Minute 1: Ask for Specifics

Question: “What exactly does your product do today for one customer?”

Green flags

• Names a real user
• Describes a real workflow
• Mentions a concrete outcome (“cut billing time from 2 days to 2 hours”)

Red flags

• “Platform… ecosystem… AI-powered… synergies”
• No names, no numbers, no nouns
• More adjectives than verbs

Rule: If it sounds like a TED Talk, it’s probably empty.

Minute 2: Test for Customer Truth

Question: “What’s the ugliest complaint you’ve received?”

Green flags

• Tells an embarrassing story
• Knows exact pain points
• Shows the fix

Red flags

• “No major issues”
• “Customers love us”
• “Just minor feedback”

Real users complain. Loudly. Frequently.

Minute 3: Check Delivery Reality

Question: “What are you embarrassed isn’t built yet?”

Green flags

• Names delays
• Explains dependencies
• Owns trade-offs

Red flags

• “Everything’s on track”
• “Next version will handle that”
• Eternal future tense

If nothing is broken, nothing is real.

Minute 4: Stress test Numbers

Question: “What happened last week?”

Green flags

• Revenue, churn, usage, outages
• Knows growth and slowdowns
• Mentions mistakes

Red flags

• Only talks about runway
• Shows TAM charts
• Avoids metrics like they’re radioactive

Vision is nice. Cash flow is cuter.

Minute 5: Pressure Trade-offs

Question: “What did you intentionally NOT build?”

Green flags

• Clear prioritization logic
• Mentions regrets and rework
• Knows cost of decisions

Red flags

• “We’re doing everything”
• “It’s all a priority”
• No opinion at all

Founders without trade-offs are running PowerPoint, not companies.

Bonus Lie Detectors (Rapid-Fire)

“Our AI does it all.”

Translation: One API call in a trench coat.

“We’ll scale later.”

Translation: Showstopper bugs everywhere.

“Enterprise-ready.”

Translation: The demo laptop is sacred.

“Strategic partnership.”

Translation: Had coffee. Took a selfie.

“Soft launch.”

Translation: It crashed.

The 10-Second Gut Test

Ask yourself:

• Did they talk about users or themselves?
• Did they mention failures or fantasies?
• Did they know details or slogans?
• Did they welcome questions or dodge bullets?

If the words:
“Revolutionary, game-changing, disruptive, visionary”
appear more than:
“Bug, apology, delay, refund, failure”
…you’re in a TEDx audition.

Iron Rule

Founders who are building talk about problems.
Founders who are pretending talk about possibilities.

Investor One-Liner (Steal this)

“Show me a customer angry at you—and I’ll believe you’re real.”