40 Things Investors Don’t Like In A Startup Pitch

An article we liked from Thought Leader Alexander Jarvis:

40 pitch red flags which will undermine your startup fundraise

Tl;dr: 40 pitch red flags to avoid when fundraising

Fundraising? Don’t want to do stupid things? Here’s a blog for you. Now if you have been following me for some time, you know I normally write long blogs. This isn’t one of them. It’s 40 things that investors don’t like.

Monkey read, monkey don’t do.

Will you sign my NDA = N00B – read for more
Don’t know as much as an associate at a VC on your industry. I heard of a startup getting schooled on their industry last week by an associate. The team was embarrassed…
Not knowing of a big competitor. Dude, Google… it signals you are not an insider
We have no competition. Dude, yes you do. Inertia is a big competitor. There is always a way of doing something
The competition sucks. Don’t talk crap about your competition. They don’t suck
First time founders in general. Startup is hard. If there is no traction, I’m dubious if they can execute
Bankers doing startup. Startup is cool atm… just saying. Sure there are exceptions, especially in fintech
Fund my idea. FFS. Read
Stupid forecasts. Claiming you will 100x each year is a great way to lose credibility. Better to say nothing than say something stupid
No financial model. VCs want to know how you forecast your business. Worse than stupid forecasts is...