(Back of the envelope calculation: Suppose a typical group spends 3 hours filling out investment-application paperwork per investor they're pitching; investors

(Back of the envelope calculation: Suppose a typical group spends 3 hours filling out investment-application paperwork per investor they're pitching; investors take 1 out of every 20 applicants; and a startup wants to take money from 5 investors. Then they've just spent 300 hours -- over a month -- filling out application forms, and it's probably going to be 2 months before they can focus on something other than raising money again.) I don't think it makes sense to say that because investors take 1 out of every 20 applications, a given startup has to pitch 20 investors. The average might, but that isn't necessarily a meaningful number. Some will pitch 1, others will pitch 40 before giving up.