Are you currently on the look out for some business funding? Business Insider has recently shared a list of ten quotes you should avoid when pitching to an investor. Three of them are below. Have you fallen prey to one of these statements before?
“Our product is truly disruptive technology.†If your product really represents a paradigm shift, you probably haven’t figured out yet what problem it solves. At best we can count on it taking many years to catch on, just like other disruptive technologies before you. No investor wants to wait that long for his return, or fund the years of waiting.
“All we have to do is get 1% of the market.†This red flag is the flip side of “the market will be $50 billion.†There are two problems with this assertion. First, no investor is interested in a company that is only looking to get 1% of a market. Second, that first 1% is the toughest of any market, so you look naïve implying it’s easy to get.
“Our projections are conservative.†A startup’s projections should never be conservative. Plus I have never seen a startup achieve even their most conservative projections. We all know that financial projections are a confidence test on how committed you are to the project, so don’t try to minimize them.
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