START: Gaurav Maken, Community Partner, Pioneer Fund "500+ Y Combinator alumni investing in top Y Combinator startups"

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Pioneer Fund met Gaurav Maken at Y Combinator Demo Day, and today he works there as Community Partner.

What stayed with him was the way the meeting ran. The people across the table were curious rather than performing, and they wanted to understand what he was building.

That's carried into how Pioneer operates now. The team preps hard for every 30-minute founder meeting, several founder-investors join each call, and they'll tell a founder what they like and what they don't, because they've sat on the other side of that table and know how it feels to leave an investor meeting with "nothing".

Then they hand the evaluation back.

Pioneer sends a post-meeting survey asking founders how the conversation went. Many of them say Pioneer Fund understood their business better than anyone else they met while fundraising, despite some of those founders still getting a "no".

Today Pioneer is backed by more than 500 Y Combinator alumni serving as Venture Partners, with 730 portfolio companies and 1,500+ portfolio founders behind it: a network of founders who stay involved long after the investment.

It's still growing. VP spots mostly come through referral. And if you don't have one, reach out to Gaurav
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🎙️ Gaurav Maken, Community Partner, Pioneer Fund on Fondo START pod
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01:47 — How PG's essays led him to YC
02:04 — Instacart in 2015, then a grocery startup
02:22 — What the 2020 shutdown taught him
02:52 — Starting a mental performance clinic for founders
03:10 — The Demo Day meeting
03:26 — 500+ venture partners, 1,500+ backed founders
04:50 — The prep behind every 30-minute founder call
05:59 — The survey Pioneer sends after every meeting
06:47 — Expert hours
08:13 — How Jason built a system for investors
09:36 — What it takes to become a Pioneer Fund VP
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Check out www.pioneerfund.vc

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