Dear SaaStr: What’s It Like Being Beaten Up by Investors?
It’s a gift, if you view it in the right context.
First, don’t take it personally.
Everyone that is smart can be tough critic. Everyone with a High IQ that’s been in tech a while can come up with 10-20 reasons why you will fail.
In fact, the criticism itself probably won’t even be remotely useful, because if you’ve done your homework … you’ve heard it all before.
What is valuable is hearing the criticism as objections.
If you’ve been in sales before, you know, you always get objections from prospects. It’s just part of sales. And the key to increasing your close rate is knowing the objections cold, and having thoughtful answers, solutions, or at least, potential solutions in the future.
VCs will judge you as much by your answers to the criticisms as the criticisms themselves. The best founders have already thought through all of them and have either a plan to attack them, or strong reasons to challenge them.
For example, I recently sat through a pitch where the VCs beat up the founder of a browser-centric product for not having a native mobile app. His response? “Yes, we already built one for iOS and Android. But as a compliance application, we found that at least for today, it decreased compliance when the end user had to download the app. Once we get further down the road, we’ll release the app.” Right or wrong, it was a thoughtful response.
Arm yourself with the Top 10 Objections you’ll get, and then when you finally have the right meeting with the right VC — you’ll just nail it.
