Think VCs will fund you? Ha!

In a brilliant new post entitled "Let The Good Times Roll: The Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs," prominent venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki rains on the parade of entrepreneurial dreamers.

Guy points to 11 "lies" he hears from these folks. (Well, if college football's Big Ten can have 11 teams, we'll give Guy some slack.)

I might not call them "lies." More like self-delusional moo-goo.

Given that so many start-ups in the space we cover here are seeking venture capital $$, his post bears reading.

All of these "lies" are so on the mark. Here are my two faves:

“No one is doing what we're doing.” This is a bummer of a lie because there are only two logical conclusions. First, no one else is doing this because there is no market for it. Second, the entrepreneur is so clueless that he can't even use Google to figure out he has competition. Suffice it to say that the lack of a market and cluelessness is not conducive to securing an investment. As a rule of thumb, if you have a good idea, five companies are going the same thing. If you have a great idea, fifteen companies are doing the same thing.

And this all-too-often followup: 

“No one can do what we're doing.” If there's anything worse than the lack of a market and cluelessness, it's arrogance. No one else can do this until the first company does it, and ten others spring up in the next ninety days. Let's see, no one else ran a sub four-minute mile after Roger Bannister. (It took only a month before John Landy did). The world is a big place. There are lots of smart people in it. Entrepreneurs are kidding themselves if they think they have any kind of monopoly on knowledge. And, sure as I'm a Macintosh user, on the same day that an entrepreneur tells this lie, the venture capitalist will have met with another company that's doing the same thing.

Entrepreneurial arrogance.

Ya think?