I spent final week listening to 100 pitches for early-stage startups. I’m exhausted.

My angel teams usually spend money on roughly 1 out of each 100 functions. Which means 99% are passes. For at the least half the pitches, it’s apparent inside a minute that they’re no-goes, so as a substitute of listening carefully (sorry), I began taking notes on the the reason why so many have been apparent drops.

Earlier than you waste weeks or months of effort pitching, ensure you’re prepared for buyers. Listed here are 5 causes I famous that have been automated drops, in addition to a number of further causes many have been unlikely to transcend the pitch.

Family and friends will help you bringing your imaginative and prescient to fruition. Grant alternatives and accelerators can assist, too. Buyers, together with angels like me, spend money on a accomplished product.

We’ve all heard tales about entrepreneurs with nothing however a powerpoint presentation (or much less) who obtained tens of millions in funding from buyers to construct the product. They’re nice tales. Folks win billions within the lottery, too. It simply gained’t be me otherwise you.

Certain, if Tim Draper occurs to be a neighbor or your mom is bff with the CEO of IBM, by all means, pitch them. In case your earlier startup made a VC agency a billion {dollars}, their door shall be large open. In case you’re the previous CEO of DeBeers, discovering buyers in your jewellery startup shall be a snap. For the opposite 99.997% of startup founders, buyers wish to see a product, not an thought.

Ideally, which means not only a completed product however buyer income. Attending to the “in-revenue” stage is for sure crucial milestone for locating buyers. For a lot of buyers, pre-revenue startups are an automated cross. Some, like me, are prepared to contemplate different varieties of buyer validation akin to pilot packages and evaluations. However at a minimal, there must be a working product in buyer palms earlier than we’ll contemplate investing.