The Triple-Headed Dragon: How a Physical Therapist Became a Capital Raising Advisor Through Pattern Recognition

Introduction

David Cunic introduces himself as “Dr. David,” a nickname that reflects his unusual path to becoming a capital raising advisor. He holds degrees in physical therapy, healthcare management, professional networking, and cannabis science. He founded 15 companies since 2006, successfully opened eight cannabis businesses across three states, employed more than 300 people, and won the Alfred Sloan Award for Workplace Programs and Flexibility.

Some people call him “the Triple Headed Dragon” because of his diversity and experience.

The nickname captures something essential about Cunic’s approach to helping early-stage companies raise capital. He does not come from traditional finance backgrounds. He never worked at Goldman Sachs or climbed the ladder at a venture capital firm. Instead, he built multiple businesses, raised capital for his own ventures, and failed enough times to recognize patterns that doom fundraising efforts.

“By trade, I’m a medical guy. I’m a physical therapist,” Cunic explains. “My little secret sauce is taking a medical approach towards business.”

The medical approach means diagnosis before prescription. Listen more than talk. Understand root causes rather than treating symptoms. Prepare for complications. Build systems that prevent problems rather than reacting to crises.

UCS Advisors, Cunic’s capital raising firm, targets a specific segment: businesses five years old or less, including pre-revenue companies. In the United States, 83 percent of businesses in this category do not qualify for bank loans or lines of credit. They need capital but cannot access traditional financing. They turn to angel investors, venture capital, friends and family, or alternative sources.

Navigating these markets requires skills most founders lack. Cunic’s job is teaching them.

The Five-Year Window

Cunic’s focus on companies five years old or younger reflects strategic positioning rather than arbitrary preference. The timeframe corresponds to a distinct phase in business development where capital needs are acute but options are limited.

“Your business is going to need more money in the first five years. So who do you turn to?” Cunic asks. “Where do you go?”

Banks evaluate loan applications based on historical financial performance, collateral, and established credit. A two-year-old pre-revenue software company has none of these. Traditional financing is unavailable regardless of the business’s potential.

This forces founders into equity markets where different rules apply. Investors evaluate team quality, market opportunity, competitive positioning, and growth potential. Financial projections matter more than historical results. Storytelling ability determines who gets meetings and who gets funded.

Most founders have never operated in this environment. They know their industries and understand their products. They have no idea how to pitch investors, structure terms, manage due diligence, or close rounds.

Cunic positions UCS Advisors as the bridge. “If you are a business owner or founder and your company is five years old or less, great fit for us,” he says.

The positioning creates clear boundaries. UCS does not compete with investment banks serving mature companies. It does not work with individuals still at the idea stage. It focuses on the messy middle where businesses have enough traction to be interesting but not enough resources to professionalize fundraising.

The Medical Diagnosis Model

Cunic’s physical therapy background shapes his diagnostic methodology. Physical therapists do not just treat pain. They identify root causes, design treatment protocols, and teach patients to prevent recurrence.

“You have to listen. Two ears, one mouth, use them proportionately,” Cunic emphasizes.

The listening extends beyond what founders say to what they do not say. A founder who says they want to raise capital but has not practiced their pitch 50 times reveals something about commitment. A founder who blames market conditions for fundraising struggles but cannot articulate their competitive advantage reveals gaps in strategic thinking.

Cunic also teaches what he calls “the positive power of negative preparation,” essentially Murphy’s Law applied systematically. “Let’s literally think about everything that could possibly go wrong, and how would we fix it?”

The approach sounds pessimistic, but it creates resilience. Founders who anticipate problems build contingency plans. When Murphy inevitably appears, they respond rather than panic.

“I talk to Murphy. It’s like another person in my life,” Cunic jokes. “All right, Murphy, you know, things have been going pretty good lately. Where are you at?”

The personification reveals a mindset. Problems are not personal failures but predictable features of entrepreneurship. Preparing for them is professional discipline, not negativity.

Dr. David’s Green Nugget Advisory Tips

Cunic packages his capital raising wisdom into “Dr. David’s Green Nugget Advisory Tips,” bite-sized lessons he shares twice weekly on LinkedIn. The tips cover common mistakes, practical techniques, and mindset shifts that improve fundraising outcomes.

The number one tip is classic: “Failure to plan is planning to fail.”

“When it comes to raising capital, a lot of founders, they just, they don’t know what they don’t know, or unfortunately they’re a little lazy when it comes to raising the money,” Cunic observes.

