TEN THINGS NOT TO SAY WHEN YOU WANT TO GET FUNDED !!!
The recent rush to get your idea funded is astronomical. The rate at success in this recent rush is tighter than before. This is in vast comparison of the late 90's Gold Rush that destroyed many hopes of future businesses. Simply said, many of these companies failed to turn a profit. VC's are becoming tighter than ever. The following list comes to us from Entrepreneur.com
1. "Our projections are conservative."
2. "(Big-name research firm) says our market will be $50 billion in 2010."
3. "(Big-name company) is going to sign our purchase order next week."
4. "Key employees are set to join us as soon as we get funded."
5. "No one else is doing what we're doing."
6. "No one else can do what we're doing."
7. "Hurry, because several other vc firms are interested."
8. "Oracle is too big/dumb/slow to be a threat to us."
9. "We have a proven management team."
10. "All we have to do is get 1 percent of the market."
I've heard every single one of these lines in the past 12 months so I think this is worth mentioning. But here is the killer -- there is NOT ONE venture capital firm out there interested in getting 1% of an entire market -- not one. And according to the Money Exchangers they can tell when stories like this are bogus and ill-planned.
Projections are far fetched -- usually in the tens of millions... even billions. There are other issues too with building costs and dealing with contractors. The later is a troublesome bunch according to Trump. These predictions for powerful growth to your company can be over exagerated. This causes VC's to repel to you like oil and water.
This list is very humorous -- but then again, maybe not so funny to others.
Ted Cantu has posted this entry on March 2, 2007. He is the creator of www.1seomichigan.com and lives in Novi, MI
