5 Things I Can't Believe Founders Still Say in Their Pitches

1. "We don't have any competitors."

Every company has competitors. If nobody is building what you're building, your real competitor is the spreadsheet, the intern, or the customer doing nothing. Doing nothing wins more deals than any startup.

When I ran Henson Group, we competed with thousands of Microsoft partners around the world. I never hid that. I walked into rooms and said, here's who else you could hire, and here's why we win.

When a founder says there's no competition, I hear one of two things. Either there's no market, or they haven't looked.

Name your competitors. Then tell me why you beat them.

2. "If we get just 1% of the market..."

Nobody gets 1% of a $50 billion market by accident. That math is a wish, not a plan.

I don't care about the top of a funnel you'll never reach. I care about your first 100 customers. Who are they? Where do they live? What did the last ten cost you?

Bottom-up beats top-down every time. Show me the customers you have, what they pay, and how you find more. I'll do the multiplication myself.

3. "Our projections are conservative."

They're not. Nobody's are.

I have never seen a hockey stick play out on schedule. Neither has any investor you're pitching.

Calling your forecast conservative doesn't make it credible. It makes you sound like you don't know it isn't. Show me the assumptions instead: conversion rate, sales cycle, churn. Honest assumptions on a modest curve beat a fantasy labeled safe.

4. "We've got a lot of investor interest."

If you did, you wouldn't need to tell me.

Real momentum shows up as a lead investor, a committed amount, and a close date. "Interest" is investors being polite. Every founder who says it is trying to manufacture urgency, and every investor knows it.

Urgency comes from traction, not from hinting that someone else might say yes.

5. "We're focused on growth now. We'll monetize later."

This is the one that worries me most.

Free users tell you people will use something. Paying customers tell you people value it. Those are two different companies. The moment you put a price in front of someone, behavior changes. Plenty of products with thousands of happy free users collapse the day they ask for a card.

I self-funded SocialPost.ai to 5,000 users before we raised from venture capital. Self-funding forces a simple rule: if nobody pays, you don't survive. Today the company is venture-backed and profitable. Revenue was never a later problem. Revenue was the proof.

At Henson Venture Partners, one of our gates is $1,000 in monthly recurring revenue or 100 customers. Not because $1,000 is a lot of money. Because it proves someone opened their wallet.

Charge something. Even a little. Then you have evidence instead of hope.

Why founders keep saying this stuff

Fear. Fear that competition makes them look small. Fear that the real numbers aren't big enough. Fear that nobody will pay.

Investors don't need you to be big. They need you to be honest and moving.

Swap every one of these lines for a fact. Your competitors and why you win. Your real customers and what they pay. Your assumptions, not your adjectives.

That's the pitch. Nothing else.