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Last year I was helping a VC friend of mine judge pitches for a pitch deck competition. There was a screening process before a prospective company was allowed to pitch.
There was this one company that everyone seemed to like. During one of the prep sessions, the company’s CTO pitched to us.
I asked a very simple question, “Where’s the CEO?”
The CTO answered, “Oh he’s busy with customers, so he can’t make it.”
I answered, “I see. I assume he will be there for the pitch competition Saturday?”
The CTO said, “No, I’ll be doing the pitch.”
My response was, “Then I am going to recommend that your company doesn’t participate in the competition. We need to hear from the CEO.”
It’s a red flag if you, the CEO, are not front and center when you’re raising money.
I used to believe, before I started pitching VCs, that it was a really good thing to show off the strength of your team. In reality maybe I was a little fearful of being out front.
Then I quickly realized after sitting through tons of pitches as an EIR that there was a really good reason why you have to be front and center when you’re…
