Young entrepreneurs often confuse investment with validation. This leads to a lot of frustration towards investors passing on what seems like the most promising opportunities (especially if the opportunity is yours..). From the investor’s perspective though, investment is an elimination game, there are a lot of good (and some bad) opportunities at any given point. Supply (of ventures) always exceeds demand (actual investments) because at the end of the day, time is finite and that is the most demanding resource technology ventures require.

What makes this even more frustrating is that rarely do investors give you back direct feedback to explain their decision. Both because they don’t like to tell you they made an intuitive decision and because they always want to leave the door open that you will come back to them again next round after you have proven your ideas.

So you have the next Google (you also traveled to the future to know that, but can’t share that with anyone) and investors are still passing on your superb venture. Why is that?

It’s not the idea, it’s you:

1. You seem flaky – Many would say that the most important indicator for entrepreneur’s likelihood of success is persistence. Through conversation, you come off as someone that has started too many ventures (most of which are still floating in space with no decisive end), someone that  hops jobs every year or even shows a blurry personal past. If there is any doubt you will abandon ship as soon as you hit some rough waters or the novelty wears off, you will not get any funding.

2. You understand the technology but not the business – you are the world’s top specialist on nuclear toilets  so no one dares question your techiness.  Selling your future product? marketing and sales is for that sleazy looking guy you will not need to hire because you hear that voice in your head saying that if you built it,they will come. Guess what, they hardly ever do. Yes, Twitter has yet to come up with a business plan but that will not excuse you from being to show how you will approach your first 5 and 100 customers.

3. You hear, but you  don’t listen – “if you ask for money, you will probably get advice. if you ask for advice, you might get money”. The instinct of most young entrepreneur is to show how bullet proof is their venture and ideally answer any question before it’s being asked. Reality is different, most investors are terrified of entrepreneurs who lack the ability to listen to what they might have to say. If this is how the entrepreneur behaves before he gets the money, how much advice will he be willing to take after the investment?  While investors who know not what they are saying exist, most have seen a thing or two already and might have some good advice to share. If it’s too much to actually listen and absorb, at least pretend.

It’s not the idea or you, it’s them:

4. They already invested in the space and got burned/ haven’t seen any return yet – if they already invested 50 million in the previous generation of nuclear toilets and haven’t seen any returns, the likelihood of them putting another 3 million into your multi-generation leaping nuclear toilet are slim. Not only they would be adhering to a Pavlovian instinct, but it would be very hard for them to explain it to their partners and investors.

5. They don’t know the space and don’t care to know it – You are pitching your nuclear toilet to a private investor or a VC that specializes in e-commerce. That friendly face they are making is the result of years of practice in the art of pretense. Most investors (more so on the professional side) have areas they have some knowledge or experience with and breaching that comfort zone would take a lot more convincing (or strong conviction in you as an entrepreneur).

6. They don’t have the funds or the authority to give it to you – Investors without money don’t tend to publicize their “delicate” situation so make sure you are barking at the right tree. Both VCs and private investors can be in situations where they have already invested the allocated sums and are in no position to do another investment. Find out about recent activities to understand their current situation. Even more confusing is pitching to a person who represents a top-tier VC but doesn’t really have the authority to get a deal approved. They found you, they called you, they love what you are doing, everyone is psyched and a week later the tone has changed and things are dragging. What happened? the person pitched the idea in the firm’s weekly meeting and got shut down. not much more you can do here but figure out the situation and cut your losses.

so what can you do to avoid the frustration following such scenarios? :

1. Get a messenger – while an investor would rarely tell you some of the above reasons in person, they might be more direct when telling it to a 3rd party who can convey the message to you.

2. Understand the game – It’s hard but you have to realize that it’s not a validation game, it’s a numbers game. The more validated your venture is, the higher the ratio of investors who would want to invest. Try to minimize the amount of “hatin’ ” from your side, it will just consume resource needed elsewhere.

3. UI improvement – Work on your user interface, not just the pitch – lovely presentation , great content but the person delivering it … there’s just something wrong about him.. work with someone you trust to give you honest feedback about how you dress, talk and walk.

If nothing else, at least you can use the above as good excuses to overcome rejection.

Happy hunting!