The Best Investor Deck Ever - