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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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    1. 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:

      4 replies 61 retweets 259 likes
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    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
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    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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      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

      8:32 AM - 18 Sep 2017
      • 7 Retweets
      • 24 Likes
      • Jordan Campbell Eli Courtwright Chad Chabot Clayton Brand Tristan Harward Gilad Naor AndyDentPerth Esteban K – 🦀⚙️@home Jim Gray
      2 replies 7 retweets 24 likes
        1. New conversation
        2. 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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        3. 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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        4. 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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        5. 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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        6. 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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        7. 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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        8. 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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        9. 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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        10. 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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        11. 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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        12. 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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        13. 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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        14. 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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        15. 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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        16. 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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        17. 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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        18. 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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        19. 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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        20. 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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        21. 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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        22. 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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        23. 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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        24. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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          If you have more awards than you have customers, that is almost never a positive signal.

          1 reply 2 retweets 27 likes
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        25. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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          The company won a pitch competition? I, too, enjoy fantasy roleplaying. Do we also share a mutual interest in running businesses IRL?

          1 reply 11 retweets 42 likes
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        26. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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          A lot of pitches include far more detail on how the company is positioned vs $COMPANY_NO_ONE_USES versus how it plans to get anyone to care.

          1 reply 0 retweets 11 likes
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        27. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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          If you're in machine learning/blockchains there are quick handshakes available to convey "No, really, I have actually worked in this field."

          1 reply 1 retweet 14 likes
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        28. Patrick McKenzie‏ @patio11 18 Sep 2017
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          That is a pretty important thing to do; the "hotter" a space is perceived to be, the lower quality the median pitch in it was.

          0 replies 2 retweets 14 likes
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        29. End of conversation

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