What was guy kawasaki wrong about

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Oursky Follow. Guy Kawasaki — former chief evangelist of Apple, current chief evangelist of Canva and Mercedes-Benz brand ambassador. Oursky Team We Develop for Developers. Oursky Team Follow. Written by Oursky Follow. More From Medium. Syed Khizar Ul Haq. Loka wants to be the antidote to dystopia fatigue. Mesh Lakhani in Startup Grind. When Guy Kawasaki used to be a venture capitalist, he heard tons of pitches. As he shared in his book Wise Guy , pretty much every entrepreneur who pitched him would talk about how "curve-jumping" and "highly-scalable" their product was.

Obviously, they were trying to impress him. But Kawasaki isn't a big fan of these empty adjectives and buzzwords, noting that "unless you're saying something different from the competition, you're basically saying nothing. So, how do you make your pitch stand out?

Stop using meaningless adjectives, and tell stories instead. Here's an example: when Guy Kawasaki pitched Privy -- an app that helps people share memories -- to journalists, he showed these journalists how his own family used the app to share the moments that were meaningful to them.

Gates never begged anybody for cash. And 8 made me laugh loud and long. People forget that Are entrepreneurs that stupid or are they being led down some garden path by advisors who get paid each time the VCs door is opened?

I like the list. I wish I had thought of a few of those when trying to start my company. I think sometimes though like me the entrepreneur might not know how to do it right. Perhaps he is rushing into the business because he thinks he has a great idea or something, full of naivete. Useful post that can be argued forever. Entrepreneur would not lie. He is just trying to meet criterias set by VC. May be, it would be worth re-consider the criterias and VCs put themselves into entrepreneur shoes.

Heard many of ten lies and probably said some of the ten too. Of course we improved our speech as long as we had been talking to one and other company, but we never use Gartner forecasts as it is. We read the forecasts and confront it with the reality we lived when visiting clients and partners. Sounds like the only way not be associated with BS is not to play the game or change the rules.

I am so guilty of every single item on the list. Lesson learnt: We have no time to raise funds, we have to sales to do! Sell Sell Sell! Good stuff — enough to scare me off at this point and work my idea myself. This is outrageously funny. The problem, as usual, is with the system. I think many items in the list are wrong.

For example, If you invented cure for AIDS and can prove it beyond any doubt, you can be pretty safely say number-5 and number Likewise, you could patent the cure.

Then you could say Patents are basis for most big drug companies to recover their huge investments. As per-8, look at the statistics; what are the odds of next great invention coming from any one of them i. BIG companies like Microsoft or Oracle? Buy the way; I am an entrepreneur working on one such invention for three years full time. I am going to say, if I strongly believe that is true. I will be announcing my technologies in few weeks as soon as my layer finish failing my latest patent.

Amuzing way to state the facts. It is imperitive to know what you are trying to accomplish and tell you investors exactly where you stand.

I have found that I get a lot more respect from my investors when I simply open up and am honest with them. Good point with this article. Am I to believe that all the time, research, diligence, effort, experience, work, sacrifice, money, creative thought, analysis, sleepless nights, and pure passion my team and I have poured into our start-up venture are viewed by the venture community as merely hyperbole and inflated projections?

I have never encountered such a concentration of arrogance. Not every start-up is two guys in a garage with a dog, a Power Point deck and a set of projections. Sure entrepreneurs exaggerate, but how else can one stand out from the extraordinarily crowded field of start-ups seeking funding.

I am relatively new to the process of seeking venture funding, and YES we have stated some variation of a few of the claims considered LIES by Guy and the others. As an entrepreneur, all I am looking for is a qualified audience for our pitch.

If you do not believe our business proposition is viable after you have invested the time to hear our pitch, that is your prerogative. You have the money. We only have the idea and the research to back it up.

You know it and we know it. Think of it as a commercial. Does a Gillete Sensor razor really work as advertised? Can the Jeep that drives effortlessly through the Alaskan Tundra really do that? Come on guys, keep it in perspective. What sales process is completely honest? Tell me? What kind of approach do you think works well? Nor the week after. Thanks for the laugh!

I have four simple comments. On average they get business plans a year, maybe they invite in or so for presentations, and they make maybe investments. If it were not , Google may never get funded. These guys are too lazy and incompetent to validate the proof. The Silicon Valley venture crowed never going to fund next great technological break through e. Name one such funding is the past 20 years? They hire even more incompetent consultants to evaluate the breakthrough technology.

Even, if they are convinced that it works and technology is revolutionary, instead of appreciating the invention and try to help them, they would say Microsoft or some big company steels their technology and kills them. The patents are useless and give an example of how Microsoft crushed some small company, you never heard about who owns some submarine patents. These guys are clueless about Patents. There are good genuine inventions unique revolutionary breakthroughs that are easy to defend and there are submarine patents or incremental improvements in a crowded area that are hard to defend , but think know every thing by just reading an article in Mercury news.

If they have a bit commonsense, we would have solutions for many problems, such as, power-crisis e. The MBA bozos are too busy calling the real technologists Liers, instead knowing his passion for technology and lack of conning skills of an MBA. My suggestion to technology inventors, do it yourself if you can. Only an MBA bozo, who speaks their lingo and con them would get funded. Most VC only like to see the big sure returns and then call you a Liar.

If by chance, if your technology becomes successful, they will take all the credit. Your 10 points make absolutely perfect sense. However, what the above fails to address is, why do people feel that they have to exagerate or downright lie to get invesments? Could it be that VC themselves have something to do with it? Great writing, Guy. These lies are also perpetuated and retold to potential employees in hiring and to customers and partners when selling.

Do a series on lies acquirers tell their target acquisition. They are very similar. It is easy to diss entrepreneurs for their unrealistic projections. But if projections are always exaggerated, why do investors insist on seeing them. You are forcing us to, in some cases, pay for market studies that we cannot afford, to prove that a market exists.

It is also not fair to call them lies. Unrealistic, overly enthusiasic, perhaps. Your subsequent record is mediocre at best. You really should not criticize entrepreneurs and reduce their enthusiasm to dishonesty. No, but I turn up for speaking gigs at all the big conferences anyway. Lie or delusion number 11 can be the undoing of a venture heading into the China market.

This weak minded type of analysis totally overlooks the time, expense and difficulty of execution. Its all about the execution. This might apply to a start up or can equally apply to ventures entering the China market with an established brand, product or service. Doing that in any market will kill you, especially China. One of my purposes in writing is to deal with the hype that is endlessly being thrown the way of the business community out there. Anytime I find anything helpful I will throw it your way.

Great post Guy. One of my concerns for years, in business and investing is the promises and hype that is made and promoted at the expense of the recipient. Bona tempora volvantur—by Guy Kawasaki: 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 he….

I really enjoyed the 14 year old kid who invented a portable…. Most ideas are crazy but some are very cool. I really enjoyed the 14 year old kid who invented a…. I landed here from sugarbank of all places! There is no real VC in adult because everything should be making money right out of the gate. What are the odds that any of the people that NEED your money can actually hit it big?

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