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Be yourself. Abnormal people create abnormal returns.
- karamazov 15y agoBetween recording videos and meeting with a more people than I'm used to, I'm now paying more attention to what I wear. I tend to dress formally when meeting people in a formal setting - I find that it impacts my mindset in a positive way. Interacting with people, tooling, and relaxing in the same clothing is like working in your bedroom; it blurs boundaries between different contexts. By dressing for the occasion, I can delineate my behavior appropriately. That being said, I wouldn't go to a meeting in something uncomfortable; a suit to talk to investors feels like overkill.
- ValG 15y agoExcellent points, but it never hurts to clean up a little bit. Remember, people make their first impression of you within the first 30 seconds of meeting you, in the case of a pitch, that first 30 seconds may be before you even say anything (setting up the presentation)... What do they have to go on? Your body language and your appearance... If they write you off as just another hacker that doesn't understand the business aspect of a start-up, you're not doing any favors. Maybe the answer is to have a balance of founders (as I think most people recommend anyways). Have the technical guys clean up a bit but still have their personalities shine, and the non-technical look sharp. That way you can represent a balanced team; the dreamers and the realists together.
- gruseom 15y agoIf they write you off as just another hacker that doesn't understand the business aspect of a start-up, you're not doing any favors. Oh yes you are. You just avoided a bad investor.
- ValG 15y agoHow so? All you've done for yourself is create a hill you have to climb to right from the beginning. Investors, like founders, often have tight schedules and little time to make decisions. They have to make their decisions quickly, because they have 100 other people clambering to meet with them on getting their investments. You can't blame them if they write you off b/c you couldn't take the 1/2 hour before the meeting to freshen up... Plus, in the start-up community it may seem to be more "acceptable" to dress casually for an important investor meeting that could change the trajectory of your company and maybe even destroy it, (sounds ludicrous when I say it that way), but in the public perception that is unacceptable. The goals for many companies is the get mass appeal and adoption, and if you're going to play the part of the founder/ceo/face of the company, you have to represent your company in a professional manner; if you can't do that in such an important investor meeting, what assurance does the vc/investor have that you can do it to the public.
- gruseom 15y agoBecause an investor who thinks things like "just another hacker who doesn't understand the business aspect of a start-up" is likely to interfere with how a hacker-founder wants to run the company later. In courtship, you should be grateful when the other person says something so egregious you could never stand to be with them. They just spared you a lot of trouble down the road. Your view would make sense if founders didn't have a choice because all investors thought the same way. That's the world we used to live in, but not anymore.
- ValG 15y agoI'm arguing that generally founders don't have a choice; Unless you have an unbelievably good product, and know the right people, the likelihood that you will get your start-up funded is unbelievably small. The start-up community is relatively small, the number of people in that community who are investors is even smaller; the pool of founders is very large. Many, if not most, founders know very little about investors and who they can reach out to. So their perception is that, if you need funding you take what you can get. Especially when you hear NO after NO... Beggars can't be choosers. Is it ideal, of course not, but it is what it is...
- gruseom 15y agoWell, ok I guess, if that's the world you live in. I observe things changing quite a bit more than that, but admittedly at different rates in different places. You know what, though? I'd rather work on making that unbelievably good product you mention than figure out how to make myself seem something I'm not. Lots of people are succeeding. Not all of them take funding. Besides, if you make something great that people want, your chance of getting funded is not so small, because you can apply to YC, who are looking for people just like that and have none of the prejudices you describe.
- ValG 15y agoLooks like we finally found something we can agree on ;) Making a great product that people want is the key, it's always been the key and always will be the key. Don't forget though, YC has gotten alot more press in recent years (e.g. this http://news.cnet.com/8301-33617_3-57406737-276/y-combinator-disneyland-for-investors/ http://news.cnet.com/8301-33617_3-57406737-276/y-combinator-...), and one might argue a little more competitive because of it. That might increase the quality of what's coming out of YC, but it also means, as hard as the may try, they are always going to miss out on some potentially good teams/ideas/products.
- suyash 15y agoYou always need to dress to impress, sometimes others but yourself first!
