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Stop practicing with bad investors
Read time 2.3 minutes.

Recently, I’ve had some clients who were pitching local angel groups in their city to “practice” before travelling to spend a week pitching to top VCs in Silicon Valley.

Prior to their “practice” pitches, we had planned an FAQ together, and the company had a solid deck, narrative and script. They went in to pitch their local angels and got slaughtered. These guys were all CEOs/founders of local small businesses, ran local factories, breweries, and other “boring” businesses, and shredded this high potential/high-risk tech pitch.

Now, I’ve been here before. One of the worst experiences I’ve ever had was pitching to a local angel group who thought I was insane. Three weeks later, I closed my round. Anyways, this founder didn’t have that experience and was doubting my advice at this point, so they decided to rework their pitch based off of the feedback from that local angel group. Can you guess what happened next?

They went to Silicon Valley and proceeded to get laughed out of the room by the real investors who had industry expertise in their field.

The lesson: Stop practicing with bad investors. Bad investors who don’t understand your business will leave you worried and concerned because they will ask the wrong questions and focus their time/energy on the risk, not the potential.

I see this very often where founders want to practice with local investors before reaching out to big investors. It’s a horrible strategy. It’s the equivalent of playing softball to prepare yourself for baseball. The entire strategy is different; just cause they look similar doesn’t mean it’s the same game.

So, if you are planning your fundraise, jump straight into talking to the investors you want to raise from. Even if you fail, they will ask you questions that will help you improve your business instead of pushing you down the wrong path.

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Are you looking to grow your business? Here is how I can help:

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Your continued support means a tremendous amount to me. Each person subscribed to this newsletter is trying to improve themselves and their business every day. Always remember that the best goal in life is to make sure every day is better than the last. Keep putting in the work, find the right mentors/advisors, and you will see the results!

Onwards and Upwards,

Liam Gill

P.S. It would greatly help me if you could share the newsletter with more founders to help grow our community!