The $50M List That Raised $0

$50 million in soft commits.

He’d spent 16 months building relationships, learning the business, analyzing deals, getting his MBA…….

….and zero dollars actually raised.

He kept talking about his “pipeline” and his “investor network.”

But here’s what I heard: a guy who created the perfect illusion of progress without taking the scary step of asking someone to actually wire money.

Sound familiar?

Research shows that intentions explain only 18–23% of actual behavior. That’s it.

So when someone says “Yeah, I’d be interested in that,” your brain treats it like a win.
You add them to your spreadsheet. You feel productive. You tell yourself you’re building momentum.

But psychologically speaking, you’re not even close to a real commitment.

According to research on commitment theory, real commitment requires two things:

Soft interest has neither.
It’s just someone being polite on a LinkedIn call.

The intention-behavior gap happens because forming an intention doesn’t prepare people for the actual work of following through.

Your investor says they’re interested. Great.

But between that interest and wiring $500K, there’s a canyon of uncertainty.
They have to talk to their spouse. Review the deal. Overcome fear.
And they have to focus on your deal instead of 47 other things demanding their attention.

And you? You’re not helping them cross that canyon because you’re afraid of being pushy.

So you both just sit there - them with their soft interest, you with your growing spreadsheet of people who “might” invest.

Here’s where the science gets useful.

Research from over 8,000 participants shows that implementation intentions increase goal achievement with a medium-to-large effect.

An implementation intention is an if-then plan that specifies exactly when and how you’ll act.

Not “I’ll follow up with investors.”
But: “If it’s Monday at 9am, then I will call the three investors I met last week.”

Not “I’ll nurture my list.”
But: “If an investor says they’re interested, then I will immediately send them a calendar link to review the deal.”

Not “I’ll stay in touch.”
But: “If someone doesn’t respond in 72 hours, then I will text them directly.”

These work because they remove the need for willpower.
They create automatic trigger-response patterns.
When Monday at 9am hits, you don’t have to pump yourself up to call.
You already decided. Now you just execute.

But if-thens alone won’t close the gap.

Go pro level with commitment devices - things that make it costly for people to back out.

Ask investors to put something on the line before you send them deals:

Small friction separates the curious from the serious.

Then use your if-then rules to systematize follow-up:
If they complete the questionnaire, then send them the next deal within 24 hours.
If they don’t respond, then call them 3 days later.

Make every step automatic.
Make every commitment concrete.

Our syndicator’s problem wasn’t his investor list.
It was his unwillingness to move people from interest to action.

He built a beautiful system for collecting soft commits because soft commits felt safe.
No rejection. No pressure. No risk.

But soft commits don’t fund deals. Hard commitments do.

And hard commitments require you to create friction, ask for something, and risk hearing “no.”

That’s the work. Go do it.

Chris