What do you do when you need investor funding for your startup, but you’re struggling to convince anyone to open their wallets?

Rob May, engineer turned entrepreneur, knows what that feels like.  Even though he had experience with startups, he still found it a struggle to convince investors to fund his ideas.  

However, he finally cracked the code.

And in this episode Rob shares how constant practice pitching and getting feedback eventually made him a master storyteller that helped him hugely increase the odds of getting funding.

We also talk about:
Rob’s journey from electrical engineer to tech entrepreneur
Building and scaling startups
Finding investors and handling rejection
Transitioning from pirate culture to a process-driven organisation
Using AI for brand content governance
Scaling AI companies amid supply constraints

Listen in to hear Rob's startup stories and advice on pitching, funding, team building, and more!

RESOURCES MENTIONED:
BrandGuard: https://www.brandguard.ai/
Rob's Substack: https://investinginai.substack.com/
Rob's AI Innovators Podcast: 
Apple:
Spotify:

Want regular access to tips, techniques and advice from experts about growing your business?  Sign up here.

What do you do when you need investor funding for your startup, but you’re struggling to convince anyone to open their wallets?
Rob May, engineer turned entrepreneur, knows what that feels like.  Even though he had experience with startups, he still found it a struggle to convince investors to fund his ideas.  
However, he finally cracked the code.
And in this episode Rob shares how constant practice pitching and getting feedback eventually made him a master storyteller that helped him hugely increase the odds of getting funding.
We also talk about:
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Rob’s journey from electrical engineer to tech entrepreneur</li>
<li aria-level="1">Building and scaling startups</li>
<li aria-level="1">Finding investors and handling rejection</li>
<li aria-level="1">Transitioning from pirate culture to a process-driven organisation</li>
<li aria-level="1">Using AI for brand content governance</li>
<li aria-level="1">Scaling AI companies amid supply constraints</li>
</ul>
Listen in to hear Rob's startup stories and advice on pitching, funding, team building, and more!
RESOURCES MENTIONED:
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">BrandGuard: <a href="https://www.brandguard.ai/">https://www.brandguard.ai/</a> </li>
<li aria-level="1">Rob's Substack: <a href="https://investinginai.substack.com/">https://investinginai.substack.com/</a> </li>
<li aria-level="1">Rob's AI Innovators Podcast: </li>
<ul>
<li aria-level="2"><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ai-innovators-podcast/id1558589105">Apple</a>:</li>
<li aria-level="2"><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/0jXj0NuVvdUPEFMUyRYpMK">Spotify:</a></li>
</ul>
</ul>
Want regular access to tips, techniques and advice from experts about growing your business?  <a href="https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter/">Sign up here.</a>

This podcast is for new and emerging online business owners who are determined to do what it takes to reach their financial goals, help people along the way and learn a bunch of useful new skills. Have a love/hate relationship with the tech? We talk about that. Not sure you have what it takes to achieve success? We talk about that, too, plus how to deal with mindset challenges. Trudy Rankin, Founder of the Online Business Program, shares actionable tips that will help you really get your business growing, as well as interviews with experts and inspiring stories so that you can grow your online business with confidence.

This podcast is for new and emerging online business owners who are determined to do what it takes to reach their financial goals, help people along the way and learn a bunch of useful new skills. Have a love/hate relationship with the tech? We talk about that. Not sure you have what it takes to achieve success? We talk about that, too, plus how to deal with mindset challenges. Trudy Rankin, Founder of the Online Business Program, shares actionable tips that will help you really get your business growing, as well as interviews with experts and inspiring stories so that you can grow your online business with confidence.

Online Business Launchpad | Start An Online Business | Online Business Growth

The Online Business Launchpad podcast shares tips, techniques and stories from small business owners who have solved problems and challenges like the ones you face.  This podcast is for you if you want to increase revenue and profits without burning out so that you can have more time for yourself and your family and more choices in how you live your life.

The Online Business Launchpad podcast shares tips, techniques and stories from small business owners who have solved problems and challenges like the ones you face.  This podcast is for you if you want to increase revenue and profits without burning out so that you can have more time for yourself and your family and more choices in how you live your life.

