There's things you can get handwavy about with software people, and most first line reviewers would call themselves software people.
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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.
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Imposter syndrome, which I have a deep appreciation for, is a thing that runs wide and deep among entrepreneurs.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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
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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."
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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.
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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.
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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."
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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.
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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."
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The "Here's why" part of that pitch is really, really important.
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If you have more awards than you have customers, that is almost never a positive signal.
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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?
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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.
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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."
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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.
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End of conversation
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