In my work, I see a lot of founders who, for some reason, are still fixated on the old ways of pitching—thinking they must present a trillion‑dollar TAM and lofty projections because that’s what investors want.

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: if you need an explosive TAM and out‑of‑this‑world projections to hook investors, your story and solution are probably off the mark.

But not to be fixed on my own pitching philosophy, I decided to address this topic of valuations and projections in one of my podcast sessions.

I was truly humbled to have Ron Levin, Managing Partner at Alumni Ventures, as a guest on my podcast, How to Sell Your Vision, and to hear his thoughts on today’s pitching process.

Alumni Ventures is one of the most active VCs in the U.S., with over 30 unicorns in its portfolio, over 150 exits, 14 IPOs, and more than 140 acquisitions.

Among the many powerful insights he shared, Ron spoke about how you position your startups—and it goes back to my earlier point. He said, “Don’t sell me the unicorn promise. On the contrary, I want to see that you’re mature enough to know the steps necessary to achieve your goals. Being ambitious is great, but we need to be realistic as well.”

He added, “It applies to projections, too. If a founder presents an ARR of $500,000 in Year One and $5M in Year Two, it tells me one of two things: they clearly don't realise the work it takes to make this leap, or they don’t need my money.”

I truly recommend that all early‑stage founders reading this post listen to this eye‑opening episode