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How to respond to lazy criticism
Read time 2.0 minutes.
Every founder knows the power of the pitch. It’s concise, memorable, and designed to inspire confidence in something new. But no matter how strong your pitch, you always run into some VCs that have short, vague and lazy responses to every idea they hear. They give you a throwaway one-liner meant to shut your idea down.
“Too crowded.”
“Too risky.”
“Too hard to monetize.”
You’ve heard these. They sting because they’re fast, simple, and sound like wisdom.
The truth is that these criticisms are hard to deal with because they’re the easy way to be “right” in a world where most startups fail. Anyone can look smart by saying no.
The danger is that founders internalize them. You hear “social apps are dead” enough times, you start believing it—even if your app has a wedge others don’t.
So what should you do when you get hit with one of these?
Filter the source. A casual skeptic at a dinner party? Ignore it. A potential customer? Pay close attention.
Mine for signal. Even lazy pushback sometimes hides a real concern. If five people say your pricing model won’t work, don’t dismiss it—interrogate it.
Control the framing. Don’t let investors define your category for you. If they say “this sounds like X,” redirect them to the better comparison that shows your edge.
And above all: keep pitching. The best defence isn’t a clever comeback. It’s a stronger pitch. If the same criticism lands every time, reframe until it doesn’t.
Most ideas die at the hands of lazy feedback. The best ones survive it, and founders come out sharper for the fight.
Are you comfortable responding to vague VC feedback? |
Onwards and Upwards,
