Inside the fundraising playbook of the serial entrepreneur who’s done 3,000 pitches, raised $3 billion, and sold his startups to Amazon and Walmart in monster acquisitions April 3, 2025 |
Marc Lore is many things, as I wrote in this deep and revealing profile of him for Fortune’s latest print issue. He’s a serial entrepreneur—having cofounded Diapers.com, Jet.com, and Wonder—who channeled a traumatic childhood into insatiable ambition.
He’s a founder who has sold two of those startups to Amazon and Walmart for nearly $4 billion combined, but still believes he has so much left to prove.
And he’s a big thinker with a knack for pursuing low-probability ideas with high-speed zeal no matter the haters. Oh, he’s a co-owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves NBA franchise too.
But among his supporters and detractors alike, he might be best known as a world-class fundraiser. In several cases, when his startups have seemingly hit dead-ends, he’s miraculously found a path to another cash infusion when it shouldn’t have been possible.
Lore has raised more than $3 billion in venture funding across 15 fundraising rounds during his career, despite being rejected approximately 2,800 out of 3,000 times, by his own calculation—or 93% of the time.
Liza Landsman, who worked for Lore as a top executive at Jet.com, described her former boss’ startup pitching prowess this way in my 2023 book Winner Sells All.
“My grandmother had a saying, roughly translated from Yiddish: ‘People who could talk clouds out of the sky,’” she had said. “And I always thought this about Marc.”
So what’s Lore’s fundraising strategy? He unpacked it in one of my recent sit-downs with him.
His playbook starts by filling the pipeline—taking every possible investor meeting. Everyone’s money is green.
When the answer is no, Lore probes for the specific reason, accepts the feedback, tweaks the presentation accordingly, and persuades the investor to sit for another, more targeted pitch.
Five of 25 investors for his current venture Wonder initially declined, then ended up investing anyway, Lore told me proudly. “Twenty percent of our investors had literally passed,” he said, emphasizing the final word. “I don’t mean on a previous round; I mean on that round.”
As for the content of the actual pitches, Lore believes less is often more.
“I try to always narrow it down to, ‘What’s the one thing that if we accomplish it, the idea works?’” Lore said. “The thing that, if it works and you believe in this, then it’s gonna be a monster.”
“It’s limiting the number of things that [investors] have to believe,” he added.
This playbook has worked literal wonders so far. You can read more about it, as well as the pain and glory of Lore’s unrelenting drive, in the full Fortune profile. Happy pitching.
Jason Del Rey
X: @DelRey
Email: jason.delrey@fortune.com
Submit a deal for the Term Sheet newsletter Subscribe here.
|
|
|
VENTURE DEALS
- Cyberhaven, a Palo Alto-based AI-powered data security company, raised $100 million in Series D funding. StepStone Group led the round and was joined by Schroders and Industry Ventures.
- Aetherflux, a San Carlos, Calif.-based space solar power company, raised $50 million in Series A funding. Index Ventures and Interlagos led the round and were joined by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, NEA, Andreessen Horowitz, and others.
- Actively AI, a New York City-based GTM superintelligence company, raised $22.5 million in funding. Bain Capital Ventures led the $17.5 million Series A round and was joined by First Round Capital. First Round Capital led the $5 million seed round and was joined by angel investors.
- Fourier, a Palo Alto-based hydrogen production systems developer, raised $18.5 million in Series A funding. General Catalyst and Paramark Ventures led the round and were joined by Airbus Ventures, GSBackers, MCJ, and others.
- Djamo, an Abidjan, Senegal-based mobile banking app, raised $17 million in funding. Janngo Capital led the round and was joined by SANAD Fund for MSMEs, Partech, Oikocredit, and others.
- Fairly Made, a Paris-based fashion sustainability solutions provider, raised €15 million ($16.3 million) in funding from BNP Paribas Solar Impulse Venture Fund, GET Fund, ETF Partners, and Frenchfounders.
- Roam, a New York-based low-rate assumable mortgages housing marketplace, raised $11.5 million in Series A funding. Keith Rabois led the round and was joined by Founders Fund.
- Parasail, a San Francisco-based AI deployment network provider, raised $10 million in seed funding from Basis Set Ventures, Threshold Ventures, Buckley Ventures, and Black Opal Ventures.
- Lumai, an Oxford, England-based AI-powered optical processing company, raised $10 million in funding. Constructor Capital led the round and was joined by PhotonVentures, Journey Ventures, LIFTT, existing investor IP Group, and others.
- Butlr, a Burlingame, Calif.-based AI-powered thermal sensors developer, raised $7 million in funding from Ricoh, Wistron, and Taiwan Global Angels.
- GRACE, a Paris-based luxury goods protection services provider, raised €5.9 million ($6.4 million) in seed funding. FinTechCollective and Speedinvest led the round and were joined by FirstMinuteCapital, Purple, Kima, BPI France, and angel investors.
- TrialKit, a Clifton, N.J.-based AI-powered discovery platform for attorneys, raised $4.3 million in seed funding. UpWest led the round and was joined by 97212 Ventures, Kaedan Capital, and NYU Law’s Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital Program.
- Acuity Behavioral Health, an Atlanta-based behavioral health intelligence provider, raised $1.5 million in seed funding. Valor Ventures led the round and was joined by others.
- Northwind Climate, a Boston-based business intelligence solutions provider for the climate economy, raised $1.1 million in pre-seed funding from Tom Steyer, Deval Patrick, Alexander Hoffmann, and others.
- Mandos, a Clarksville, Ind.-based men’s health platform, raised $1 million in funding from Render Capital and Stone Mountain Ventures.
|
|
|
PRIVATE EQUITY
- Inflexion and 65 Equity Partners agreed to acquire minority stakes in Kee Safety, a Cradley Heath, England-based safety solutions provider, at a valuation of approximately £1.3 billion ($1.7 billion).
- Tencarva Machinery Company, backed by Bessemer Investors, acquired Atlantic Valve & Equipment, a Richmond, Va.-based valves and equipment provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Warner Pacific, backed by Lovell Minnick Partners, acquired Black, Gould & Associates, a Phoenix-based back-office services provider for insurance agents and brokers. Financial terms were not disclosed.
OTHER
- The European Investment Fund and The Luxembourg Future Fund invested $25 million in 33N Ventures, a Porto, Portugal-based cybersecurity and information technologies venture capital fund.
PEOPLE
- SOSV, a Newark-based venture capital firm, added Katie Hoffman and Deborah Zajac as general partners. Previously, Hoffman was at Ethos Capital, and Zajac was at Touchdown Ventures.
|
|
|
Thanks for reading. If you liked this email, pay it forward. Share it with someone you know: |
Did someone share this with you? Sign up here. For previous editions, click here. To view all of Fortune's newsletters on the latest in business, go here. |
|
|
|
