Richard Harroch (Managing Director of VantagePoint Capital Partners) recently wrote in the article below about common mistakes that entrepreneurs make in pitching VCs and other investors.
There are 28 mistakes summarized by Harroch in the full article. Here are the top 23 mistakes listed:
Sending an executive summary or business plan unsolicited
Pitching a VC who is not interested in the startup's space
Giving a VC a 50-page business plan to review
Not defining why the market opportunity is big
Coming in with your team to a pitch meeting, but only have the CEO speak
Saying that you don’t have any competition
Having uninteresting or unrealistic financial projections
Asking a VC to sign an NDA before you will share information
Giving me confusing or bad answers to an investor's questions
Not describing to a VC what problem your business solve
Presenting unrealistic valuation expectations for your startup
Using clichés
Having more than 20 slides in your investor presentation
Forgetting to highlight your team’s experience and credentials
Not paying attention to detail in the investor presentation
Not doing a demo
Not doing research and due dligence on the VC
Not looking at other pitch decks and executive summaries
Not understanding customer acquisition costs (CAC) and long-term value (LTV) of the customer
Not understanding the potential business risks
Not articulating the key assumptions in your financial projections
Not articulating your product or technology differentiation
Not having a detailed marketing strategy
Click here to read the full article: