Stupid Questions VCs Ask

Tuesday, October 5th, 2010

Erick Schonfeld is the Editor in Chief of TechCrunch. He oversees the editorial content of the site, helps to program the Disrupt conferences and CrunchUps, produces TCTV shows, and writes daily for the blog. He is also the father of three adorable children. He joined TechCrunch as Co-Editor in 2007, and helped take it from a popular... → Learn More

Raising money is never fun for entrepreneurs. It takes a lot of time and distracts them from actually building their business. But perhaps worst of all, they have to answer all the same stupid questions over and over again with every pitch they make. This parody video on fundraising captures the essence of that frustration every entrepreneur feels. It is in the same style as “I Will Honor The Embargo.” Some of the language is NSFW, so put your earphones on.

The entrepreneur character in the video, who is supposed to be a Y Combinator founder, has a surefire business that will become “sushi-profitable” in no time. He has “built a machine that turns dogshit into a gold.” Yet the VC still has a bunch of questions:

Q: How many users do you have?

A: Users? This machine prints money. We don’t have any users.

Q: So you don’t have any traction yet?

A: The machine works. I can prove it to you.

Q: Who else has invested?

A: No one yet, you are the first person we talked to.

Q: Did Sequoia pass?

A: No, we didn’t speak with them.

Q: Why did Sequoia pass?

……

Q: What about distribution? Is it viral? Does it integrate with Facebook?

A: No it does not. We don’t want anyone to know about it.”

Q: This seems like a feature more than a product

A: Yes, a feature that can generate enormous wealth.

Q: What if Google did it?

Of course, the investor ends up passing, but asks about the other startups in his Y Combinator class.

(Hat tip to David King)

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