The laziness judgment seems harsh, but Cunic backs it with specific criteria. Has the founder practiced their two-minute elevator pitch 150 times? Have they delivered their full pitch to at least 50 people? Have they studied comparable deals in their sector? Have they built financial models that investors will scrutinize?

Most founders answer no to most of these questions. They want capital but have not done the work that produces capital. Cunic’s role is forcing that work to happen.

He rejects excuses about market conditions. “We’ve all heard of a little show called maybe Shark Tank,” he notes. “All three of those people,” referring to Kevin O’Leary, Mark Cuban, and Richard Branson, “say the same exact thing. If you are an entrepreneur, your number one job is to learn how to raise money.”

The statement reframes fundraising from necessary evil to core competency. Entrepreneurs who treat capital raising as someone else’s problem cripple their businesses. Those who master it unlock growth.

The Networking Skills Gap

Cunic identifies networking deficiency as the primary reason founders struggle to raise capital. “The real trick behind capital raising? It’s called networking and having proper networking skills.”

The insight connects to his academic background in professional networking, one of the degrees that contributes to the “Triple Headed Dragon” reputation. Networking is not just attending conferences and exchanging business cards. It requires emotional intelligence, business etiquette, and relationship management.

“The main reason why people cannot get investors is they lack proper networking skills, which then comes across as they lack emotional intelligence or they lack proper business etiquette,” Cunic explains.

The diagnosis points to fixable problems. Founders who seem socially awkward or professionally tone-deaf in investor meetings may simply never learned how to operate in those contexts. They need training, not different personalities.

UCS Advisors teaches specific skills: how to research investors before meetings, how to structure conversations to build rapport, how to follow up without being annoying, how to manage multiple investor relationships simultaneously, and how to maintain relationships with investors who passed.

These skills apply beyond fundraising. “We teach networking skills and something you can use for the rest of your life,” Cunic notes.

The emphasis on transferable skills differentiates UCS from transaction-focused advisors who simply make introductions. Cunic wants founders who graduate from working with UCS to be self-sufficient in future rounds.

The Positive Mental Attitude

Cunic wears a “PMA” pin at every event: Positive Mental Attitude. The accessory is not just branding. It reflects core belief about entrepreneurial psychology.

“As a capital raising advisor, we work with a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of founders. We live in a lot of negative society,” Cunic says. “Part of what we do is teach positive mental attitude.”

Fundraising tests founder psychology more than almost any business activity. Rejection is constant. Meetings that seem promising end in ghosting. Terms that were negotiated change at the last minute. Investors who committed verbally back out. The process drains confidence and creates doubt.

Founders need mental frameworks to persist. Cunic’s PMA philosophy provides structure. Rejection is not personal failure but statistical probability. Most pitches will fail. Success means persisting through the failures to find the investors who say yes.

The medical background again informs the approach. Physical therapy patients often feel discouraged when progress is slow. Therapists teach them to measure improvement in small increments rather than expecting immediate transformation. The same principle applies to fundraising.

“When you’re working with entrepreneurs and founders and raising money, you got to help others keep that positive mental attitude,” Cunic explains.

The support goes beyond cheerleading. UCS helps founders set realistic expectations about timeline, rejection rates, and term evolution. Managing expectations prevents the psychological crashes that cause founders to give up prematurely.

The Practitioner Credibility

Cunic’s credibility comes from being a practitioner, not a theorist. “I’m one myself. I’ve had multiple companies. I’ve sold a few companies. I can relate to you directly.”

This differentiates him from consultants who studied fundraising academically but never actually raised capital under pressure. Cunic knows what it feels like to make payroll with the bank account running low, to pitch investors who are clearly not interested, to close a round and immediately start planning the next one.

“I’m like, it’s not having that emotional and that personal connection with working with entrepreneurs and founders,” he says, contrasting his approach with consultants lacking operational experience.

The practitioner background also means Cunic has made mistakes and learned from them. He can warn founders about pitfalls from personal experience rather than theoretical knowledge. The 15 companies he has founded since 2006 represent a laboratory for testing what works and what fails.

His cannabis industry experience is particularly relevant given regulatory complexity and capital market challenges in that sector. Opening eight cannabis companies across Nevada, New Jersey, and Maine required navigating state-specific regulations, finding investors comfortable with federal legal ambiguity, and building businesses in an industry most banks will not touch.

These are not typical business challenges. Founders who succeeded in cannabis demonstrate unusual resilience, creativity, and relationship-building capability. Those skills transfer to advising other founders facing their own unique obstacles.

The LinkedIn Money Philosophy

Cunic makes a striking claim about LinkedIn: “If you want 7.5 billion or less, we call that LinkedIn money.”

