Well, if you look at the notes on Reid's site[0], he says > 1. we weren’t the natural leader of a market or technology trend that everyone was paying attention

Well, if you look at the notes on Reid's site[0], he says > 1. we weren’t the natural leader of a market or technology trend that everyone was paying attention to, > 2. we didn’t have substantial organic growth, and > 3. we had no revenue. It sounds like LinkedIn really did need that money. Reid was still able to raise a B round from Greylock probably because he was a known quantity from his PayPal days, and because Sequoia led the A round. The bigger lesson here is that much of the advice given by prominent Silicon Valley investors and entrepreneurs often doesn't apply to the rest of us, because we're not in the positions of privilege that they are. If I were a repeat entrepreneur with a moderately successful exit, a current exec at AmaGooFaceSoft, or participating in YC, I would devour all the advice these people are offering. Otherwise, it's useless. Forget about an actual pitch, you're probably not even going to get a 5 minute phone call with a partner at Greylock. Why would you expend any time or energy on preparing in advance for such an unlikely event? You're much better off spending your time figuring out how to generate and grow revenue and profit (what running a business is actually about). 0: http://reidhoffman.org/linkedin-pitch-to-greylock/ http://reidhoffman.org/linkedin-pitch-to-greylock/