The 10 Pitching Mistakes the World's Best Investor Hates the Most
Date
Nov 8, 2025
Classification
- Startups
#
- Investment/Market Trends
LeanX / leanX, CEO
We help entrepreneurs execute their plans to create products that the world needs.
"The idea is good, but we won't invest." The truth about pitching revealed by an a16z partner
🫑 3-Line Summary
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A16z partner Andrew Lee points out that the cause of pitching failure is not a bad idea, but the founder's wrong attitude, such as verbose explanations and exaggerated numbers.
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Investors place greater trust in "earned insights" gained directly in the field and honest stories of failure than in performances that merely imitate Steve Jobs.
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Instead of the illusion of a "market for everyone," you must delve deeply into a single customer and instantly deliver a "wow moment" using language that even a five-year-old can understand, instead of technical jargon.
🥦 Insight
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Stop the 'perfect acting' and bring out your 'rough sincerity'.
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Sometimes I feel a sense of pity when I watch entrepreneurs on pitching day stage. They strike gestures as if they were Steve Jobs, draw graphs trending 200% upward, and shout, "We have no competitors." However, investors have an uncanny ability to sniff out the anxiety hidden beneath that flashy packaging.
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The most painful piece of advice Andrew Lee gives is "Suck Less." This does not mean you should be perfect. It means you should cut out "messy elements" such as lying (exaggerated numbers), showing off (overusing jargon), and avoiding (changing the subject).
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What investors truly want to buy is not your eloquent speech, but your own "Earned Insight"—the realization that "I rolled the ground myself and discovered these secrets of the market." Open your deck again today. Once you peel back the wrapping, is your genuine "sweat" and "secrets" still inside? Only that raw truth opens an investor's wallet.
— View original —
✍🏻 10 Pitching Mistakes — The Real Reason Investors Won't Tell You
- Based on insights from Andrew Lee (a16z Partner)
Every founder says, "I did a good job pitching."
However, the investor thinks to themselves:
It’s not that the idea is bad. It’s just that it failed to convince me.
Andrew Lee, an a16z partner who has heard countless pitches, says.
Most pitches fail because of the attitude, not the idea.
The following 10 lessons have been reconstructed based on his insights,
These are the 10 mistakes startup pitching made from an investor's perspective .
1️⃣ Do not answer the question — Read the question after the question
An investor's question is not merely a request for information.
They test the founder's mindset.
The true meaning of the question "Who are the competitors?" is "how well you understand the market structure."
For example, if you answer, "We have no competition," that is the end of it.
Instead, say, "The current alternative is this way, and we view this point completely differently."
VCs do not want the right answer.
I want to see your logical structure.
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