Blog post

Avoiding the answer is not an answer

November 14, 2011 ยท by Jan Schultink
โ† all posts

A politician in a television interview can sometimes get away with giving an answer to a different question than the one that was asked her. Or filling time with some meaningless generic statements, after which a smile indicates that she is ready for the next question.

In a VC fundraising pitch (or an interview for a position) this does not work. If you think you need more time to get to an answer, think before speaking. You cannot parallel process coming up with an answer and speak coherently (both will be bad). If you hope that by repeating something what you said before you might manage to skip the difficult question, it will just bore the VC and make her impatient.

Sometimes it might be best to admit that you do not know or do not want to disclose it.

DeliveryPowerPointPresentation designStory

About this blog

Notes on all things presentations โ€” design, storytelling, and AI workflows.

Subscribe now to never miss a post.

RSS

About SlideMagic

A platform for business presentations.

A free student plan is available.