All the profits go to charity help us maximise our donation Buy the book FREE Preview Why buy this book? More about the book The Author (mentor) Author endorsements Book endorsements Reviews & comments Subscribe by Email Search Topics Entrepreneur news, events, people and info Entrepreneurial people & stories Entrepreneurship Basic skills Business plans Failure Life balance Startup The exit Wellbeing Fundraising Angel funding UK Funding sources US Funding sources VC Funding Reading, Listening & Watching So you want to be an Entrepreneur (book related) Next steps (after the book) Uncategorized Site map Blog sitemap Recent Posts A small gift can go a long way… Videocast: how to raise angel funding with Jon Gillespie-Brown Want an Angel Investment? this is the video 101 Great lessons from an Angel Investor Matt Coffin Talk to me live…at “Startup School” this Friday How to find Angel Investors…the “smart” way! Make sure your business plan gets read – build a “killer” exec summary Want to “burn” your Company to the ground…Fire the founder. 20 lessons from Startup School you should burn into your brain! Great seminar for Startup financing in London Archives February 2010 December 2009 November 2009 September 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006

« Looking for VC funding? seeing who is doing the most deals may help with who’s best to call. | Home | How angels rate your opportunity…use this checklist to make sure you have covered the bases »

Why startup pitches fail

By Jon Gillespie-Brown | October 30, 2008

Interesting spin on the VC pitch at Venture Hacks by Eric Ries, a founder of IMVU and an advisor to Kleiner Perkins (He’s also a really nice and modest guy!):

Summary: Pitches usually fail because they answer the wrong questions. The right questions depend on the stage of your business—for example, some businesses are just getting started with an idea, while others are printing money. Focus your pitch on the key questions for your stage and if you keep getting non-key questions, something is wrong with your pitch. This post includes a hierarchy that you can use to classify your business and the key questions for each stage in the hierarchy.

http://venturehacks.com/articles/why-pitches-fail

---

Last 3 posts by Jon Gillespie-Brown

• A small gift can go a long way… - February 4th, 2010
• Videocast: how to raise angel funding with Jon Gillespie-Brown - December 11th, 2009
• Want an Angel Investment? this is the video 101 - December 3rd, 2009

Related posts:

• Learn from the guru on presentations…it’s harder than you think to build a compelling pitch
• Businesses don’t fail..people run out of "juice"
• Great advice on pitching VCs…common mistakes and how to avoid them
• Great seminar for Startup financing in London
• Tech startup guides…in summary

Share/Print/Subscribe: Share this post with a friend by clicking "share this" below. You may freely reprint or redistribute this article, provided the content and links are left intact, and the "about the author" section is included.   Print This Post   Subscribe by Email
	About the Author:
	Jon Gillespie-Brown is a published Author, Lecturer, Founder/CEO and Mentor on Entrepreneurship. He currently mentors at Stanford, UC Berkeley and the London Business School. Visit his site for tips by email/twitter, blog updates, detailed articles, worksheets, news, a free quiz and more! Go now to http://www.tobeanentrepreneur.com/

Comments

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail