Posted January 26, 2012 at 7:44 pm
by Erik Sherman
Serial entrepreneur and VC Guy Kawasaki recently wrote a post listing the 10 lies entrepreneurs tell investors. These are classic lines that he hears in virtually every company pitch he sits through.
I’ve added my own analysis below as to how they translate to investors’ ears:
1. “Our projections are conservative.” If you were really conservative with projections, you’d see that conditions could be bad enough to cause your venture could fail. When you pretend that failure is not an option, investors know that you haven’t done your homework.
2. “Jupiter says our market will be $50 billion in 10 years.” It doesn’t matter what any analyst says. Their projections are often wrong. (How many times have they predicted the paperless office?) Even if they aren’t, that doesn’t mean you’ll get any slice of the eventual market size. A handful of giants might split it and leave you with nothing.
3. “Several Fortune 500 companies are set to do business with us.” Either companies have signed a contract or they haven’t. If they haven’t, then they are at best a prospect. Hyping sales efforts is a bad habit to get into.
4. “No one else can do what we’re doing.” No one and nothing is [continue]…
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