Thread by @StonksCard

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…