Think of execution steps as nodes in a graph. IFTT has pre-defined execution paths through the graph, its determinist. Agents design the execution path on the fly for the most contextually appropriate solution, it's non-deterministic. Both are state machines and DAGs.
I'd be able to answer more specifically if I had more info on your experience and startup, but I can also answer higher level and hope it's useful for you.
Experience - are you deeply familiar with the problem you're trying to solve and the current options for solving it. Have you lived this problem? Have you been a consumer of the solutions? Why do you care about it? Why can you solve it better than anyone else?
Story - the answers to the above question will naturally help create your story. Friends can vouch probably won't hold up.
Bootstrapping - not everyone can bootstrap, but investors want commitment. If you signal any lack of commitment then it will tank the perception of the investment opportunity.
Pilot - do you mean MVP? At seed stage or pre-seed you don't need a product, but having a working demo or something tangible helps make your ideas more real for other people. Having some traction helps them place it in the real world.
Generally fundraising isn't so cut and dry. There's a spectrum of outcomes ranging from getting a great deal on great terms with a great fund that will probably get you in tech crunch, to raising a fine deal, on ok terms, with a 3rd rate VC fund, to failing to raise at all. The probability for better outcomes depends on how well you cover the bases of what VCs actually want to know, but also on how much they believe that you, specifically you, are the right bet for this type of solution/category.
When they invest in you it means they can't invest in other solutions that are similar (they can but they shouldn't and good VCs mostly don't).
Often VCs will already have a thesis or belief about the market you operate in. It will be high level, but they're going to have some opinion about the way the wind is blowing. They take a position on a macro trend and then find the best possible exposure to that trend in a great founding team and vision.
Hope this is helpful, as i don't really answer your question about data. My context - I'm a founder, I raised a decent sized round from a good fund.
I've never met an investor who wanted data on competitors or the "market" or opportunity or whatever. They'll want to know that you know about it, but through experience not research.
At seed stage they're mostly investing in you as a person. What you need is a story, not data, in my opinion.
Happy to help if you've got specific questions about raising / how to talk to investors.
I’d say that the genesis is a genuine interest in keeping in touch, automation is managing the process. I get behind on messages with my closest friends/family, and then I have a large network of professional/semi-personal relationships to maintain.
I have a similar system, not for friends, but for acquaintances, business connections etc. I have a google sheet and a google script, the script runs once per day and checks the last time I emailed them or they emailed me. If it’s too long ago it adds a reminder to my calendar for that day. It’s simple and means I don’t have to remember to use the system.
To the first point, of “I only need 20 minutes for this” that’s a classic get out of jail free card if they’ve decided you’re not a good fit or things aren’t going well. It manages your expectations and they can end the interview early.
We’re building the operating system for revenue teams and we’re looking for a lead engineer to join us. Taking on problems like semantic search, NLP, large scale analytics, ML recommendations, integrations and partnerships. We’re fully remote and asynch, we prefer written comms over meetings, and believe you should work when you work best.