With the fall season of cohorts starting, I’m reminded that most founders will be asking of advisors why there is so much emphasis on practicing the elevator pitch. In every cohort I’ve mentored, a founder invariably raises their hand and asks why so much time is spent on the 60 seconds, with a look in their eye that tells you they think it’s a waste of time. Worth noting none of those founders have ever gone on to success. Simply put, what a founder says in 60 seconds or less sends a message about their priorities, their experience, and their focus; as such, in startup programs, that mere 60 seconds is enough to inform experienced advisors what’s wrong and how to help.
Hear me when I say this, pitch practice is NOT about being able to capably pitch as though a successful pitch is what it takes to get funding! The work is a methodology used to help founders reorient their minds to what matters, to focus on issues clearly not yet addressed, and to appreciate that what we say sends a message.
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Founders Failing the Minute: Impressions Make or Break Interest
Walk into any pitch session, coffee meeting, or accelerator interview, and the founder will tell you who they are before they even realize it. Not by their pedigree, not by their deck, not even by their idea but by the way they start talking. First impressions are the diagnostic tool you didn’t know you already use, the leading indicator of what really matters: their experience, their perspective, and their priorities.
Why do I use the idea of a “leading indicator”? In business, that’s a metric that hints at what will come, not what has already happened. Think how you dress for an event or that search engine traffic comes before revenue. In startups, founder first impressions are the same: what they lead with tells you how they think, what they value, and where they’ll trip (or soar) before the market ever has its say.
It dawned on me that since most of you use a script guide a by a blog post or podcast, we tend to hear from your mouth one of the handful of unmistakable tells; I came up with eight ways you open your mouth. Each one screams something about your stage of development, your naiveté or sophistication, and whether we’re talking to a builder, a dreamer, or someone in over their head. Let me explain…
Eight Leading Indicators of a Founder’s First Impression
1. Leading with Lean Startup Terminology
When the first words out of a founder’s mouth are “MVP,” “pivot,” or some sort of validation, you’ve got someone who has read Eric Ries cover-to-cover and wants you to know it. The problem? Lean Startup isn’t a badge, it’s a process. Leading with jargon conveys inexperience dressed up as methodology.
Steve Blank, Ries’s mentor and the godfather of customer development, has warned that founders often “confuse the language with the work” and that throwing around buzzwords is not the same as doing the discovery. He spoke with Joe Lonsdale that, If You’re Not Blowing Stuff Up, You’re Not Innovating!” in a great interview here that offers perspective.
First impression conveys: you want to sound sophisticated but may still be green.
2. Referring to Patents
“Don’t worry, we have a patent.” If that’s your first card, you’ve told me two things: you think defensibility comes from paperwork, and you don’t understand how little patents mean without execution, speed, and market adoption.
Patents aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on unless you have the money to defend them. Seriously, copy that and drop it in Google to see the endless list of articles advising that and why it’s so. Early reliance on patents conveys a corporate perspective rather than a startup one: lawyers first, customers second. I actually got in a heated argument with someone who wouldn’t bring me on as an advisor after I was adamant that their patent was a distraction and misleading (they had a full-time job 7 months later).
First impression conveys: misplaced priorities, corporate mindset.
3. Wanting to Show Your Solution
The laptop comes out, the prototype fires, and you want you to click through the dashboard. Leading with the solution is the biggest rookie tell of all. Startups don’t win by having a solution, you win by solving the right problem.
I’m going to pull my hair out if I’m at another happy hour and one of you pulls out your phone to show me what you’re working on.
As Y Combinator’s Paul Graham has repeatedly conveyed, you want to make something people want but let me add that if you have to show it to me so that I might get it, clearly, I don’t want it.
First impression conveys: obsession with your toy, not the market.
4. Starting with Why
“We believe…” or “The fact is, the way things are done doesn’t work…” is admittedly my approach (but let me explain why that’s not necessarily ideal either). Done well, it can inspire, but when it’s the opening line, it risks suggesting belief is enough and can confuse people about next steps.
Simon Sinek’s Start With Why popularized this idea, but even he notes, “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.” The catch is that people also need to know what problem you solve.
Pitching why, first, isn’t easy but I find its most engaging; somewhere in the magic of the Problem Solution Statement from Lean Startup is an opportunity that should come across as why, as long as you can also be clear about the fact that you’re solving it.
First impression conveys: conviction-driven leader, possibly at risk of confusing narrative for traction.
(and truly, I think if you were to ask my friends where Paul struggles, it’s exactly this strength and weakness)
5. Digging Into Your Personal Experience
“My father struggled with this problem, and I’ve lived it myself.” A founder grounded in lived experience conveys prioritization: you’re solving a pain you know. This is a good thing.
