There’s a really old but often revisited Guy Kawasaki post, The Top 10 Lies of Entrepreneurs (Jason Fried commented on it a while back, too). It does get tiresome having the same things repeated over and over again: how that purchase order is always just about to be signed, how you’ll need to get just 1% of what Forrester says is a huge market, or how if you can just invest in marketing people will love your product.
Most VCs will see right through this stuff, especially if these embellishments are the “reasons to believe” for the rest of your pitch. Kawasaki’s advice is “tell new lies.” Of course what he means isn’t to be untruthful. Rather, make what you’re saying novel enough to listen hard. Show that you know your industry. Show that you’ve thought hard about the market. Illustrate that you’re metrics-driven to the core: how much will it cost you to acquire a user, how will you convert him to a paying customer, how much will you make off him while he is paying you. What do you estimate churn at and how do you up retention. We can still doubt you or be skeptical about the market opportunity, but at least we’ll engage with what you’re saying rather than dismissing it because we’ve heard the same thing 100 times last week.
