[Fundraising for Startups] Lesson 14: Shark Tank is not real life.

Say it with me y'all...

👏🏼SHARK.👏🏼TANK.👏🏼IS.👏🏼NOT.👏🏼REAL.👏🏼LIFE.

It kills me when the conversation is going so well... and then the entrepreneur drops this little gem into the mix.

"Yeah, so we're raising $X for Y% of the company."

NO ONE TALKS LIKE THAT IN REAL LIFE.

If you're raising money, just talk like a normal human being.

"OK, so we're raising $X and that'll give us 18 months of runway. We should be able to hit [MILESTONE] in half that time."

That's it. Nothing special. Just be relatable. Have a discussion. See where it goes.

-P

P.S. Investors are not gatekeepers anymore. Not in your small town, not in Silicon Valley and certainly not anywhere else. When I started investing in early stage technology companies in 2008, you could count the most active firms on two hands. In 2017, there are hundreds of venture firms across the planet. Take advantage of it.