprint. If you exercise endurance and persist courageously through changes and challenges, success will eventually find you.