How Engineer and BrandGuard Co-Founder Rob May Mastered The Art Of Pitching Investors For Startup Funding

"In the Gold Rush, the only people that made money, real money, like substantial generational wealth, were the ones who sold you the pans and the picks." That's Stephan Bajaio's answer to every business owner currently panicking about how to rank inside AI. He's spent 25 years in search, been told SEO was dead roughly once a year, and has a very different idea about where your attention belongs — starting with something you already own and have never written down.

Stephan co-founded Conductor, built it into one of the world's largest enterprise SEO platforms serving Fortune 500 clients, grew a 65-person global SEO team from scratch, and lived through the company's sale to WeWork and the founder-led buyback that got it out again. He's now co-founder and CEO of VibeLogic, and a self-confessed SEO nerd with a healthy suspicion of anyone selling certainty. He also has some usefully contrarian views on how a business should actually be run.

We Also Talked About
Why Stephan walked away from venture money and bootstrapped from zero, after watching what VC pressure did to founders he admired
The two well-known founders he thinks got it right, and the single decision they both made
What "take your org chart, flip it upside down" looks like on an ordinary Monday morning
Why your weaknesses deserve more attention than your strengths, and the role-playing-game rule that explains it
How ADD, slow reading and hypersensitive hearing became a competitive advantage, marshmallows included
Why trying to rank in LLMs is a fool's errand, and what's genuinely in your control instead
The wisdom sitting unrecorded in your head, your chat logs and your sales calls, and why AI can't reach it
The four Ps: a website audit you can run in the next ten minutes
What "the great recording" will mean for the next generation, and why it changes what's valuable now

Stephan gives away a lot in this one, and the last ten minutes alone will change how you look at your own website. Want this kind of practical, expert help every week — before your competitors do? Get tips and strategies for growing your business delivered straight to your inbox: https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter

Resources Mentioned
VibeLogic — https://www.vibelogic.com/
VibeLogic Resources, the free tools and data Stephan points listeners to — https://www.vibelogic.com/resources
Stephan on LinkedIn, his "drug of choice for socials" — https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanbajaio/
Lost and Founder by Rand Fishkin (affiliate link)
Moz, the company Rand Fishkin built — https://moz.com/
Seer Interactive, Wil Reynolds' agency — https://www.seerinteractive.com/
Conductor, the SEO platform Stephan co-founded — https://www.conductor.com/
The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss (affiliate link)

My newsletter is for people who want to build a real income from home — practical, doable ideas each week for creating a better life for you and your family, without the overwhelm: https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter

"In the Gold Rush, the only people that made money, real money, like substantial generational wealth, were the ones who sold you the pans and the picks." That's Stephan Bajaio's answer to every business owner currently panicking about how to rank inside AI. He's spent 25 years in search, been told SEO was dead roughly once a year, and has a very different idea about where your attention belongs &mdash; starting with something you already own and have never written down.
Stephan co-founded Conductor, built it into one of the world's largest enterprise SEO platforms serving Fortune 500 clients, grew a 65-person global SEO team from scratch, and lived through the company's sale to WeWork and the founder-led buyback that got it out again. He's now co-founder and CEO of VibeLogic, and a self-confessed SEO nerd with a healthy suspicion of anyone selling certainty. He also has some usefully contrarian views on how a business should actually be run.
We Also Talked About
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Why Stephan walked away from venture money and bootstrapped from zero, after watching what VC pressure did to founders he admired</li>
<li aria-level="1">The two well-known founders he thinks got it right, and the single decision they both made</li>
<li aria-level="1">What "take your org chart, flip it upside down" looks like on an ordinary Monday morning</li>
<li aria-level="1">Why your weaknesses deserve more attention than your strengths, and the role-playing-game rule that explains it</li>
<li aria-level="1">How ADD, slow reading and hypersensitive hearing became a competitive advantage, marshmallows included</li>
<li aria-level="1">Why trying to rank in LLMs is a fool's errand, and what's genuinely in your control instead</li>
<li aria-level="1">The wisdom sitting unrecorded in your head, your chat logs and your sales calls, and why AI can't reach it</li>
<li aria-level="1">The four Ps: a website audit you can run in the next ten minutes</li>
<li aria-level="1">What "the great recording" will mean for the next generation, and why it changes what's valuable now</li>
</ul>
Stephan gives away a lot in this one, and the last ten minutes alone will change how you look at your own website. Want this kind of practical, expert help every week &mdash; before your competitors do? Get tips and strategies for growing your business delivered straight to your inbox: https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter
Resources Mentioned
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">VibeLogic &mdash; <a href="https://www.vibelogic.com/">https://www.vibelogic.com/</a></li>
<li aria-level="1">VibeLogic Resources, the free tools and data Stephan points listeners to &mdash; <a href="https://www.vibelogic.com/resources">https://www.vibelogic.com/resources</a></li>
<li aria-level="1">Stephan on LinkedIn, his "drug of choice for socials" &mdash; <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanbajaio/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanbajaio/</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://geni.us/lost-and-founder">Lost and Founder by Rand Fishkin</a> (affiliate link)</li>
<li aria-level="1">Moz, the company Rand Fishkin built &mdash; <a href="https://moz.com/">https://moz.com/</a></li>
<li aria-level="1">Seer Interactive, Wil Reynolds' agency &mdash; <a href="https://www.seerinteractive.com/">https://www.seerinteractive.com/</a></li>
<li aria-level="1">Conductor, the SEO platform Stephan co-founded &mdash; <a href="https://www.conductor.com/">https://www.conductor.com/</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://geni.us/0wvYc">The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss</a> (affiliate link)</li>
</ul>
My newsletter is for people who want to build a real income from home &mdash; practical, doable ideas each week for creating a better life for you and your family, without the overwhelm: <a href="https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter">https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter</a>

