How to Convince Investors - Paul Graham  ## Metadata - Author: **Paul Graham** - Full Title: How to Convince Investors - Category: #articles - URL: http://www.paulgraham.com/convince.html ## Highlights - When people hurt themselves lifting heavy things, it's usually because they try to lift with their back. The right way to lift heavy things is to let your legs do the work. Inexperienced founders make the same mistake when trying to convince investors. They try to convince with their pitch. Most would be better off if they let their startup do the work — if they started by understanding why their startup is worth investing in, then simply explained this well to investors ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hh3vs4w05z015f99307xbcva)) - How do you seem like you'll be one of the big successes? You need three things: formidable founders, a promising market, and (usually) some evidence of success so far. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hh3vvvb7jd6sd1tebm1wa80m)) - A formidable person is one who seems like they'll get what they want, regardless of whatever obstacles are in the way. Formidable is close to confident, except that someone could be confident and mistaken. Formidable is roughly justifiably confident. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hh3w0rde6j3wc0pch0xaw9n1)) - Tags: #business #wisdom - The time to raise money is not when you need it, or when you reach some artificial deadline like a Demo Day. It's when you can convince investors, and not before. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hh3wdqpttg8kxcnka20eg85d)) - So here's the recipe for impressing investors when you're not already good at seeming formidable: 1. Make something worth investing in. 2. Understand why it's worth investing in. 3. Explain that clearly to investors. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hh3x6ts3yc60jyby48s44d4a))