I recently tweeted…

Getting this sense of inevitability from a founder is incredibly powerful. I instantly start believing that their vision is going to happen. As an investor, I want to get on board and help propel the team to their destination.

So, what exactly do I mean by this? What are some of the strongest signals that come from a pitch to indicate inevitability?

The first signal is passion. The founder or founding team demonstrates that they truly care about the problem they are solving, and often have been going at it for a long time. Some of our founders have been thinking about a particular problem for years. Some have launched different products/solutions and tried different approaches in the past to solve the problem. Some have bootstrapped their company when they couldn’t get money in the first place.

It’s very powerful when you see that the founding team is so passionate about solving a problem that they won’t stop until they get there.

The other key ingredient is seeing that the founder/founding team have done their homework. They’ve thought through the problem in incredible detail and have answers for every question. They have run through the playbook many times in their heads and haven’t left a stone unturned when thinking about the problem, market, and customer needs.

It’s when I see these two pieces come together that I really get excited. I’m not saying any of this to encourage founders to start tweaking their pitches to look “more inevitable.” Rather, I want to encourage founders to focus on an idea or area where they are truly passionate. You do your best work when you truly care about the problem you are solving. That’s the best way to make your start-up inevitable!