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patio11's profile
Patrick McKenzie
Patrick McKenzie
Patrick McKenzie
@patio11

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Patrick McKenzie

@patio11

I work for the Internet, at @stripe, mostly on accelerating startups. Opinions here are my own.

東京都 Tokyo
kalzumeus.com
Joined February 2009

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    Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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    While I was writing @atlas' guide to pitching ( https://stripe.com/atlas/guide/pitching … ) I reviewed the ~100 pitches we reviewed early this year. Thoughts:

    8:24 AM - 18 Sep 2017
    • 61 Retweets
    • 259 Likes
    • Chia-Hao Hsieh Daniel Everts Token Arcade Founder DNA Patrick Kane 🏁 Rob Hu$$le 🏁 Arena Financial Vasant Marur Sally
    4 replies 61 retweets 259 likes
      1. New conversation
      2. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        Far and away the biggest problem pitches had was not saying what the company actually did / was attempting to do.

        2 replies 2 retweets 29 likes
        Show this thread
      3. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        We had some entrepreneurs who were effusive about enthusiasm for a space but wouldn't say "Website" / "Mobile app" / "Dedicated appliance."

        1 reply 0 retweets 10 likes
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      4. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        There's things you can get handwavy about with software people, and most first line reviewers would call themselves software people.

        1 reply 1 retweet 6 likes
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      5. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        But if software people can't imagine themselves using the software, or visualize what UX of it is, then that is probably a nonstarter.

        1 reply 1 retweet 15 likes
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      6. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        The feedback I personally hated to give the most is "This is plausibly a great business but you should know it is not likely investable."

        2 replies 1 retweet 11 likes
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      7. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        I love teeny software shops on the Internet, but investors have institutional imperatives that can't get met w/o getting to huge markets.

        1 reply 1 retweet 9 likes
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      8. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        "Niche" markets are only interesting to the extent they unlock other, better markets. You can write Altair Basic iff you follow w/ Windows.

        1 reply 1 retweet 14 likes
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      9. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        Have you ever seen Silicon Valley? I promise you, after sitting through a firehose of startup pitches, it starts to sound like a documentary

        2 replies 7 retweets 24 likes
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      10. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        It's refreshing to get stories from entrepreneurs; they help to break up a lot of people trying guess the password to money.

        1 reply 0 retweets 19 likes
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      11. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        Consistently best stories qua stories, and also qua remembering pitches, where on "Why this?" and "What's best thing you've done before?"

        1 reply 1 retweet 5 likes
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      12. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        A lot of the stories were obviously raw and unedited. Totally fine. Some of them were a little naughty, in an investor-friendly fashion.

        1 reply 0 retweets 4 likes
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      13. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        Some, though, were a poorly calibrated sort of naughty. Automating your performance at a boring job or class is a celebrated type of naughty

        1 reply 0 retweets 6 likes
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      14. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        Describing, let me make up an example, how one conducted insider trading when working at a broker dealer? That's not a great idea?

        1 reply 0 retweets 11 likes
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      15. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        There's at least 2 levels on which you're reading the application: what does this say and what does it say about a person who'd write this.

        1 reply 0 retweets 13 likes
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      16. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        Imposter syndrome, which I have a deep appreciation for, is a thing that runs wide and deep among entrepreneurs.

        1 reply 1 retweet 14 likes
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      17. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        You wouldn't think half of pitches would be improved by "Brag More; You've Earned It" but that appears to be true.

        1 reply 2 retweets 16 likes
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      18. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        I don't think entrepreneurs understand the crushing volume of pitches that pitchable people get. It's like Harvard and applications.

        1 reply 1 retweet 8 likes
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      19. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        It is objectively unfair and unreasonable to evaluate someone's life in five minutes or their company in two. But that is what world does.

        1 reply 2 retweets 12 likes
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      20. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        Given that you only have two minutes of someone's attention, you'd rigorously cut that to be only things which provide positive signal.

        1 reply 1 retweet 11 likes
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      21. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        A specific genre of thing that needs to be cut: product demos / prototypes. I guarantee you, yours is not an investable login form.

        2 replies 0 retweets 13 likes
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      22. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        I'm not joking on that two minute thing, at all, so forcing ~10 seconds of it to get spent on copy/pasting something into the login form bad

        1 reply 0 retweets 6 likes
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      23. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        I was surprised by the depth of e.g. pitches by academics about commercializing their research. This was sometimes difficult to review.

        1 reply 0 retweets 6 likes
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      24. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        I once met a researcher whose focus was the formation of microbubbles under electrophoresis. Most software people can't guess field for that

        1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes
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      25. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        If you're pitching Better Electrophoresis you probably want to start the pitch with "Steel smelting: you care about it more than you know."

        1 reply 0 retweets 9 likes
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      26. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        There is a time and place to critique the prevailing ethos and institutions of Silicon Valley. I would question whether one's pitch is it.

        2 replies 1 retweet 5 likes
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      27. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        An old chestnut but a true chestnut: if you tell me you have no competitors, that either suggests a poor market or poor due diligence.

        1 reply 6 retweets 34 likes
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      28. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        "Going viral" is not an adoption plan. Neither is "SEO / content strategy / AdWords." I would almost prefer "No idea at present at all."

        1 reply 2 retweets 15 likes
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      29. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        If you have a 2-sided asymmetric marketplace, you should probably say which side you're attacking first and what the plan is to fake other.

        1 reply 1 retweet 16 likes
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      30. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        I was remarkably intrigued by companies which had a pitch that was "Remember $NOTORIOUS_FAILURE? It's time to try it again; here's why."

        2 replies 1 retweet 9 likes
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      31. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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        The "Here's why" part of that pitch is really, really important.

        1 reply 0 retweets 10 likes
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      32. 5 more replies

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