Research backs this up: Saras Sarasvathy’s work on effectuation found that successful entrepreneurs often start with who they are, what they know, and whom they know. Now, be careful, if your personal experience overshadows and even hides the fact that you can’t deliver, your story is a distraction that conveys you’re hoping people will help you.
First impression conveys: empathy, insight, and resilience, though it risks being anecdotal if not supported by ability.
6. Asking a Question Hoping for Affirmation
“What if you could order food with just a tap, wouldn’t that be amazing?” Founders who open by polling the room are telling you they need external validation more than they trust their own data or experience. And yes, I know you have heard countless pitch advisors encourage you start with a question; this is Public Speaking 101 and just because it’s great for a speech doesn’t mean it’s ideal for a pitch.
Reid Hoffman has cautioned founders, “If you ask your friends whether your idea is good, you’ll get false positives. The real test is whether strangers will pay for it.”
More from my experience: where does that leave you if I disagree with the answer you’re hoping to get from your question? I’ve been in more than one awkward when asked a question to which I’ve had to reply, “you know why that won’t work, don’t you?”
First impression conveys: insecurity, reliance on affirmation instead of traction.
7. Needing an NDA or Uncomfortable Sharing Everything
The NDA request is the scarlet letter of inexperience. When you won’t share unless you sign paperwork, you reveal a scarcity mindset.
Brad Feld puts it plainly, “As an entrepreneur, don’t think of this as “arrogance”, think of it as “practicality.” Your friend the VC is actually trying to save you time and money. If you think you have something super-secret that no one else should know, just don’t tell me about it.” Investors see hundreds of ideas; execution is what counts.
I won’t hesitate to share that this is the second example of where I lost an opportunity to work with someone. They thought I was unreasonable that I wouldn’t sign an NDA; their startup disappeared 10 months after our meeting.
First impression conveys: paranoia, lack of collaboration readiness.
8. Starting with the Problem Statement
Let’s get it right out front, even though this is last on my list, almost EVERY incubator, accelerator, and advisor tells you to do this. I think it sucks. This is the elementary school curriculum on how to teach someone to explain their startup. Founders who open with “Here’s the problem” demonstrate both perspective and prioritization and can you guess what this conveys? I don’t care what you think, let me tell you why we’re right.
Obviously, you do have to understand the problem, intimately, and be fixated with solving it. Ash Maurya wrote, “Love the Problem, Not Your Solution,” and he’s not wrong!
But what you need to be careful of is that you are.
Having seen thousands of pitches in rooms full of judges and audience members, I’ve seen the boredom on faces when founders get this wrong; what invariably happens when someone leads with the problem is people think, “I don’t care,” or “I don’t agree,” or “It’s that what that other startup is working on?” Do not start with the problem unless you are certain it is one with which everyone will agree.
First impression conveys: maturity and the right focus unless accompanied by ignorance of the market.
Overcoming Poor First Impressions
You can be forgiven for any of these rookie tells but only if you demonstrate you can overcome them. If you recognize yourself in one of these openings, here’s the antidote:
- Lean jargon? Show what you’ve done, not what you’ve read. Replace “pivot” with a story of how customer discovery changed your product.
- Patents first? Lead instead with traction, partnerships, or customer interest. Then mention IP as a supporting moat.
- Solution demo? Start with the pain. Demo only after the audience asks for it. By the way, the audience asking for could be a sign that you’re pitching out over your skis (if you haven’t actually built it).
- Why talk? Pair it immediately with the market and problem. Vision is powerful, but it must be tethered to reality.
- Personal story? Expand beyond “me” to show how this pain affects millions. Use your story as an entry point, not the whole case.
- Polling the room? Come armed with real data: survey results, conversion metrics, pilot feedback. Replace affirmation-seeking with evidence.
- NDA hangups? Open up. Share generously. Execution and speed are your real defense.
- Problem-first founders? You could be strong here, just don’t forget to close the loop by showing how your solution maps directly to the pain you’ve identified to put to rest doubt or disregard.
The corrective is simple: work on the opposite. Investors don’t expect perfection, but they expect self-awareness. The strongest founders learn to spot their own leading indicators and then flip them into strengths.
What Founder First Impressions Really Tell Us
First impressions aren’t about whether the founder is “good” or “bad.” They’re about where they’re coming from: the books they’ve read, the jobs they’ve had, the priorities they’ve set, the fears they’re telegraphing. Lean jargon screams inexperience; patents whisper misplaced priorities; problem-first framing shouts maturity.
As an investor, advisor, or partner, your job isn’t to dismiss them based on the first tell, but to use that tell as a forecast: Are they ready to build, or still learning what building means? Then, to direct a founder through meaningful advice about the opposite of what they’re conveying.
Leading indicators matter more than the lagging ones. What you show and tell up front conveys where the company ends up.