Why Chasing Rankings in AI Is a Fool's Errand with Stephan Bajaio

"Louis, your business is worth nothing." Louis Swart was 25, running a plumbing business with ten plumbers, and he had just asked a broker what he could sell it for. The broker asked who did the accounts. The quality control. The quoting. Every answer was Louis. Five years later he sold a different business — 200 staff — in two weeks flat. What changed wasn't how hard he worked. It was what he was willing to hand over, and what he had to stop believing about himself first.

Louis went on to build a business turning over $35 million with 450 staff, then spent years training as an NLP master practitioner, hypnotherapist and coach, trying to work out why the success hadn't made him happy. He's the founder of Ironbrij, which places AI-supported virtual assistants into small businesses, and the author of The B Myth.

We Also Talked About
Why "who does the accounts?" is the only question that matters when you're valuing your own business.
How busyness gets quietly wired to love, safety and worthiness — and why that's the real thing blocking delegation.
The delegate, elevate, accelerate process, and why the first step is the one everyone stalls on.
The 60% rule: stop hunting for someone who works like you and start stacking productivity instead.
Turning a single screen recording into an SOP and a checklist, instead of losing a week to screenshots.
The "rip-off and duplicate" R&D department every solopreneur already has.
Fixing the process rather than the person when something falls through the cracks.
Where AI genuinely outperforms a human, where it quietly fails, and why Louis still wants both.
The platform-dependency risk nobody prices in when they build a business on someone else's agent.
A low-tech Post-it Note tool for working out whether the task in front of you is worth your time.

Want this kind of practical, expert help every week — before your competitors do? Get tips and strategies for growing your business delivered straight to your inbox: https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter

Resources Mentioned
Louis Swart's website: https://louisswart.com/ 
Louis's free resources and downloadable tools: https://louisswart.com/resources/ 
Louis’s book - The B Myth: How Successful People Accidentally Build Businesses That Steal Their Lives (affiliate link)
Ironbrij, Louis's virtual assistant and business coaching agency: https://ironbrij.com.au/ 
Loom, for recording a process and generating an SOP from it: https://www.loom.com/ 
n8n, the automation platform Louis used to build his first meeting-prep agent: https://n8n.io/ 
Canva: https://www.canva.com/ 

My newsletter is for people who want to build a real income from home — practical, doable ideas each week for creating a better life for you and your family, without the overwhelm: https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter 

