Don't Judge a Book by its Cover

There is an old saying that goes...

One of the ways I try to evaluate entrepreneurs is by the way they interact with me. Obviously, if we don't get along, there is no real value for us to work together. Of course nobody is perfect, and I certainly am not. But on the other hand, I seem to encounter lots of folks who seem to not want to look past the nose on their face.

Here is an example of a recent exchange I had with someone who asked me about the opportunity to pitch to investors in the coming weeks. They are in italics:

Thanks Fred. I missed the small text among the large.
After a careful review, I will not be attending.
We do not have the funds, and your online presence concerns me.

Mine are not in italics...

Thanks for letting me know.
If you don't mind my asking, what about our online presence concerns you?

You are welcome. The website is horrid and looks like a junior high-schooler did it. I would suggest hiring someone – even a later-stage high schooler who knows how to use a no-code platform can do this. I would NOT recommend having the site done by a coder. You are forever beholden to them, and that means more money out the door every time!

I suggest going at looking at other sites and you will see how unappealing and untrustworthy your site looks.

For no-code platforms, I would NOT suggest Wix or Shopify, (the latter is horrible, and the other requires coding.) As a non-techie, Weebly was not easy for me, and the service is bad. Bubble is good but the service is not. You can look up lists and reviews online. We use SiteGround with a WordPress plug in. My interns do it.

Even your other online presence is not good, with a logo that is of poor quality. In my other business, I do website reviews and strategy, but not coding or building on no-code. I have done the latter, but due to my startup, I do not have the time.

Hope this helps.

Obviously, this is not a good fit...

But I don't think that is really the issue of this article. This article is about due diligence. That is, taking the time and effort to make good judgments about things, the term "due" having everything to do with what is reasonable and prudent.

If you are looking for funding or assistance and judge a possible source of funds or assistance by your view of the appearance of their Web site, you are probably not the executive we are looking for. And frankly, I don't think any investor worth their salt would find you a compelling investment.

NOT because of your view of the appearance of my Web site.

The Cover

To be clear, there is no accounting for taste. But in fact, I recently (within the last few weeks) changed the appearance of my Web page (yet again) to look more like others (at the advice of one of my fans), and after he said it looked much better, we got yet another ridiculous response like this one.

We modeled the current appearance after a site of another accelerator that was identified as a good example (from an appearance standpoint) and look very much like it looks. And we have done this perhaps 3 times a year for the last several years.

Having said that, I should add:

So if you want their gold, you best follow their rules.

Now don't get me wrong here. I really do appreciate direct feedback. I strongly prefer the response I got from this person over the responses I get from many. Some folks won't tell you what they think. However, to quote a Vice President at Sandia when I worked there (approximately):

The trick is to explain it. So let me explain it...

The website ... looks like a junior high-schooler did it.

This is, of course, meaningless. The grade level of a person does not have anything to do with their skills in design, and Web site companies have fully automated mechanisms to create things that look good. In fact, even AI can automatically generate Web sites that seem good at first glance.

I would suggest hiring someone – even a later-stage high schooler who knows how to use a no-code platform can do this.

A bit insulting of course, but then I find no reason to believe that a Junior or Senior in high school will understand the issues of marketing and sales better than a Freshman or Junior.

I would NOT recommend having the site done by a coder. You are forever beholden to them, and that means more money out the door every time!

Actually, the A2E Web site has a great deal of complex machinery that does things like automate due diligence, perform pricing analysis, and so forth. A no-code development would lead to a no brains result. But perhaps that is what was desired? And since when is spending no money the important thing about marketing and sales?

I suggest going at looking at other sites and you will see how unappealing and untrustworthy your site looks.

I think they are saying that the site I modeled it after is unappealing. So obviously, this contradicts the previous advice. In terms of untrustworthy, I think anybody who looks at a book by its cover does not have a clue about a basis for trust. And to me, this is far more important. The ability to discern trust by looking beyond the obvious is really critical to investors and good executives. The fact that the appearance of a site looking commercial makes it seem worthy of trust means that this person will not likely do a proper analysis of employees, customers, vendors, or others. These are deadly mistakes for an executive in a startup.

For no-code platforms, I would NOT suggest Wix or Shopify, (the latter is horrible, and the other requires coding.) As a non-techie, Weebly was not easy for me, and the service is bad. Bubble is good but the service is not. You can look up lists and reviews online. We use SiteGround with a WordPress plug in. My interns do it.

Ah yes - popularity. Let's see, the one advised is WordPress which has had many widely published vulnerabilities, and thus is in fact NOT worthy of trust. And the desire not to use some commercial providers and prefer others shows bias that many would disagree with. I personally find them all poor for my needs, but that is another issue.

Even your other online presence is not good, with a logo that is of poor quality. In my other business, I do website reviews and strategy, but not coding or building on no-code. I have done the latter, but due to my startup, I do not have the time.

Fascinating. The logo was done by a professional designer. As a Web site strategist, I would imagine that the first question to be asked would be the purpose of the site. But apparently, this never occurred to this individual. So I guess that clarifies things better than anything.

I used to think I wasn't very good at this sales and marketing thing

To be clear, I was wrong. As it turns out, I am actually very good at it. How I know that, is that people like this person do not continue through our process. They just go away. And that saves me having to deal with them. Actually, I was not quite good enough for them to not bother to communicate with me in the first place, but at least it did not last long.

I have recently been comparing my performance in this arena to others I have encountered, and I have ended up involved more deeply in campaigns for several investments that end up in trouble because they think they know what they are doing when they do not. How do I know this? Is it just my ego talking?

So here's the deal...

The way we judge sales is by ... wait for it... sales!

Yes, that's right. If I close more sales than you do, and my closed customers pay more than yours do, and my customers are happier than yours are, then I am better at it than you are.

But it gets better... If I spend less time, effort, and money making these sales than you do, I am better at it than you are.

And guess what? It works the same way if you close more sales than me, if you do it for less, if your customers are happier, and so forth. That means you are better at it than me.

Several portfolio companies have run into problems lately with sales and marketing. It ultimately moved into a crisis mode for a few of them, and after ignoring my advice for a few months, they finally got to a breaking point. So I stepped in with permission and helped out. Of course it's not over, but it's been a few weeks, and they have more and better leads that are better qualified, and more sales closed, for less money and with less drama. And they are still improving.

So how do we measure this?

Hmmm... Money in, money out, over time.

If you ever saw those stupid commercials on night-time TV for knives and pots and pans and so forth, you probably thought they were just terrible. Here's the thing. The people who did this became millionaires. They created successful companies, made fortunes, and...

Joe Karbo wrote a book in 1973 called "The Lazy Man's Way to Riches". He got rich in the mail order business. And he shared his knowledge. It turns out that about 90% of everything he described - more than 50 years ago - is still true today. You can buy a copy online for less than $40. Don't buy the newer ones of the same name by other authors. It's not as fun as reading the original.

It's not actually that complicated.

A call to action

If this article offends you, go away!

If you are willing to look past the cover and read the book, you might find the help you are seeking, perhaps in one of our

s...

In summary

I didn't call anybody an idiot. And you can make your own judgments. But I have decided for years and I will continue to have Web sites that do not look like all the other ones. I am only interested in working with people who look beyond the cover and read the book.