The statement suggests that capital raising for amounts under $7.5 billion can be accomplished entirely through LinkedIn networking. While hyperbolic, the claim reflects belief in systematic relationship building through digital platforms.

LinkedIn provides access to investors, successful founders, service providers, and potential customers that would have required years to access through traditional networking. Used strategically, it accelerates relationship development and creates opportunity.

Cunic’s LinkedIn presence exemplifies his teaching. He posts Green Nugget Advisory Tips twice weekly, shares insights from working with founders, and maintains an active public profile. The content marketing attracts founders who need help while demonstrating expertise to potential clients.

The approach also creates accountability. Public teaching forces clarity in thinking. When you explain concepts repeatedly to audiences, you refine explanations and identify gaps in your own understanding.

Critical Questions and Challenges

Despite Cunic’s experience and methodology, the capital raising advisory business faces inherent challenges:

Success Measurement: How does UCS measure success? Is it capital raised, companies funded, or founder capability development? Different metrics suggest different business models.

Conflict of Interest: Do capital raising advisors who take success fees or equity have incentive to push founders toward deals that are not optimal? How does UCS manage this?

Market Cycle Dependency: Capital raising advisory businesses thrive in good funding environments and struggle when capital markets tighten. How recession-resistant is the model?

Scalability: The high-touch, relationship-intensive approach limits how many clients UCS can serve simultaneously. How does the firm scale without quality deterioration?

Competition: What prevents larger, better-capitalized advisory firms from targeting the same five-year-and-under segment with similar services?

Founder Selection: How does UCS choose which founders to work with? Is everyone with a five-year-old company a good fit, or does selection matter?

Key Takeaways

1. Medical Diagnosis Applied to Business: Cunic’s physical therapy background provides frameworks for diagnosing root causes rather than treating symptoms. The approach creates sustainable solutions rather than quick fixes.

2. Networking as Core Skill: Capital raising success depends more on networking capability than financial sophistication. Teaching founders to network effectively creates lasting value beyond any single funding round.

3. Practitioner Credibility Matters: Advisors who have personally experienced the challenges they help others navigate bring credibility and practical wisdom that academic knowledge cannot replicate.

4. The Five-Year Capital Gap: Businesses in their first five years face unique challenges accessing capital. Specializing in this segment creates clear positioning and reduces competition.

5. Positive Mental Attitude as Strategy: Fundraising psychology matters as much as financial skills. Helping founders maintain resilience through rejection and setbacks enables persistence that produces success.

Looking Forward

David Cunic operates at the intersection of several trends. Small business formation continues accelerating. Traditional bank financing remains difficult to access for young companies. Angel investing and venture capital have democratized through platforms and networks. The skills required to access capital have become teachable rather than mysterious.

These trends favor advisors who can systematically teach capital raising rather than just making introductions. UCS Advisors positions itself in this education-plus-execution role.

The challenge is whether the model scales. Cunic’s personal involvement and practitioner credibility create value, but they also create bottlenecks. He can only work with so many founders simultaneously while maintaining quality.

Building a firm that outlasts its founder requires systematizing tacit knowledge and transferring relationships. Cunic’s Green Nugget Advisory Tips represent early steps toward codification. His LinkedIn presence builds brand beyond personal reputation.

Whether UCS becomes an enduring institution or remains a successful solo practice depends on succession planning and team development. For now, Dr. David is the brand, the methodology, and the delivery mechanism.

The Triple Headed Dragon continues serving founders who need help navigating capital markets. The medical approach continues diagnosing problems before prescribing solutions. The PMA pin continues reminding everyone that mindset matters as much as mechanics.

And Murphy continues lurking, waiting for his moment. But Cunic is ready for him.

He always is.

Discussion Questions

1. How should capital raising advisors balance teaching founders to be self-sufficient against creating dependency on advisory services?

2. Is the five-year-and-under segment large enough to support multiple competing advisory firms, or is it a niche market?

3. What metrics should founders use to evaluate capital raising advisors beyond credentials and track record?

4. How can practitioner-advisors scale their businesses without losing the credibility that comes from personal operational experience?

5. Does emphasizing networking skills risk overlooking founders who have great businesses but lack natural networking ability?

6. Should capital raising advisors take equity in client companies, and how does this affect incentive alignment?

7. How will increased democratization of capital access through platforms and digital tools affect demand for human advisors?

Official Website: ucsadvisors.com

Interview Source: This case study is based on an interview conducted by Adam Torres on the Mission Matters Podcast.

Podcast Link: podcasts.apple.com