- oskarth 15y agoThe article seems to imply that what you wear is part of your identity (don't wear a suit, be yourself). How about decoupling your clothes from your identity? There is nothing intrinsically wrong with wanting to "dress to impress". People who think that seem to me to want to make a point of how they are so not into fashion - which ironically is a form of fashion itself (see punkers). Be yourself. Dress up if you want to and it seems to fit the occasion. Don't feel pressured into wearing something that you don't feel comfortable in. Don't confuse inner qualities with superficial looks - but don't ignore the fact that first impressions matter. Of course it could be a good anti-signal to show that you don't care about how you present yourself, but that doesn't mean you should go to investors in a bathrobe because someone told you to.
- andrewflnr 15y agoHow about decoupling your clothes from your identity? Maybe, but you can only take that so far. I think the thing to keep in mind is that clothes are communication, almost as much as what you say. The MBA, the punker, and the hacker all have their messages they send with their clothes. You can't avoid communicating, if for no other reason than that people will draw their own message from what you choose to wear. May as well make it count. You can decouple what you say from your identity, but that can be fake too, sometimes.
- mtrimpe 15y agoMy ex-partner was in fashion and the one thing he taught me most of all is that clothes are just that: "communication." That's also why I don't feel bad wearing a suit for investors, because I consciously choose to communicate that I'm dressing up for my surroundings. I don't try to walk like I wear a suit everyday and I don't try to walk and talk like a big-shot businessman. I walk like I'm a geek who's wearing a suit to dress up. There's very little fake about that. What's fake is people who wear a suit (trying) to trick people into thinking they're established businessmen and people who dress down as 'counter-signalling' to appear to be confident hacker founders. TL;DR; Fashion is about communication. Communicating a congruent message is 'real'. Trying to 'signal' with your communication is fake.
- rmason 15y agoTo me his friend is simply showing respect. Trying to make a good first impression. That isn't trying to be someone they're not. If he's great the VC's will know five minutes into his pitch.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- jkahn 15y agoThis may be true in the valley, but in the rest of the world setting the initial impression with how you dress goes a long way.
- psycho 15y agoI guess, it's true in a tech world. Well, in fact, I know that in Russian IT-world it's also so.
- outside1234 15y agothe reason you can get away with sneakers and jeans is that we are in a bubble. it won't always be that way.
- daeken 15y agoThe reason you can get away with sneakers and jeans is that how you look doesn't matter, what you have to say and what you do is what matters. Investors aren't giving you money because of your fashion sense, they're giving you money so that they can get money back.
- alaskamiller 15y agoYou both haven't hit it on the head. People have to trust what you say and what you do. How you present yourself partly determines how people perceive and trust you.
- pjscott 15y agoAre people who dress in spiffy clothing more likely to be trustworthy?
- unimpressive 15y agoNot necessarily. But people who look good benefit from the halo effect. So they get the trait of trustworthiness attributed to them.
- pjscott 15y agoAh, so it's a trick to exploit people's unreasoning instincts to your own ends. Cool!
- DrJokepu 15y agoI know this might sound shallow but the first time I meet someone, I actually judge that person based on the way he or she dresses (if I suspect that he could afford dressing properly). It tells me whether they care about themselves, whether they have a good taste. Ultimately yes, in my experience, there's a correlation between "spiffy clothing" and "trustworthiness". And I'm convinced that most people do the same, whether they admit it or not.
- vectorpush 15y agoApril fools! The trick is that people judge you by how you choose to make yourself appear and dressing a certain way doesn't make you any less authentic. I'll also add that as a member of a certain minority community, I've been criticized by peers for not sporting an "authentic" style, despite the fact that 98% of potential employers would likely send me packing were I to show up to an interview in said style. You don't know how someone will interpret your appearance, so unless you really know your audience, the smart money says "look good for investors" (or employers etc)
- furyofantares 15y agoAppearances do matter a lot which is why I would never dress up for a technical interview.
- ams6110 15y agoWould I wear a tailored executive suit to a technical interview? No. But if I'm interviewing technical candidates, all else being equal, I'm going to favor the nicely dressed one who has attended to personal hygiene that day, vs. one that I would have trouble distinguishing from a panhandler. Dressing up to an appropriate level shows you care.
- furyofantares 15y agoLooking like a panhandler is nothing like "not dressing up" for me and I don't really think that is what is being discussed, but if it is then my comments of course make no sense. I also don't think tailored executive suits are what is being discussed.
