How Not To Apply To An Accelerator (part 5)

This is part 5 of my “self-defense essay”. If you missed the prior installments, start here with The #EpicNovelFail

The #MasterOfTheObviousFail
(a.k.a. “Duh”)

The flip side to the hand waivers are the compulsive footnoters who provide every statistic available or lengthy background information. We review enough applications that we have a working knowledge of the key issues in most industries and know the basic numbers by heart.

This is especially true when you are applying to a specialized program. For instance, if you are applying to Dreamit’s Edtech program and we ask you about the problem, I don’t need you to explain the failings of our university system in detail and you don’t need to footnote basic statistics like the number of US college students . Just say, “We are improving retention for the 20M university students in the US.”

If something is obvious, we don’t need it explained to us. But anything more detailed, surprising, or controversial should be sourced. For instance, one applicant claimed that 8 year olds consumed over 8 hours of digital media per day. My gut response was “no way” and there was no footnote pointing me to his source. I Googled that claim and didn’t find anything. Even if he could support the claim, his credibility was shot.

Tip: if a quick Google search confirms your claim within the top 5 results — sometimes even within the descriptive snippets shown on the search results page itself — it’s obvious enough not to source or explain in detail.

Next up: The #LinkerFail