Why Do I Keep Getting NO From Investors?

If you want funding, you need to start with a business that is fundable.  Ask any serious advisor or investor and you will get an absolute truth: 99% of the ideas as they come are NOT fundable.

From here you have only three choices. One is not so smart. The other two are just fine.

1) The not so smart one is to insist that your idea is fundable and spend your time pitching it around. All you will get is NO. Sometimes polite NO. Sometimes insulting NO. This will result in a bruised ego and wasted time, wasted energy, wasted resources, wasted runway.

The two better choices are:

1) Develop your business to a fundable stage. Sometimes that will mean a pivot.  Sometimes, positioning for a different market. Sometimes, you’ll need to scratch the whole idea and start with a better one. There are a lot of things that can be done if you are determined to create a fundable business.

Or,

2) Simply accept that your idea is not fundable, at least for now, and get going by selling to customers.

The last two choices are both good choices and we can definitely work with you on either of them. I can give you more concrete feedback on your specific idea and situation if you come and discuss at one of my Free 1M/1M Public Roundtables.

Addendum: A venture fundable business, in its simplest form is one that scales exponentially to a billion dollar level. There are other nuances like defensibility of the IP, subjective issues like whether the investors consider the founder 'fundable', but the TAM (Total Available Market) needs to be very large, and the growth rate needs to show a hockey stick. 99% of the businesses out there fail to meet these requirements, and hence, are not fundable.

Looking For Some Hands-On Advice?

I receive many emails from entrepreneurs who want to discuss their specific businesses. I’m very happy to discuss your situation during my free online 1M/1M Roundtables, held almost every Thursday. During each roundtable, up to five entrepreneurs can pitch their businesses and receive my immediate and straightforward feedback.

To give entrepreneurs all over the world access to Silicon Valley’s knowledge, methodology, and network, I founded the One Million by One Million (1M/1M) global virtual incubator. 1M/1M aims to nurture a million entrepreneurs to reach a million dollars each in annual revenue and beyond, thereby creating a trillion dollars in global GDP and ten million jobs.

For those still testing the waters of entrepreneurship, I’ve written my Entrepreneur Journeys book series to inform and inspire. My newest book, Billion Dollar Unicorns, is now available from Amazon.

If you are interested in entrepreneurship topics and my writings, you can follow me here. I hope to publish articles on LinkedIn every week.

Photo credit: sboneham/Flickr.com.