- gruseom 15y agoAnd thus you would overlook Woz and demonstrate incompetency. Not that I accept for a second that someone like Woz deserves patronizing language like "attended to personal hygiene that day" or "panhandler" - but people who base their evaluation of technical talent on social conformity certainly do see them that way. The thing about the good investors the OP is talking about is that, increasingly, they don't do this. There are two reasons why they don't. One (which applies to only some, like YC) is that they are technical people themselves. The other is that the ones who do it lose to the ones who don't. That is the historical trend and it has little to with fads or fashions. It has to do with economic power shifting towards people who create things.
- hvass 15y agoAccording to Wikipedia: "The halo effect is a cognitive bias that involves one trait influencing others in one's judgement of another person or object. First noted by Edward Thorndike in the 1920s, the halo effect has since been applied to a variety of other fields". This is a primary reason why you should really, really care how you look. I am not saying that it involves wearing a suit 24/7, but even if you are a hacker-type, in real life, those things matter.
- nazgulnarsil 15y agoTelevision has exacerbated this phenomenon. The good looking people do all the interesting things.
- gruseom 15y agoEvery comment in this thread right now is casting doubt on Jason's point that you shouldn't be fake to seem more businesslike for investors. Wow. That's a bad sign. Jason's talking about good investors and he's right. Take YC - if you're talking to the YCers about your startup it's just absurd to place importance on "businesslike" apparel or indeed anything other than your startup. No doubt there are a few genuine exceptions (Tesla liked to work in formal dress) but for the majority of us that comes as a relief. I thought what Jason's saying was a truism by now. Valley culture may not have permeated everywhere in tech but it's far more widespread than it used to be - widespread enough that the point about dress is probably a good litmus test in most parts of the US and Canada. And any place it isn't true, that's a problem. The Valley culture of being informal and focusing on the work evolved for good reason.
- ValG 15y agoI don't think anyone is saying to be fake, but the same way you wouldn't show up to a wedding in ripped jeans and a t-shirt, you shouldn't show up to an investor pitch in those clothes either. Just cause you're wearing a suit to a wedding doesn't mean you're trying to be fake, it just means you understand the conventions surrounding the event; the conventions surrounding a pitch is similar. I wonder, at the YCom demo day, what do the presenting YCers wear?
- mhartl 15y agoI agree about the wedding, and disagree about the investor pitch. Underdressing for a wedding might be perceived as an insult. Likewise with an investor meeting, but the risk is much lower since it's not principally a social occasion. Moreover, dressing like a hacker has an upside: they'll know you're a hacker. Finally, underdressing is a status hack known as counter-signaling: if you're confident enough to show up to an investor pitch in jeans and a T shirt, you must be a badass. Jobs wore mock turtlenecks and jeans with holes in them; Zuck wears fleeces and shitty sandals.
- ValG 15y agogreat point, but let me ask you this, how many people out there have the talent and product that matches up to Jobs and Zuck; they're once (maybe twice) in a generation kind of guys. For everyone else, you should try to get as much help as possible, and I think dressing appropriately can help you do that. You're right though, counter-signaling is something that you can use to your advantage, but you should not just be a badass, but you better have a badass product (and hopefully tons of customers)
- mynameishere 15y agoThe steve and woz picture reminded me of this scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80zFQ57RbdM&t=37m40s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80zFQ57RbdM&t=37m40s
- minikites 15y agoPeople pay attention to how you dress because it's the very first communication you make, before you shake hands or say "Hello". And there is no reason to open that conversation with the phrase "this is not important to me".
- suyash 15y agogood point, non verbal communication makes a big impact and you don't want to risk anything specially if you're going for a pitch and asking for millions of dollars!
- lupatus 15y agoA different take on the matter: http://boldanddetermined.com/2012/03/29/why-you-should-dress-like-winner-wolf/ http://boldanddetermined.com/2012/03/29/why-you-should-dress...
- AustinLin 15y agoI think the point Jason, and others in this thread, are making is that great investors understand that how a founder dresses (especially in tech) is a poor indicator for success. Their pitch and, as YCombinator has pointed out, the intelligence and drive are much better predictors of success. This is on top of the fact that investors aren't looking for the status quo, they are looking for visionaries who are going to make next great thing. Dressing nicely because everyone else is, shows that you are buying into the status quo, not changing it.
- duncanj 15y agoI remember that Buckminster Fuller said he started out dressing in a shirt without a tie and nobody took his message urgently. So he started dressing like a banker. That was a long time ago, but perhaps the lesson remains.
