socialmedian: 4 ways to get automatically rejected by an angel investor

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4 ways to get automatically rejected by an angel investor

Source: VentureBeat

Nov 04, 2009

Summary

I’ve started three companies, and now I’m an angel investor. So I’ve been on both sides of the table.

There are lots of good articles out there about pitching, and surely everyone who pitches me has read some of them. Still though, a few problems appear over and over again. If you’ve ever had to sort through resumes and cover letters, you’ve seen this effect: People tend to have the same misconceptions and therefore make the same mistakes.

What follows are four problems I see all the time, each of which makes me roll my eyes and sometimes even terminate the conversation early.

Be dismissive of the competition.

Let me guess what your feature-comparison chart looks like:

You have all the checkmarks, they have few. Even when your competitor has a checkmark too, your implementation is still better. There’s nothing they have that you don’t. Oh, and they’re more expensive too.

When I see this chart, all I know is: It’s a lie.

The point of “competitive analysis” isn’t to say: “I’m better than everyone else.” Rather, it’s to define your niche in the market and explain how y

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