Back when Chef Joe and I decided to turn Tantos into a full-fledged business, beyond the apartment kitchen and test batches, we quickly realized our bank accounts didn’t match our ambitions. Making puffed pasta chips on a national scale requires serious funds, whether it’s for specialty dies shipped from Italy or the website and branding to get us on the map. That’s when we knew: it was time to raise capital.
Between the commercial die, a proper rebrand, website costs, a professional photo shoot, initial production runs, and a slew of small-but-crucial expenses, we faced a daunting list of bills and we hadn’t even launched yet. If we wanted Tantos to be more than a side project, we needed outside investment. Bootstrapping only goes so far, so I said to Joe, “We’re raising money, no more half assing this.”
Early on, we debated whether to do a SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) or a Convertible Note. In the end, we settled on a convertible note because we wanted to delay a formal valuation. At this pre-revenue stage, valuing Tantos would be mostly guesswork, so the note allowed investors to come on board and convert into equity in the next round—whenever we had real traction. We also didn’t qualify for a traditional bank loan, nor did we want to give up pure equity right away. The convertible note structure made sense for our uncertain early phase.
Framing Tantos in Our Deck
Before pitching anyone, we built an investor deck that told Tantos’s story in a way we hoped would grab attention. We covered:
- Who We Are: Introduced me and Joe, our backgrounds, and why we’re the right team.
- What We Are: A brand-new category—puffed pasta chips.
- Why We’re Different: No one else is doing a true wheat-and-water pasta chip at scale.
- The Market: Highlighted the saturated potato/corn chip world, showing how we fill a gap.
- Flavors & Competition: Explained our unique lineup and how we stack up.
- Our Foundation: Emphasized supply chain readiness, brand momentum, and “day one” scalability.
- Financials & The Team: Gave a high-level look at our projections, plus details on who’s behind Tantos.
Our main pitch: Tantos isn’t just a snack, it’s an entirely new category of pasta-based chips. We also underscored how we’d built the supply chain to be scalable from day one, avoiding baby steps that might slow us down.
Once the deck was done, we tapped every possible connection: friends, family, acquaintances, old college buddies, angel networks, and even some VCs. I’m a big believer that your network is your net worth, so I wasn’t shy about sending emails or DMs asking for five to ten minutes to pitch. If someone said no, I shrugged it off and moved on. If someone said yes, I pitched them with everything I had.
Of course, not everyone was sold. People worried about how tough the snack market is, how we’d stand out among big brands, or whether Frito-Lay might clone our idea overnight. Some thought we’d never be profitable or that it would take too long to scale. We got way more skepticism than optimism in the early days—but all it took was a handful of people saying yes. We reminded ourselves we didn’t need everyone to believe; we just needed enough believers to get Tantos off the ground.
I ran the deck by a trusted friend who’d raised money before. Once he gave it a thumbs-up, I hit the ground running. Having that extra validation made me a little more confident in front of investors. I’d encourage anyone raising capital to find a mentor who’s been through it, someone who can point out blind spots or weak sections in your deck before you go live.
Pre-launch, we didn’t have real sales data to lean on, so we didn’t set a hard valuation. That’s the beauty of the convertible note: investors trust that when we do a formal round later (like a pre-seed or seed), their note converts into equity at that new valuation. If you’re a brand-new CPG brand with no revenue yet, it’s often about selling the vision and selling yourself as the founder.
From the moment we decided to raise funds, about a year passed before we launched. It wasn’t easy, and we never fully closed the round until well after we launched. Once Tantos went live, I had to shift focus to running the business. We’d still casually pitch if the opportunity arose, but it wasn’t our top priority post-launch.
The Key to Pre-Revenue Funding: Sell Yourself
Looking back, I realized that if someone invests in a pre-revenue startup, they’re mostly investing in you, the founder. Sure, they need to think your product is delicious or your concept is innovative, but the real deciding factor is whether they believe you can deliver. Show them you’ll take care of their money and that you know how to operate drastically reduces their perceived risk. That’s often enough to get the nod.
