I know what is like to pitch to investors - both angels and venture capitalists. Sometimes you only get 10 minutes to pitch your business opportunity to the investors, but what matters even in those 10 minutes in the content of your pitch. You will find multiple resource on the content and semantics of investors pitch, but here i would like to point out certain phrases that we should never say in front of Investors:
1. We have no Competitors: All companies have competitors, either direct, indirect or substitutes. Restaurant not only competes with other Restaurants. They also compete indirectly with every other kind of Entertainment: Movie theaters, sporting events, nightclubs and so on.
2. All we need to do is grab 1% of the 100 billion market and we will have a billion dollar company: This statement is unique to other 6 billion people world also. This is sign that entrepreneur is amateur.
3. These Projections are conservative: Neither investor, nor you can predict the number correctly. The number on the pitch deck are only meant to showcase scale of your vision. This usually mean the projections are pie in the sky and you are extremely unsure about how to go about achieving the same.
4. Seasoned management will be hired upon funding: Invest-able business are once where people and seasoned management are attracted to work. The fact that you haven't been able to hire, means either your idea does not have enough meat, or you don't know how to sell that, to people who matter for the business.
5. I will quit my job upon funding: This means you wont be quitting your job because you are not committed to the business. One need to make full and complete commitment to the business, long before you seek investor funding.
6. Will you sign an NDA? In most cases, VC find an inverse relationship between the voracity of the NDA inquiry and the quality of the deal. if your plan is based on an idea so tenuous that merely hearing what you do will cause grievous harm to your plan, then you don't have a plan.
7. You don't get it: This is usually sign of entrepreneurial exasperation, leveled after the entrepreneur has been rejected after the nth time. The VC probably understands more about the situation that the person leveling the charge.
This article was originally published
here.
Columnist
Varun Chandra is the Co-founder of DesiredWings, a platform that helps entrepreneur find micro-investment. Varun is also passionate about product development and Innovation, and have had opportunities to work with Nokia Siemens Network for identifying their Innovation metrics. He is also keenly interested in entrepreneurship development in India. He is also regional director of Founder Institute Chapter in Delhi.
