The other day I sat in on an angel investor screening where two entrepreneurs were pitching their businesses for capital.  If you ever get the opportunity to do that you should, because it’s a great learning experience.  As many times as I’ve heard people pitch their businesses and as many times as I’ve coached people in their preparation to pitch, I always either learned something new or reminded myself of something I had forgotten.  This session was an eye opener.  One entrepreneur was an experienced angel investor with an interesting Internet concept; the other was a young entrepreneur with an existing Internet business looking for capital to grow faster.  Now who do you think would do the best pitch?

Well, I thought that the angel investor would; he had certainly critiqued a ton of pitches over time and knew exactly what the angels were looking for because he was one of them!  Boy, was I wrong.  He made very mistake in the book.  You know the old saying that “the plumber’s sink is always plugged.”  Well, apparently that goes for angel investors as well.  His first mistake was claiming that his technology was too complex and difficult to explain in layperson's terms. Give me a break!  There is no technology on the planet that can’t be explained so that even your grandmother could understand it.  And the second mistake was that he spent way too much time on the technology and not enough on the business model. Investors hate that.  They want to get the concept right away and then spend more time on the market and how you’re going to make money for them.  Wrap up these mistakes in a blanket of arrogance and you’ve got the makings of a turn-down by the angels.  Lesson learned: what you know can hurt you…