Investors will reject founders if:
1) They feel the idea is too improbable/likely to fail
2) They feel the price in current round is too high.
And this is true for your neighborhood uncle as well as the institutional VC twitter.com/thakkar_puru/status/1451417475992616967
If you're facing rejections repeatedly, figure out what's the problem (generally it's step 1).
Then STOP pitching to new investors.
Identify people who can help you reduce the uncertainty around your business.
These can be customers, partners or *strategic* advisors
Strategic advisors can take the form of:
1) Early-stage investor
2) Experienced employees
3) Voices from the internet/books/videos...
All three sources can be wrong/inappropriate.
But they will show you possibilities.
Ultimately any startup founder is trying to:
Deploy capital today & Generate profit tomorrow
When you're asked for a roadmap, don't forget what larger structure it's a part of.
The Capital Generation cycle.
The more convincingly a founder can explain how his cycle works, the more likely he is to raise investment
"Identifying pain points
Building product,
Hiring rockstars,
Raising investments
.."
are all ultimately sub-steps in the Capital Generation Cycle 💸
The end game of course is building a cycle that works forever.
If you can take pole position in an upcoming industry, you have a strong cycle.
If you are talking about creating a whole new industry, where are the pre-requisite components?
Last piece of advice (very contrarian to traditional wisdom),
If you're about to give up, put your past work online.
#openstartups is a powerful trend.
If nobody likes your pitch, why not share it on youtube?
Helps future investors, employees, ... understand your vision + improve it
If you go for a job, you can showcase all your thinking
If cat videos get appreciated, so can ideas
To end:
Capital is a commodity now.
There are trillions of dollars waiting to grow.
But growth doesn't happen in isolation.
Investors need companies just as much as companies need investors.
Key question is: Are you the entrepreneur best suited to build the next billion-dollar capital generation cycle?