Great post. In particular, I liked the part about the "Hierarchy of Proof" in pitches: On the bottom, and least convincing are statements about your “idea.”

Great post. In particular, I liked the part about the "Hierarchy of Proof" in pitches: On the bottom, and least convincing are statements about your “idea.” Next are hypotheses – “I think customers will care about x or y “ Better are facts from customers – “We interviewed 30 customers with 20 questions” Even better is “Customer Validation”– “We just got $50K from a customer” or “we got 100,000 users spending x minutes on our site” Finally if you’re ever so lucky – “Everyone’s buying in droves and we’re here because we need money to scale and execute” If you’ve actually been doing Customer Development at a minimum you’re at step 3 or 4. If not, you don’t have enough data for a VC presentation. Get out of the building, get some more customer feedback, spin your product and go back and read the book.