

Five Worst Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make When Pitching Angel Investors - mvs
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220141

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mvkel
This post sounds great on paper, but in my experience, the investors
themselves ask about all the items you forbid talking about. Maybe that's the
mark of a crappy investor, but I think an entrepreneur should be prepared to
answer the question, or NOT answer the question where appropriate.

2) I've had investors ask for very obscure numbers and forecasts related to
user base, revenue, etc. thirty minutes into a meeting.

3) I've been scolded by a VC for not putting, literally, a graph with tiny
letters of revenue forecasts. Absolutely silly and impractical, but they
wanted it.

4) A business plan is there for a reason -- to outline the strategy of your
business. It's often sent to an investor before you even meet them. If you're
going to do other stuff right from the gun, why isn't it in the business plan?
An investor's confidence would be lowered if half of your presentation
contradicts what's mentioned in the plan.

5) Without fail, all the investors I met with asked "how much do you want to
raise?" with a quick follow-up "how much do you think your company is worth?"
Now, I don't think you should EVER answer the second question, but I just
wanted to mention that the question WILL come up, and you need to be able to
block/bridge appropriately. Just saying "I will not answer that" won't
suffice.

I think, ultimately, you need to balance what makes sense to present and what
the VC/angel actually wants to see, no matter how impractical.