"Louis, your business is worth nothing." Louis Swart was 25, running a plumbing business with ten plumbers, and he had just asked a broker what he could sell it for. The broker asked who did the accounts. The quality control. The quoting. Every answer was Louis. Five years later he sold a different business &mdash; 200 staff &mdash; in two weeks flat. What changed wasn't how hard he worked. It was what he was willing to hand over, and what he had to stop believing about himself first.
Louis went on to build a business turning over $35 million with 450 staff, then spent years training as an NLP master practitioner, hypnotherapist and coach, trying to work out why the success hadn't made him happy. He's the founder of Ironbrij, which places AI-supported virtual assistants into small businesses, and the author of The B Myth.
We Also Talked About
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Why "who does the accounts?" is the only question that matters when you're valuing your own business.</li>
<li aria-level="1">How busyness gets quietly wired to love, safety and worthiness &mdash; and why that's the real thing blocking delegation.</li>
<li aria-level="1">The delegate, elevate, accelerate process, and why the first step is the one everyone stalls on.</li>
<li aria-level="1">The 60% rule: stop hunting for someone who works like you and start stacking productivity instead.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Turning a single screen recording into an SOP and a checklist, instead of losing a week to screenshots.</li>
<li aria-level="1">The "rip-off and duplicate" R&amp;D department every solopreneur already has.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Fixing the process rather than the person when something falls through the cracks.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Where AI genuinely outperforms a human, where it quietly fails, and why Louis still wants both.</li>
<li aria-level="1">The platform-dependency risk nobody prices in when they build a business on someone else's agent.</li>
<li aria-level="1">A low-tech Post-it Note tool for working out whether the task in front of you is worth your time.</li>
</ul>
Want this kind of practical, expert help every week &mdash; before your competitors do? Get tips and strategies for growing your business delivered straight to your inbox: https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter
Resources Mentioned
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Louis Swart's website: <a href="https://louisswart.com/">https://louisswart.com/</a>&nbsp;</li>
<li aria-level="1">Louis's free resources and downloadable tools: <a href="https://louisswart.com/resources/">https://louisswart.com/resources/</a>&nbsp;</li>
<li aria-level="1">Louis&rsquo;s book - <a href="https://geni.us/b-myth">The B Myth: How Successful People Accidentally Build Businesses That Steal Their Lives </a>(affiliate link)</li>
<li aria-level="1">Ironbrij, Louis's virtual assistant and business coaching agency: <a href="https://ironbrij.com.au/">https://ironbrij.com.au/</a>&nbsp;</li>
<li aria-level="1">Loom, for recording a process and generating an SOP from it: <a href="https://www.loom.com/">https://www.loom.com/</a>&nbsp;</li>
<li aria-level="1">n8n, the automation platform Louis used to build his first meeting-prep agent: <a href="https://n8n.io/">https://n8n.io/</a>&nbsp;</li>
<li aria-level="1">Canva: <a href="https://www.canva.com/">https://www.canva.com/</a>&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
My newsletter is for people who want to build a real income from home &mdash; practical, doable ideas each week for creating a better life for you and your family, without the overwhelm: <a href="https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter">https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter</a>&nbsp;

The Post-it Note That Tells You What Your Business Is Really Worth with Louis Swart

"In life you have to be willing to get your neck out there a little bit in order to learn something new and different." That's Mary Ann Bautista on how she and her business partner talked a client into letting them experiment with a fledgling platform called YouTube back in 2006. A couple of thousand dollars, a bit of leash, and a lot of what she cheerfully calls messing around later, that client has made hundreds of millions of dollars from the work — and some of those videos are still generating orders fifteen years on.

Mary Ann is the co-founder of TurboRank, a YouTube growth agency that increases visibility and revenue for its clients without spending anything on paid media. She has more than two decades in direct response marketing behind her, and nearly twenty years of working out how YouTube actually rewards content. More recently that has extended to something nobody had to think about before: how YouTube feeds the AI tools people now search with.

We Also Talked About
Why YouTube is a pull platform rather than a push platform, and what that changes about the content you make.
The diagnostic step that has to come first — understanding what your target client is actually searching for, down to the keyword.
What a flywheel means in practice, and the pieces that keep it spinning beyond simply publishing more.
How off-page engagement in communities like Reddit, Quora and Facebook groups feeds both YouTube's recommendation algorithm and AI citations.
Why that engagement work has to be done by humans, and the roughly-20-posts-before-you-mention-the-client rule.
What to do if you're not comfortable on camera, including faceless channels pulling millions of views.
The publishing rhythm Mary Ann recommends: one long-form video a week plus five or six shorts, batch-produced.
Why shorts run on a completely different algorithm, and why they should always drive back to your long-form.
Whether to put your podcast on YouTube, and the marketing levers that exist in video but not in audio.
Where AI genuinely helps in the process, and where it will get you found out.
YouTube Shop, the Partner status you need to unlock it, and the platform fee it doesn't charge.

