If they say anything similar to a ‘its not you its me’ / kicking the can down the road, thats code for ‘not currently interested’. basically they’ll never ever give you a hard no (unless you really pissed them off) instead, they’ll always wait and see. so don’t take that soft rejection negatively, instead move to the next VC (and take the feedback and improve your business)

talk about the business, how it will grow, how it will make money, and the evidence you have to support your assumptions. talk about the size of the market, support with evidence for this, and talk about how you will approach capturing your share of it.

dont be fooled by ‘startup land’ and sharktank… ultimately VCs are lenders, like banks so this is all about how they will get their return

I do financial modeling/consulting for startups seeking VC funding. The thing I would stress is having clear financial projections to present. No fancy BS. Show them know how you make money and projections for 5 years out. Also, when building your assumptions for said projections, make sure they are defendable to some degree. You can’t go up there and say my growth rate is going to be 25% year-over-year because I think that’s what we can do. Do your research so you can defend everything you’re telling them.

Here’s a tip, once you get a term sheet tell everyone you met with because now you’re in demand. You might get better terms by shopping it around to the “soft no” folks.

Good luck op!

Looking forward for more insights. Next to next week I’m gonna meet with my first investor