- psycho 15y agoI think, the best "suit" for the pitch is a t-shirt with your project logo. Well, in fact it's a best everyday clothes too. ;)
- ktizo 15y agoI find that many people will put more trust in a scruffy programmer over one in a suit, purely because it fits their own mental image of how a hacker should look. Stereotypes can cut both ways on stuff like this.
- nazgulnarsil 15y agoYou don't get to say you aren't playing the signalling game. This is just interpreted as either a high status move (if you're already high status) or an admission of defeat if you are low status. Doing nothing is always still a move. http://lesswrong.com/lw/bam/doing_nothing/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/bam/doing_nothing/ The general rule of thumb is try to dress 1 step above the average level in whatever setting, but no higher.
- gruseom 15y agoI can't imagine anything more tedious than to spend my life thinking this way.
- sliverstorm 15y agoYou can't approach every minute of life thinking about signaling theory, but it often helps understand the root mechanisms when they are otherwise murky. Much like calculus, really.
- gruseom 15y agoThere's something called "signaling theory" that has uncovered the "root mechanisms" of human relations and is comparable to calculus? That sounds like an absurd fantasy. I'll have to look it up.
- sliverstorm 15y agoI must not be communicating clearly this evening. What I meant was, (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) similarly, calculus grants us deeper understanding of otherwise confusing mathematical/physical/etc systems, but is far too tedious to apply to life every minute of every day. As for 'root mechanisms', perhaps "mechanisms" wasn't precisely the right word, but it's up there with game theory. It is typically applied to animals observed in nature- yet that said, we too are animals, and it takes but a moment's thought to recognize it in action among humans.
- 15y ago
- leon_ 15y ago> hardcore hacke > node.js oh please, come on.
- benmmurphy 15y agothis advice works if people aren't broken. unfortunately, people are broken.
- jasonmcalacanis 15y agoWalked into a meeting with VCs last week with my standard outfit: very expensive shoes, cheap $40 jeans, crisp but simple Brooks Brothers shirt and a decent (but not outrageous) designer blazer. This is my dressed down... no tie, no suit. I feel comfortable like that. Not too dressy but not a mess. One walks in wearing a tshirt, jeans and sneakers. I'm like WTF?! Second one walks in with the same. Double WTF?! Five years ago you would NEVER see a Sand Hill Road VC wearing a tshirt and sneakers. Never. It's the Zuck effect IMO. :-)
- billpatrianakos 15y agoI think it's the Zuck effect too. Problem is, there's only one Mark Zuckerberg and when a bunch of people are out there emulating that... err, I mean "being themselves", then it loses all meaning. The appeal of this trend will fade and eventually those walking into VC meetings like their shit doesn't stink in a hoodie and flip flops will be looked at like the phonies they very well may be and asked to leave until such time they can show that they take themselves, the people they're meeting, and their ideas seriously.
- gruseom 15y agoIt's not the Zuck effect, though Zuck may have catalyzed it. You might as well call it the Steve Jobs effect; the trend has been all one way for at least 35 years and is related to changes in the industry and indeed the economy at large.
- rapind 15y agoUnfortunate, but probably true. Unfortunate because some of us were dressing in jeans and t-shirt long before Zuck created Facebook. Some of us were also never Apple fanboys. Believe it or not, some of us just prefer to stay away from major fashion trends. For better or worse, it's just not that important to us. We don't want the attention a hipster pursues and we're uncomfortable in the conforming not to mention confining suit. Jeans an a t-shirt has been my entire wardrobe for a long time now (I had to borrow suits for special occasions). No one I work with or live with minds this (and I'm freelance). This is what I wear even for sales. If I choose to pitch a business idea some day, I'll probably do it wearing jeans and a t-shirt because I'll feel more relaxed and focused. I'm not making some kind of stand against suits on principle though. I just find them distracting. Ultimately though, if society tells me I absolutely must dress up for a specific occasion (funerals, weddings, maybe a pitch?), then I'll just suck it up and put on the suit. I should mention that I find personal hygiene to be important though. I don't think you can assume that ultra casual attire equals poor hygiene.
- jasonmcalacanis 15y ago... and nothing matters today except a hockey stick curve. If you showed up in a thong and pink cutoff shirt and barefoot with a pinterest-like curve any VC would run over their grandmother in the parking lot to fund. VCs only care about one thing: returns.
- jkuria 15y agoHmmh, confusing title and article. Don't you want abnormal returns? Normal is average and average for most people is mediocre.
