The Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs

I just read The Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs. Very amussing, but remarkly true.

A summary and my own thoughts...

1. “Our projections are conservative.” - What about the opposite? Infinity?
2. “Gartner says our market will be $50 billion in 2010.” - Sure... every market will grow to millions and billions. You can even kid yourself by talking about the parent market of the "smaller market" you are in.
3. “Boeing is going to sign our purchase order next week.” - Maybe you can tell us after it has been signed? Surely it will be in the newspapers?
4. “Key employees are set to join us as soon as we get funded.” - You have a written contract from them?
5. “No one is doing what we're doing.” - Maybe not today, but I promise it won't be the same tomorrow. In the Internet age, few ideas are original - 99.99...9% of ideas are either some meshup of old ideas or a slight variation here and there.
6. “No one can do what we're doing.” - Really? So why can you do this?
7. “Hurry because several other venture capital firms are interested.” - If so, then why this particular VC? Surely you may have better deals somewhere else?
8. “Oracle is too big/dumb/slow to be a threat.” - More like you are too tiny to be a threat to Oracle.
9. “We have a proven management team.” - What is "proven"? Everyone's standard is different anyway.
10. “Patents make our product defensible.” - Maybe you have filed for a patent... but has it been accepted?
11. “All we have to do is get 1% of the market.” - Anyone can say this, including me.