Startups and Investing

The Founder’s Vision Trap: Why Culture Beats Tech Every Time

It starts, as these stories often do, with a bold vision.

A founder has an idea — one they’re convinced is going to change the game. It’s innovative. Disruptive. The kind of idea that turns heads and opens investor checkbooks. Before long, there’s money in the bank, a team in place, and the runway to bring this vision to life.

From the founder’s perspective, the stars are aligning. The idea has been validated — after all, someone just put money behind it. Now it’s just a matter of execution.

But this is where things often go wrong.

Why VCs Say No: The Real Reasons Behind the Rejections

When a VC passes on your startup, it often feels personal. But in reality, most rejections come down to patterns they’ve seen before. Sure, some decisions hinge on chemistry or a gut feel, but most are rooted in a rational (if sometimes unspoken) assessment of risk and return.

That said, storytelling still matters—a lot. Founders often fail to tell the right story. You need to make your vision clear and believable, your momentum feel part of a deliberate and executable plan, and your success feel inevitable. VCs see dozens of decks a month, many tackling similar problems. Your job is to make yours stand out.

Here are the most common reasons why investors pass, grouped into themes they’re evaluating in every pitch.

The Top 10 Practical Startup Books Every Growth-Obsessed Founder Should Own

What Startup Founders Get Wrong When Raising Money (and How to Fix It)

As a Venture Partner at a VC fund, I've reviewed hundreds of pitch decks in my time. In fact most funds will receive thousands of decks a year, with only a small fraction leading to conversations and even fewer resulting in investments. With those kinds of odds, your pitch deck needs to be exceptional - think 8 or 9 out of 10 - to stand out.

How and Why I Chose to Self-Publish The Growth Equation

Back in 2005, I wrote my first book—and learned the hard way why traditional publishing isn’t for everyone. The book, one of the first on CSS design, was published with Apress and turned out well, but the experience of working with the publisher was anything but fun.

Escalating Commitment to a Losing Strategy - Why Founders Refuse to Quit

As a startup founder, shutting down your business will be one of the hardest decisions you'll ever have to make. However sometimes it's also the smartest option. Especially if you're able to close things down gracefully, give folks a good severance package and potentially return some unused funds to investors; not to mention gaining back some valuable time. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs refuse to admit defeat and keep pouring resources into a failing endeavour. The tendency for people to double down in the face of growing negative evidence is known in behavioural psychology as "escalating commitment to a losing strategy". In this short article I highlight a few of the common cognitive biases that help make this happen.