- gruseom 15y agoWhat would lead you to interpret that title as confusing?
- vishaldpatel 15y agoActually, most people aren't that interested in the 'latest in fashion' either. If fashion is what turns you on.. then don't let the computer geeks turn you off ;).. unless they turn you on as well.. in that case how you doin'? points and winks
- billpatrianakos 15y agoThis is wrong. Nice sentiment that makes all us awkward people feel better but still wrong and strangely reminds me of America's obsession with self-esteem over real achievement. I'm a fucking weirdo. I own it. When I'm alone or by people who get me I look and act just how I am and it's perfectly acceptable. But that won't fly with people I need to sell to or make a good impression on. When I go to meetings or anywhere where I'll be networking or generally need to make a good impression I ditch my usual attire and put on the nice clothes, I don't talk as casually as usual, etc. am I faking it? Absolutely not! I'm sincere and polite. I make my good impression and as any relationship matures with these people I slowly introduce them to my eccentricities. It's a lot like dating. I think it was an episode of Seinfeld (or some sitcom) where one of the characters goes on a date, it goes bad, and the character remarks that you have to let the crazy out little by little, not all at once on the first meeting. It's kind of like that. As humans we play a variety of different roles in our lives. We're girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands, fathers, students, teachers, grand kids, grandparents, friends, acquaintances, patients, etc. Each role requires us to behave differently. Being able to slip in and out of each role when appropriate is very healthy and far from insincere. You can play a role and still be yourself. I get the nice sentiment of this article and it seems innocent and nice enough but I think it's just misguided. Being yourself doesn't mean you act the same in all your roles. You can meet with VCs in a nice suit and still be your same friendly, eccentric self. It's not about trying to be so,etching you're not, it's about showing respect for the guys you're meeting, showing that you want to be taken seriously, that you care, and that you take the meeting seriously. I feel like many times when people advocate for "being yourself" it's not so much about advising someone to be true to themselves but instead another form of this self esteem movement that pretty much feels that you're born great and you don't need to change a thing. Wrong! We all have things we need to work on. It's good to fit in with society. The fact is, there are actually very few people who are true eccentrics like Steve Jobs who meet with important people wearing no shoes and smelling like patchouli. Most people who do that are actually the ones who are faking it the most and trying to be different for the sake of being different. I'm eccentric but you'd never know it. I fit in when I have to and it serves me well. I'm myself whether I fit in or not. And if there's one thing I've learned in my life as it relates to this, it's that it you're conscious of "being yourself" in any way at all you're probably not being yourself at all.
- vellum 15y agoSome of this is also cultural. Foreign investors might feel they're being slighted if you show up in jeans and a t-shirt while they're wearing suits.
- nknight 15y agoForeign investors who do not first research the region and culture they are investing in deserve to be insulted, they've conclusively demonstrated incompetence.
- dkrich 15y agoI think it depends upon where you are in the process. If you find yourself in the fortunate (and rare) situation where you have investors competing to hear you, then wear whatever you want. Go in a bathrobe if it makes you happy. If you are trying to sell something, your job is to make the person you are selling to like you and then forget about you because of what you are showing. I do think there is a point to be made here, but in a more abstract sense than business presentations. Apple is actually a poor example because in their early days Jobs was often seen making presentations in suits.
- mgkimsal 15y ago"Investors are not looking for someone that looks like them. They may wear suits. That doesn't mean you should. Investors are interested in getting to know the real you. If you’re a little strange, that’s okay. They like strange. They like people who do things that normal people aren’t capable of, and they know that that capability often correlates with eccentric people. The last thing you want to do is wash away your own personality in some doldrums of blue and khaki." They also just might want someone who's not afraid to step out of their own comfort zone for two hours. Seems to me we're getting to the point (or are past it) where "entrepreneur" just means "guy in tennis shoes working on a web service idea". Certainly seemed to be the vibe from that piece there. People are comfortable with 'pitching' all the time - 'pitching' their 'new idea' to 'investors', cause when you're casual like that, anyone could be an 'investor' you can 'pitch' to. Don't get me wrong - there's a lot of hard working people out there working on great ideas (some of them not even involving a web api!). They're going to go through a hell of a lot of tough times, ups and downs, and doing a hell of a lot of stuff they've never done before. If wearing a suit or tie or keeping your "weirdness" in check for an hour are the things that holds your endeavour back from succeeding, you had bigger problems all along.
