How do you deal with investor rejection?

Samofalov Aleksey QA Specialist at Luxoft

March 8th, 2017

Part of the fundraising process is having a robust pipeline of folks that you can tap into for funding.

I watched the other day on a webinar from Adeo Ressi (Founder Institute)that on average it takes about 100 investor meetings to get to one investment.

With so many rejections on the way, how do you keep yourself in good spirits to keep going in order to get that single investment after 99 rejections?

Giorgio Serbanescu Serial Entrepreneur Looking For Business Partner

March 9th, 2017

I beg to recommended if you have not seen the movie "The Founder"

John Bilicki III Able to dramatically improve the entire landscape of the web with the right business connections.

March 8th, 2017

That is entirely subjective to the context of your business, most importantly consumer reaction which is subjective to how necessary and useful your product and/or service is which in and of itself is subjective to the effectiveness of your marketing messages which itself is subjective to whether or not you're marketing towards the markets that have the money and need which is subjective to such crowds existing to begin with. Break one link in that chain and even if you have the best thing since sliced bread and you'll need to correct it well enough for the right investor(s) to at least give you a fighting chance which is subjective to doing the right presentation in front of the right investor(s).

Then there is the opposite side: you could be doing everything in that chain correctly but no one needs or even wants your product or service. Just because you think it's cool doesn't imply that others do, or need or even want it. One of the most critical skills an entrepreneur can have is objectivity. If you really have something worth enough people's time and you know this objectively then the first paragraph truly applies. If you don't then the objective person will either readjust course if it's even a possibility or abandon ship quickly and find something worthwhile to invest their time on instead.

So in short if you really, truly and most importantly objectively have something that really stands out among the existing peers, is truly useful or at least a highly desirable want keep pressing on and correct the chink in your chain. If you don't learn to let go and at least gain a healthy dose of objectivism.

Dane Madsen Organizational and Operational Strategy Consultant

March 8th, 2017

The 100:1 is false. It can be way more or way less. As mentioned it is about your business. Most never get funded. While some investors say "it's the jockey not the horse" it's both. You can have a great idea and they are not convinced you can execute. You need to know why they reject you to reform your approach. Then you pull on your adult-pants and make more calls. If you are discouraged by investor rejection, you will not survive.

Jerry Prendergast Prendergast & Associates

March 8th, 2017

I have company that puts together RESTAURANT PROJECTS.. rejection is what it is all about.. I try to learn something about my pitch from EVERY rejection... what did we not cover.. .where did we not outline correctly... what team member was wrong... so may things you can learn from rejection... it is the best learning experience.. .


March 9th, 2017

The need for serious funding is already a tell-tale sign of founder laziness or possibly ineptitude. A founder should work harder on establishing why he does NOT need outside funding. The fact that he does, pretty much defeats the object. Unless you are a developer yourself, you should probably not try to do a startup of which the essential effort is the construction of software. It almost never works. Therefore, don't spend on automating, or on a development team, if you can start up by profitably doing things manually first. Since you would already be making money, where would be the urgent need for investors?