“Venture capitalists are simple people: we’ve either decided to invest, and we are convincing ourselves that our gut is right (aka, ‘due diligence’) or there’s not a chance in hell. While we may be simple, we’re not necessarily forthcoming, so if you think it’s hard to get a ‘yes’ out of venture capitalist, you should try to get a conclusive ‘no.’”

“(Since I’ve antagonized the venture capital community with last week’s blog, I thought I would complete the picture and ‘out’ entrepreneurs to begin this week. The hard part about writing this blog was narrowing down these lies to ten.) I get pitched dozens of times every year, and every pitch contains at least three or four of these lies. I provide them not because I believe I can increase the level of honesty of entrepreneurs as much as to help entrepreneurs come up with new lies. At least new lies indicate a modicum of creativity!”