- davemel37 15y agoI think his point is dont try too hard to control how people perceive you. (Not whether suits are appropriate attire.) The rule of thumb is, "other people aren't thinking about you, and if they are, they are wondering what you are thinking about them." That being said, just like great design influences how people perceive your product, dressing right for the part is equally important. I read a case study where chiropractors make more money when they wear a lab coat, stethescope, and all their employees wear scrubs. Your "packaging" has to match your customers expectations and the story going on in their head
- secoif 15y agoThe type of person who balks at casual dress is not the type of person who I'd want to work for or with, and vice versa. Problem solves itself.
- secoif 15y agoCasual dress shows confidence: "I don't need to bow to social norms, I'm confident I can sell myself and my ideas, even without a suit."
- jjjjjosh 15y agoJesse Thorn on why how you dress matters: When you dress, you are making a statement; not a fashion statement, but a statement of identity. If you put on a jacket and tie, for example, you are signifying to others that you take the occasion seriously, whatever that occasion may be. If someone looks at you and interprets how you dress, they are not being superficial. They are reading the message that you wrote. [...] Can one earn respect in other ways? Certainly, and one should. But that’s no reason to open a conversation with someone by saying, without words, “this is not important to me.” http://putthison.com/post/665640307/why-this-matters http://putthison.com/post/665640307/why-this-matters
- danenania 15y agoWhy can't the 'message' be: "I respect your intelligence enough that I won't assume you'll judge me based on what I wear, so I'll just wear what's comfortable for me."
- jjjjjosh 15y agoI think there's a subtle but important difference between "what you wear sends a message" and "you'll judge me based on what I wear." You're shifting the agency away from yourself - to make a choice about what message you're going to send (by how you're dressed) - to others, making them out to be shallow for receiving the message you send and processing it accordingly, no?
- lopatin 15y agoHe basically said that if you're a little awkward, you have no business wearing a polo. Even when it's perfectly acceptable to. Even expected. Are you doing business? Wear at least business-casual! I believe it shows disrespect if you don't. As if this meeting isn't important enough to you to change out of your every day t-shirt.
- rbarooah 15y agoSerious question - how and why do you think it shows disrespect, and for what? The only thing I can think of is tradition.
- lopatin 15y agoI think it shows disrespect because they will most likely be dressed up and you won't. And I'm talking about the situation when you need something from them, like a job offer or investment. It doesn't take any more effort to throw a polo on as it does a t-shirt, so the fact that you chose the t-shirt, I believe that's disrespect. Just tradition? Yes. But traditions exist for a reason. Sure some people in Silicon Valley may be cool and just care about your brain, but the rest of the world doesn't work that way. Try going to an interview wearing a Simpsons t-shirt and shorts and just try to get treated the same way as if you were in a suit.
- rbarooah 15y agoWith all due respect, I don't think you've offered any kind of explanation here. Why is it more respectful to be dressed up if they are? You've simply restated that it is without explanation. What makes a polo shirt more respectful than a t-shirt? You say there are reasons for the tradition, but you don't say what they are. Traditions may have reasons but they aren't automatically good so it would help the debate to actually know what you thought they were. Note that I didn't say anything to minimize the importance of tradition in general. Nobody is disputing that people do treat each other differently because of how they dress. The question is, what's behind it?
- patmccarthy 15y agoA few comments on this: - At the highest level, whether you "faked it" and dressed up for that investor pitch or job interview doesn't matter. If you have the skills and content the investor or employer is looking for, they will easily look past what you are wearing and whether it's authentic or fake. Mark Zuckerberg didn't dress up for investor pitches, but was able to raise money right? I also tend to think if Zuckerberg had put on some nice clothes, he still would've been able to raise money even if it was obvious it wasn't his normal attire. - I've hired a lot of people over the years into both startup and larger companies from engineers to sales people, and it was usually obvious if someone was "faking" their appearance. Never have I thought "Boy, this person is being inauthentic and fake, I should not hire them". I've always seen it as a sign of respect that they took the effort. At the same time, I would not think worse of someone who didn't dress up, because I also realize that it's them as people that matter. - Bottom line: Be yourself, and if being yourself means wearing your normal clothes, that's fine. And if being yourself means you'd like your chances better in some nice clothes, then put those on. Spend more time worry about the content of your presentation or how well you can perform in the interview instead.
- pjmo 15y agoPeople make themselves unique through their work and vision. Not solely through their external appearance.