Okay, I don’t actually hate sexy, I’m just not into “sexy” businesses. If I’m rolling into a pitch with a pair of shades saying, this is the “hottest new thing - like sex but with computers”, I’ve done something wrong. After working for and with many startups, the things I am most interested in are businesses that don’t ooze sex appeal. I like businesses that enable positive changes or facilitate important aspects of our life.

When you get a warm introduction or have someone pass along your deck, that’s the first chance you get in front of a VC (and possibly the only chance). As a founder, you think, “all they need to see is how awesome my idea is, our business plan, and then it will be inevitable.” There are many websites that tell you the standard slides you need for an investor deck. Problem, solution, opportunity, go to market, business model, financials, tech, timeline, team, competition, ask.

One of the things that baffles me with SQL is how some things make complete sense, but when you apply the same logic, it just doesn’t work. For example: select * from payments where amount > 20; This works and it makes sense that it works. Then you try this: select * from payments where avg(amount); And you get a grouping error. Which makes no sense. Why shouldn’t you be able to make that work?