10 reasons for a failed pitch

QIWI Universe project manager Lyosha Barinsky told
about the main mistakes that young entrepreneurs make,
presenting your project to an investor.


Hello.
Creating QIWI Universe, we not only sought to create an environment that would teach other people, but also gained an incredible experience. We were faced with things that were not even supposed to exist, and vice versa, we failed in what seemed to be one hundred percent. In general, it was really cool. Most of the discoveries for me happened during the selection of projects that we wanted to offer to participate in our accelerator. In the initial funnel there were about 500 teams (a terrific figure, in fact), a little more than 3% reached the final, the accelerator itself, in the end, only 12 projects hit. As I got acquainted with entrepreneurs, I had formed some patterns that I would like to share. This is all, of course, the subjective conclusions without claims to the truth in extreme instances, however, many of my colleagues expressed roughly similar thoughts, so this, at least, is worth considering. So,
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10 reasons for a failed pitch

1. Can not explain the idea
However absurd it may sound, this is the most common reason for refusing to participate in a project. In my opinion, most often the guys themselves did not fully understand what they were doing, at least the request to describe the service in one sentence was often confusing. The second most popular problem was to try to explain all possible uses of the product and, as a result, we felt completely entangled in this event tree.

2. Solves mythical problems
Perhaps there is a problem in my own narrow-mindedness, but I believe that our (investors and entrepreneurs) task is to improve people's lives by solving their immediate problems. Then from all sides it turns out honestly and harmoniously. But more often (apparently because it’s so much simpler), I saw attempts to invent another way to withdraw the remaining cash from a poor person, already “served” by hundreds of other services. Another loyalty program? I would rather pay to get rid of the obsessive presence in my life of a dozen alternative programs, and not for creating another one. I'm not saying that these are useless attempts, I am sure that some of these products can really be put in, I just don’t want to participate in them.

3. Another Foursquare
It seems to me that there is no need to tell something in addition, the majority will understand what this is about. In words / phrases “coupon service”, “geo-positioning”, “gamification”, “targeted advertising”, etc. (sometimes all in one service) began to twitch eyes. Personally, I would like to see more not the “Application-Under-Mobile-Platform”, but the “Replacement-Mobile-Platform”, since this is the whole point of venture entrepreneurship, I would like to finance such bold and breakthrough ideas.

4. Battle for $ 10,000
I'm not saying that 10,000 is not enough, bad or something, we just play different games. Interestingly, some people consciously chose this (conditionally) reference point, this is absolutely normal, they just need a completely different investor, not us. More often, we have seen some fantastic figure in the model, but even a rough approach to the projectile with a calculator and common sense did not leave any chances even for hundredths of a percent.

5. Screaming robots
I will explain the picture:


6. Weak team
I sincerely believe that having a vision and strong people are two of the only prerequisites for success, all the rest is thingies. Worse than a weak team can only be trying to pass it off as a strong one, instead of gathering the right fighters.

7. Very bad presentation
Now I’m not talking about PP, I’m talking about how a person talks about what the next few years of work, health, strength and money are going to put on. It is terribly sad when a person gloomily shrinks mumbles about a case that he considers important, because at this moment absolutely all importance is lost. I always think that during the pitch session we are with the project on one side of the barricades, and it is hard for me to listen to him, and what will happen when he goes to negotiate with partners / clients? Yes, you can hire a talking head, so what is not hired? Or for me, and so come down? Well, well, with this approach, we are definitely not on the road.

8. Unwillingness to share risks
Strangely enough, but many sincerely believed that all risks should be borne by the investor, not the entrepreneur. It’s funny that I’m being “sold” to the opportunity to participate in the business, which next year will cost ten million, but its founder is not ready to quit his current job, on which he earns five thousand.

9. Emotional incompatibility
The most controversial point is, because it is farther from the rest from objectivity, but thinking that we and the team live for several months, I very carefully evaluated this part of the project. Recently there was a poll from Rusbeys, supposedly, what to do if the project’s founder is not a good person? Everything is simple for me, I always openly say that we do not coincide in our views on things that are fundamental to me, so nothing good will come of this cooperation. Although sometimes I want to say much tougher.

10. Urban Crazy
The smallest group, but the emergence of such projects is always a breath of fresh air and a handful of vigor. I love all these microchip blockers that implant intelligence services into our heads, alien recognition systems, and so on. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the heart to invest in them, although it seems to me that the effect of the viral spread of such a topic would repeatedly cover the cost of investment. Apparently, you have to be bolder.

In conclusion, I want to say that in the course of selection I was convinced ten times in the importance of the QIWI Universe, because from the development point of view, we (I’m talking about the whole market) are at the very beginning of the path and it is desirable for us not to linger in it.