Unwritten rules are all around us
You don’t walk over the pitcher’s mound in baseball or cry in baseball either
And you never say these five things in a VC Pitch
1) “I am a brand new market; I have no competition”
Even when you’re on the bleeding edge of innovation, someone is in the market and always watching.
Not to mention no competitor = no acquirer
2) “Our market is hundreds of billions of dollars, and we estimate that we will capture 2% of that market in our first three years”
Talk through the strategy from the bottom up and hit ‘em with that TAM, SAM, and SOM, my guy
Show you’ve done the research
3) “Though our competition’s product has these features, our product has these and several more! Because of this, we are much better than our competitors”
Mo’ Features, Mo’ Problems
Talk directly about your differentiation, and don’t be afraid to give us a side-by-side comparison of a competitive product. But, of course, it’s more beneficial for the “so what?”
A graph or a chart captures a fraction of the idea
You need details
4) “We outsourced some of our company’s essential elements”
I think @garrytan said it best
Be above the API, not below it
Outsourcing the most exciting element of your business makes you vulnerable
5) “We have not yet decided who will be the CEO”
This one is simple
Co-CEO means No-CEO
9.99/10 of the time
That’s it
The go-to guide for how to lose a VC in just five phrases
Thank you @normanwinarsky for your insights
He wrote the OG and is the President of @SRI_Intl
Our own @TomJWhiteIV wrote an extended version if you need more details
You can read that here: blog.stonks.com/how-to-lose-vc…
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.