The Silent Signal

Last Tuesday, a founder called me after her 11th investor pass. Eleven meetings. Eleven polite "not right now"s. Zero feedback.

He asked me what she was doing wrong.

I told him: "Nothing. They answered you. You just didn't like the format."

Here's the thing most founders won't accept — investors don't owe you feedback. And the silence after a "no" isn't cruelty. It's the most honest signal you'll get.

I call this the silent signal.

A partner at a top-tier fund told me this: "I pass on 200 companies a quarter. If I gave detailed feedback to every one, I wouldn't have time to support the ones I backed." He's not wrong. The math doesn't work.

But here's what the silence is actually telling you:

→ A fast "no" means the thesis doesn't fit. Nothing personal. Move on.
→ A slow "no" means they were interested but couldn't get there. Worth a follow-up in 6 months.
→ Ghosting after a partner meeting means internal politics killed it. Not your fault.

The silence isn't the problem. Your interpretation of it is.

Most founders hear silence and spiral. They rewrite the deck. They question the market. They assume something is fundamentally broken.

The investors worth keeping aren't the ones who give you feedback out of obligation. They're the ones who call you back because they can't stop thinking about your idea.

One action for today: Open your investor tracker right now. Sort by "no response." For each one, write down what stage they passed at — first call, deep dive, partner meeting. The stage tells you more than any rejection email ever would.

The silence is data. Read it.