5 Stupid Things Entrepreneurs Should Never Say When Fundraising
During nearly two decades of building venture-backed startups, I’ve had roughly a thousand investor meetings. I’m not sharing that number to brag. Instead, considering how few of those meetings turned into investments, it means I’ve screwed up a lot. To be blunt, I said lots of stupid things that prevented me from raising capital. If you’re fundraising right now, you’re probably saying stupid things, too. Are you able to recognize them?
For me, I didn’t realize how stupid the things I was saying sounded at the time. It took years of experience fundraising and studying venture capital before I finally started understanding why a lot of things I thought would help me raise capital were actually scaring away investors.
I guarantee you’re probably saying some of the same things right now. Or, at the very least, you’ve heard other entrepreneurs say them and thought they seemed compelling. But investors see the world differently than entrepreneurs, and, lots of times, the statements that founders think will make investors excited actually end up doing the exact opposite.
So don’t make the same mistakes as me. Instead, here’s a list of five stupid things entrepreneurs say while fundraising that you need to remove from your pitch immediately.