If you've been circling YouTube for a while without quite committing, this is the conversation that tells you where to start.

Want this kind of practical, expert help every week — before your competitors do? Get tips and strategies for growing your business delivered straight to your inbox: https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter

Resources Mentioned
TurboRank, Mary Ann's YouTube growth agency — https://turborank.co/ 
Mary Ann Bautista on LinkedIn, which is where she says to reach her — https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryannbautista/ 
vidIQ, for turning long-form video into shorts — https://vidiq.com/online-business (affiliate link)
Shopify, which connects to YouTube Shop — https://www.shopify.com/ 
YouTube Shop — requires YouTube Partner status: 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours within a 365-day period
Reddit, Quora and Facebook communities, as off-page engagement grounds

My newsletter is for people who want to build a real income from home — practical, doable ideas each week for creating a better life for you and your family, without the overwhelm: https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter 

"In life you have to be willing to get your neck out there a little bit in order to learn something new and different." That's Mary Ann Bautista on how she and her business partner talked a client into letting them experiment with a fledgling platform called YouTube back in 2006. A couple of thousand dollars, a bit of leash, and a lot of what she cheerfully calls messing around later, that client has made hundreds of millions of dollars from the work &mdash; and some of those videos are still generating orders fifteen years on.
Mary Ann is the co-founder of TurboRank, a YouTube growth agency that increases visibility and revenue for its clients without spending anything on paid media. She has more than two decades in direct response marketing behind her, and nearly twenty years of working out how YouTube actually rewards content. More recently that has extended to something nobody had to think about before: how YouTube feeds the AI tools people now search with.
We Also Talked About
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Why YouTube is a pull platform rather than a push platform, and what that changes about the content you make.</li>
<li aria-level="1">The diagnostic step that has to come first &mdash; understanding what your target client is actually searching for, down to the keyword.</li>
<li aria-level="1">What a flywheel means in practice, and the pieces that keep it spinning beyond simply publishing more.</li>
<li aria-level="1">How off-page engagement in communities like Reddit, Quora and Facebook groups feeds both YouTube's recommendation algorithm and AI citations.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Why that engagement work has to be done by humans, and the roughly-20-posts-before-you-mention-the-client rule.</li>
<li aria-level="1">What to do if you're not comfortable on camera, including faceless channels pulling millions of views.</li>
<li aria-level="1">The publishing rhythm Mary Ann recommends: one long-form video a week plus five or six shorts, batch-produced.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Why shorts run on a completely different algorithm, and why they should always drive back to your long-form.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Whether to put your podcast on YouTube, and the marketing levers that exist in video but not in audio.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Where AI genuinely helps in the process, and where it will get you found out.</li>
<li aria-level="1">YouTube Shop, the Partner status you need to unlock it, and the platform fee it doesn't charge.</li>
</ul>
If you've been circling YouTube for a while without quite committing, this is the conversation that tells you where to start.
Want this kind of practical, expert help every week &mdash; before your competitors do? Get tips and strategies for growing your business delivered straight to your inbox: https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter
Resources Mentioned
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">TurboRank, Mary Ann's YouTube growth agency &mdash; <a href="https://turborank.co/">https://turborank.co/</a>&nbsp;</li>
<li aria-level="1">Mary Ann Bautista on LinkedIn, which is where she says to reach her &mdash; <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryannbautista/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryannbautista/</a>&nbsp;</li>
<li aria-level="1">vidIQ, for turning long-form video into shorts &mdash; <a href="https://vidiq.com/online-business">https://vidiq.com/online-business</a> (affiliate link)</li>
<li aria-level="1">Shopify, which connects to YouTube Shop &mdash; <a href="https://www.shopify.com/">https://www.shopify.com/</a>&nbsp;</li>
<li aria-level="1">YouTube Shop &mdash; requires YouTube Partner status: 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours within a 365-day period</li>
<li aria-level="1">Reddit, Quora and Facebook communities, as off-page engagement grounds</li>
</ul>
My newsletter is for people who want to build a real income from home &mdash; practical, doable ideas each week for creating a better life for you and your family, without the overwhelm: <a href="https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter">https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter</a>&nbsp;

How Engineer and BrandGuard Co-Founder Rob May Mastered The Art Of Pitching Investors For Startup Funding

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