How to Convince Investors

<img src="http://www.virtumundo.com/images/spacer.gif" height=15 width=1> Want to start a startup?

<img src="http://www.virtumundo.com/images/spacer.gif" height=15 width=1> 想要创业吗？

Get funded by Y Combinator .

获得 Y Combinator 的资助。

</td > August 2013 When people hurt themselves lifting heavy things, it's usually because they try to lift with their back.

</td> 2013 年 8 月 当人们在举起重物时受伤时，通常是因为他们试图用背部举起东西。

The right way to lift heavy things is to let your legs do the work.

举起重物的正确方法是让双腿来完成这项工作。

Inexperienced founders make the same mistake when trying to convince investors.

缺乏经验的创始人在试图说服投资者时也会犯同样的错误。

They try

他们尝试

to convince with their pitch.

用他们的宣传说服。

Most would be better off if they let their startup do the work — if they started by understanding why their startup is worth investing in, then simply explained this well to investors.

如果他们让自己的初创公司来做这项工作，大多数人的情况会更好——如果他们首先了解为什么他们的初创公司值得投资，然后简单地向投资者解释这一点。

Investors are looking for startups that will be very successful.

投资者正在寻找将会非常成功的初创公司。

But that test is not as simple as it sounds.

但这个测试并不像听起来那么简单。

In startups, as in a lot of other domains, the distribution of outcomes follows a power

在初创公司中，就像在许多其他领域一样，结果的分布遵循幂函数

law, but in startups the curve is startlingly steep.

规律，但在初创企业中，曲线陡峭得惊人。

The big successes are so big they dwarf the rest.

巨大的成功是如此巨大，以至于其他的都相形见绌。

And since there are only a handful each year (the conventional wisdom is 15), investors treat "big success" as if it were binary.

由于每年只有少数几个（传统观点是 15 个），投资者将“巨大成功”视为二元的。

Most are interested in you if you seem like you have a chance, however small, of being one of the 15 big successes, and otherwise not.

如果你看起来有机会成为 15 大成功者之一，无论多么小，大多数人都会对你感兴趣，否则就不会。

[ 1 ] (There are a handful of angels who'd be interested in a company

[ 1 ]（有少数天使会对一家公司感兴趣

with a high probability of being moderately successful.

取得适度成功的可能性很高。

But angel investors like big successes too.) How do you seem like you'll be one of the big successes?

但天使投资人也喜欢巨大的成功。）您看起来如何会成为巨大的成功之一？

You need three things: formidable founders, a promising market, and (usually) some evidence of success so far.

你需要三样东西：强大的创始人、有前途的市场以及（通常）迄今为止取得成功的一些证据。

Formidable The most important ingredient is formidable founders.

强大 最重要的因素是强大的创始人。

Most investors decide in the first few minutes whether you seem like a winner or

大多数投资者会在最初几分钟内决定您是否看起来像赢家

a loser, and once their opinion is set it's hard to change.

失败者，一旦他们的观点确定就很难改变。

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