What Investors Say vs. What They Mean
What Investors Say vs. What They Mean
Decoding VC Speak: What Investors Really Mean When They Talk
Yesterday, one of my posts on LinkedIn went viral, so I decided to share it with you as a post here as well.
You can read my linkedin post here you can follow me here on linkedin
Honestly, I never want to call myself a Venture Capitalist.
Half the time, I don’t even understand their jargon in those long conversations.
Most of them come from financial backgrounds, but I ditched my banking career ages ago—those kinds of talks just aren’t my thing.
After talking to so many founders, I’m sure I’ve miscommunicated with quite a few of them.
Over 20 years, I’ve figured out that investors often don’t really say what they mean—they say one thing and mean something entirely different.
So, in true self-defense, I’ve started putting together a list for an Investors' Secret Code Language.
What investors say: “We’d like to stay in touch.”
What they mean: We’re not interested now, but if you start making waves without us, we’ll be back to claim we were supportive all along.
What investors say: “You’re too early for us.”
What they mean: We’re waiting for someone else to take the risk first. If you survive, we’ll consider jumping in when it’s safer.
What investors say: “You need a stronger team.”
What they mean: We’re not confident in your abilities, but we’re not going to help you build the team either. We just want a pre-packaged success story.
What investors say: “Who else is involved in the round?”
What they mean: We need to know if there are bigger names or more knowledgeable investors involved. We’ll drop their names like we’re best friends and slap their logos on our deck.
What investors say: “You should consider bootstrapping.”
What they mean: We prefer if you do all the hard work to prove the concept, then we can swoop in once it’s clear you’ve built something valuable.
What investors say: “We need to see a clear path to revenue.”
What they mean: We’re only interested once you’ve figured out how to make money—why take the risk when you can do the heavy lifting for us?
What investors say: “We need to conduct due diligence.”
What they mean: We’re looking for any reason to back out, or we’re just covering ourselves because we don’t fully understand your business.
What investors say: “Please find a lead investor, and then we can discuss further.”
What they mean: We don’t want to take the first step because we’re unsure, but if someone else does the heavy lifting, we’ll jump in.
What investors say: “We see a lot of potential here.”
What they mean: We see potential, but we’re not knowledgeable enough to judge if it’s worth the risk right now. We’ll wait for more signals.
What investors say: “We’re passing on this opportunity, but it’s more about fit than anything else. We think there’s potential, just not for us right now.”
What they mean: You’re the problem. It’s you.
What investors say: “YES”
What they mean: We’re interested, but don’t pop the champagne yet—we still have a million questions, terms to negotiate, and a deep dive into your business before we actually commit
