A young first-time entrepreneur emailed me the following…
“I’m having trouble finding investors. Am I asking for too much money?”
After reviewing the pitchbook, I responded with a simple question…
“Why don’t you include pictures of the product you’re selling?”
Her response was…
“I don’t have enough money to create the prototypes, but my passion for what I am trying to do should replace that.”
This is usually where I’d simply wish her the best of luck and move on.
But for the sake of other entrepreneurs in a similar position, here’s my message to you…
“If you don’t have experience, a reputation as a founder, or traction in a market, you better have the most innovative idea and strategy to execute it on it in the world. Otherwise, you’re too much of a risk. It’s scary enough that you have no experience, but when you tell me you have no product and haven’t made a single dollar, I can’t help but cringe. That’s simply not an investable scenario.
All businesses can be minimized to a 1-to-1 service model. This means, with a little additional hustle, anyone can obtain customers directly and service them. It sounds silly, but if your idea is the next Spotify music streaming app, offer to curate everyone you know’s playlists for free. Guess what? – doing that just landed you your first customers.
There’s way too much competition out there for anyone else to want to risk that much on you and your venture. Prove you’re worth it. Do the work. Look passed the dream and start making things happen.”
