Books · Coming February 3, 2027 · Available for pre-order
Beyond the Pitch
The Psychology of Raising Venture Capital
Why do two founders with nearly identical backgrounds and financials walk away with wildly different valuations? The answer isn't in the deck. It's in the psychology of the room.
Drawing on my experience deploying more than $350 million into over 100 startups, Beyond the Pitch decodes the hidden dynamics behind fundraising outcomes — through real stories and interviews with founders who raised successfully (and unsuccessfully), alongside candid insight from the investors who decided which companies would win.
You'll learn how to read investor signals, navigate the personality types common among VCs, understand the fear-of-missing-out psychology that drives decisions, and recognize the hidden biases at play — so you can raise capital on your terms.
Inside the book
- How to tell whether a VC is genuinely interested or just gathering market intelligence
- Why investors ghost founders — and how to re-engage the ones who've gone silent
- The VC personality types, and how to tailor your approach to each
- Where and when to seize control of the process and negotiate better terms
- How FOMO shapes investor decisions, and how to trigger it ethically
In fifty years of backing founders, I have watched nearly identical companies often get completely different answers from the same investors. The difference is almost never the fundamentals—perception, timing, and how a founder handles a hard question are key. Nobody teaches that, and most founders learn it too late. Allison Baum Gates has written it down. Beyond the Pitch is the book I want every founder I back to read before they raise.
Howard MorganCo-Founder and Chair, B Capital · Co-Founder, First Round Capital
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Publishes February 3, 2027Praise for Beyond the Pitch
I've played the fundraising game from both sides of the table, and Beyond the Pitch is the playbook I wish existed when I started. … Even after years in the trenches, I found myself taking notes. Whether it's your first round or your fifth, read this before you step into the room.
Alexi Nazem
General Partner at AlleyCorp · Co-founder and former CEO of Nomad Health
Most founders learn how fundraising works through decades of trial and error. Beyond the Pitch is the shortcut. It reveals the psychology, tactics, and dynamics that create FOMO for investors. Follow this playbook and VCs will actually want to be part of your fundraising process.
Zain Jaffer
Founder and CEO of Blazel
The AI era has dramatically changed the VC and fundraising landscape, and more than ever founders who want to fundraise need to understand how VCs actually make investment decisions. Beyond the Pitch equips them with that knowledge.
Max Ruderman
CEO of Harmonic.ai
About the author
Allison Baum Gates
Allison Baum Gates is a general partner at SemperVirens, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage technology companies. She has deployed more than $350M into more than 100 startups across the United States, Europe, and Asia, including multiple unicorns.
She is a lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business and a former adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, where she teaches graduate students about entrepreneurship, the future of work, and venture investing. She is regularly featured in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, CNBC, Bloomberg, and Pitchbook and is the author of Breaking into Venture (McGraw-Hill, 2023), a guide to the venture capital industry that appears on university reading lists across the country.
Allison holds a B.A. in economics with honors, a minor in film studies, and a language citation in French from Harvard University. She lives in Silicon Valley with her husband—a startup founder who successfully raised venture funding and sold his company—and their three children, Jackson, Madison, and Harrison.
Allison Baum Gates gives an invaluable insider's perspective on the back stage of pitching in the venture capital industry. Beyond the Pitch is essential reading for founders.
Hayagreeva RaoAtholl McBean Professor of Organizational Behavior, Stanford Graduate School of Business
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