Nine events. Thousands of connections. One week in New York that reminded us why the room still matters.

Propel Earth showed up to New YorkTech Week in full force, hosting and participating across a week that packed months of relationship-building into a few dense days. The highlights: a pitch competition with seven sponsors, private dinners at the Harvard Club, and curated investor rooms with family offices and funds writing checks from $10K to $2M.

The pitch competition winner walked away with TriNet HR services, a session with the founder of SeedLegals, and a seat at a Catalyst investment dinner. Beyond the stage, the real action was in the margins: the hallway conversations, the introductions that stuck, the deals that started as a handshake.

That's what Propel is built for. And after a week like that, it's clear there's more to do.

2. New Services & Offerings

Propel Earth connects founders, investors, operators, and changemakers to community, capital, and the right rooms. We've grown to 36,000 members, hosted 80+ events, and built spaces that have held over $60B in AUM. Events are the front door. The network is the engine.

Now we're opening something new.

Private Consulting with Stephen Michael, Founder of Propel Earth

For the founders raising, the investors deploying, and the enterprises that want real access to the startup ecosystem, Stephen is taking on a select group of private clients.

This isn't theory. Stephen runs the network every week, which means the strategy he brings to a call is the same one producing results in real time.

The Strategy Call: $150 for 45 minutes.

You'll map your goal, identify the gaps, and lock your next five moves. Stephen identifies the first warm introductions he can make for you from the network. You leave with a plan and names.

Spots are limited.

Book here: https://cal.com/stephenmichael/strategy-call

3. Editor’s Note

Most founders treat fundraising like a job application. They polish the deck, rehearse the pitch, and wait to be evaluated. That framing is the first mistake.

Capital doesn't flow to the most deserving. It flows to the most legible. Investors aren't judges; they're pattern-matchers under time pressure, making probabilistic bets with imperfect information. The founders who raise aren't always building the best companies. They're the ones who've learned to make their vision readable, their traction undeniable, and their networks warm enough that the first conversation never starts cold.

We saw this up close last week in New York. As you'll read in the recap, New York Tech Week had no shortage of smart people in the same room and the conversations that mattered most weren't on any agenda.

That's what this month's issue is about. Not the polished post-raise LinkedIn announcement, but the relationship-building, positioning work, and strategic sequencing that happens in the months before anyone signs a term sheet.

Whether you're pre-seed and mapping your first investor list, or Series A-bound and tightening your narrative, the principles inside this issue apply. Raising capital is a skill. Like any skill, it compounds with deliberate practice and the right community around you.

That's exactly what Propel Earth is built for.

— The Propel Earth Team

4. Critical Mass: Capital Raises & Investor Networking

There's a version of fundraising advice that gets recycled endlessly: build relationships before you need money, tell a compelling story, know your numbers. All true. All incomplete.

What doesn't get said is this. Most first-time founders are playing a game they don't fully understand, against people who play it every day.

Venture capital is a power-law business. A single investment returning 100x matters more to a fund than a dozen that return 3x. This means investors aren't looking for good companies. They're looking for potential outliers. The practical implication: your job in a pitch isn't to prove you're solid. It's to make a credible case for why, under the right conditions, you could be enormous. These are different conversations.

The network is the infrastructure. Cold outreach to investors converts at roughly 1-3%. Warm introductions convert at 20-30% or higher. That gap isn't about luck. It's about social proof operating as a pre-filter. When a trusted peer vouches for you, the investor enters the conversation with prior confidence already established. The pitch becomes a confirmation exercise, not a cold evaluation. Building investor relationships through community, advisors, and fellow founders isn't a nice-to-have. It's the highest-leverage activity a pre-raise founder can do.

Narrative precision beats passion. Investors hear thousands of pitches from founders who believe deeply in what they're building. Conviction is table stakes. What separates memorable pitches is sharp, specific framing: a problem stated so clearly the investor feels it, a market sized in a way that creates genuine urgency, and a team positioned to win not generically, but in a way that's hard to replicate. This takes iteration. The founders who raise well have usually told their story hundreds of times, to advisors, early customers, skeptical friends, and refined it under pressure before they ever walk into a partner meeting.

Sequencing is strategy. Not all investor conversations are created equal. Entering your best targets first burns optionality. Entering too late means you've already burned momentum. The right approach: use early conversations with lower-priority investors to sharpen your narrative and identify objections, then enter your top targets when your story is tightest and you have early signals of interest from others. Fundraising has social dynamics. Momentum creates momentum.

The founders who navigate this well aren't necessarily the smartest in the room. They're the ones who treat the capital-raising process like a system to understand and build communities where that knowledge flows freely.

That's the Propel Earth advantage. Use it.

5. Startups On Our Radar

A. Neurosense - 2026 U.S. Red Bull Basement Competition Winner

We are addressing one of the biggest challenges in epilepsy care: most of a patient's condition unfolds between clinic visits, leaving patients and clinicians with limited visibility into seizure activity and treatment response. By combining data from everyday wearable devices with AI-powered analysis, NeuroSense aims to provide actionable insights that support more informed clinical decision-making and personalized care. NeuroSense recently won the 2026 Red Bull Basement USA National Finals and represented the United States at the Red Bull Basement World Finals in San Francisco. 

B. Arkzsphere - Propel Earth New York Tech Week Pitch Winner

We are a real-time social platform designed to help people connect through what’s happening around them right now. Instead of followers, likes, or algorithmic feeds, users post short video “Scenes” tied to a specific place and moment, from pickup games to rooftop gatherings. Others can instantly join the event or connect directly with the creator. Built initially for New York City, Arksphere aims to transform passive social media consumption into real-world participation, making cities feel more connected, spontaneous, and human. 

C. Quantifai - Winner of the Gamma Rama Pitch Competition

Quantifai helps fast-growing companies run more proactive Customer Success. Its platform uses machine learning to spot churn risk and upsell opportunities, giving Customer Success Managers clear signals on which accounts need attention and why. By analyzing historical and real-time product usage data, Quantifai automates health scoring and surfaces the customer behaviors that matter most, reducing manual analysis and helping teams act faster. Founded by MIT and HubSpot alumni, Quantifai is built to make CSMs more effective and customer relationships more durable.