10 Lies VCs Know You're Telling In the quest for capital, many entrepreneurs stretch the truth. One venture capitalist calls them out.
By Guy Kawasaki Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
As a venture capitalist, I get pitched dozens of times every year, and every pitch contains at least three or four of the lies below. Are you guilty?
1. "Our projections are conservative."An entrepreneur's projections are never conservative. If they were, they would be $0. I have never seen an entrepreneur achieve even their most conservative projections. As a rule of thumb, when I see a projection, I add one year to delivery time and multiply by 0.1.
2. "(Big-name research firm) says our market will be $50 billion in 2010."Even if the product is bar mitzvah planning software, every entrepreneur claims the market potential is tens of billions. Do yourself a favor: Remove any reference to market size estimates.
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