Still thinking about that investor who brushed me off at a networking event

I was at a small founder meetup in Austin about 6 months ago, maybe 30 people in a back room of a taco place. This one VC guy in a nice blazer came up to me and asked what I do. I started telling him about my B2B software for auto repair shops, something I know inside out. He cut me off after maybe 30 seconds and said "that's too niche, nobody funds vertical stuff." Then he literally turned and walked away mid-sentence to talk to someone else. It stuck with me because he didn't even ask about my traction or revenue, just judged it in half a minute. Has anyone else had a potential investor totally dismiss them without hearing the full story?

2 comments

2 Comments

alex52416d ago

That's too niche" is actually a polite way of saying you didn't sell it well enough.

skylercooper16d ago

My friend tried pitching a subscription box for vintage video game cartridges at a local maker fair a few years ago. He had this whole display with a CRT TV and everything, maybe 30 people total stopped by his booth all day. One guy told him "that's too niche" and my friend was so crushed. But @alex524, here's the thing - that same guy came back an hour later with his buddy and they both signed up. My friend ended up getting like 60 subscribers from that fair through word of mouth. So yeah, sometimes "too niche" really just means you didn't grab them in the first 10 seconds.