Inside Venturelab: Lessons Beyond the Pitch

Vestingnotes Newsletter - 07.10.2025

Oct 07, 2025

If you’re new here, you’ll probably notice that Vestingnotes is still a work in progress.

You’ll see layouts evolving, logos that sometimes don’t match the exact color coding, and a few details that aren’t perfectly polished yet.

And for those who’ve been here since the beginning… yes, I know - you’ve probably spotted all of that already 😅.

I’m on it. It just takes time.

But as many of you already know - that’s part of the process.

When I first launched Vestingnotes, I wrote:

I’m probably writing this for my family and for that one friend who still hasn’t figured out how to unsubscribe.

Well - one month in, it’s a little different now.

There are more of you reading, commenting, and joining the journey every week. And that’s exactly what keeps me motivated to keep writing - even if the corners aren’t all perfectly aligned yet.

Recap from last week

Last week’s newsletter was about celebrating small wins - those early startup days when everything feels uncertain, yet that’s exactly where the biggest growth happens.

I shared what my first week as a first hire at nestermind looked like - from cold calling in three languages (yes, with a strong Italian accent 😅) to realizing there’s no playbook when things are just starting to take shape.

We explored the first two dimensions of the question behind Vestingnotes:

How do the right people, at the right time, in the right market, turn ideas into companies that last?

People - because everything starts with them.
Timing - because even the best idea can fail if the world isn’t ready for it.

If you’re looking for a great read on how different startups failed - and what lessons founders and leaders can take from them - The Startup Guy’s article 10 Failed Companies: 10 Lessons is definitely worth checking out.

Every failure tells a story - and sometimes, those stories teach you more than the success ones ever could.

If you missed it, you can read it here 👇🏼

From Venturelab to the Startup Stage

What happens when you stop talking about startups - and start pitching one.

Back in March, I had the chance to step outside the usual pace of nestermind and join Venturelab’s “Innosuisse Business Creation ICT” - part of the Innosuisse Entrepreneurship Training.

A great program designed to help early-stage founders and startup teams define and or redefine their strategy, validate their market, and learn how to pitch their vision to investors and partners with clarity and confidence.

Learning by Doing (Again)

We went through sessions on customer needs, go-to-market, financial planning, IP strategy and more.

Each topic could fill a book - and yet, each conversation came down to the same core question:

Do you truly understand why your company should exist?

When you’re building from zero, it’s easy to lose perspective. You get caught between product iterations, investor talks, and onboarding clients.

But these few days forced me to zoom out - to translate complexity into clarity, and to articulate not just what we do, but why it matters.

Product-market fit isn’t a destination, it’s a moving target. You can’t wait to be “ready”. You build, test, adapt - and the faster your feedback loop, the stronger your company DNA becomes.

That mindset - the one that values speed of learning over fear of failing - is exactly what I try to capture in Vestingnotes.

The Pitch Day

Then came the Pitch Day - the final step of the program.

Standing in front of people like Nicolas Berg, David Studer, and Madhur “Maddy” Agrawal was both exciting and surreal. Only three months earlier, pitching nestermind in front of such experienced investors and entrepreneurs would have felt almost impossible.

Their feedback was sharp and deeply constructive - not just about the slides or the storytelling, but about how well we truly understood our market, our timing, and our differentiation.

What hit me most was how much insight you can gain in just a few minutes when people challenge your assumptions with the right questions.

It was a reminder that pitching isn’t about performance - it’s about clarity and conviction. About showing that you understand not only what you’re building, but why now and for whom.

And maybe that’s the real beauty of programs like Venturelab: they don’t just train founders - they shape how entire teams think, communicate, and align around the same vision.

The Takeaways

If I had to summarize the Venturelab experience:

Clarity beats complexity.
The best pitch isn’t the one with the most data; it’s the one that makes someone understand in one sentence why you exist.
The team defines the story.
The way founders and first hires communicate - their tone, their energy, their belief - becomes part of the product itself.
Momentum matters.
In early-stage startups, momentum isn’t created by capital - it’s created by consistent movement. Small wins, small experiments, constant adaptation.

Closing Thought

For me, Venturelab wasn’t just a learning experience.

It was a reminder that storytelling and strategy are two sides of the same coin. If you can tell your story clearly, you probably understand your company better than most.

So, to anyone building, joining, or investing - when was the last time you pitched your story, not just your product?

I’d love to hear what that looked like for you. 👇🏼

Vesting Community

A space where first and early hires can share what the early days really feel like.

Where students and university associations curious about startups can ask questions directly to those already in the trenches.

And where founders and investors can exchange perspectives on what truly makes teams work.

Somewhere between stories and reality - a place for the lessons that never make it into pitch decks or headlines.

No slides, no polish - just honest talks.

So if this sounds like something you’d like to be part of, send me a message.

nestermind

That’s a chapter I’ll share with you very soon 😃

Here our last update: 🚀 nestermind Product Update – August/September 2025

If you want to learn more and stay updated, you can subscribe at the bottom of the page!

If you’ve made it this far, drop a like so I know you’re actually reading along 😉

And if you’re curious why I chose the name Vestingnotes, leave a comment and take a guess!

Why Vestingnotes

Why bother writing all this down?

Because the messy, unexpected, human lessons usually vanish in the rush of startup life.

I don’t want to forget what it feels like right now. And maybe by writing, I can give something back - to students curious about startups, founders searching for a first hire, and investors wondering what really happens in the trenches.

Vestingnotes

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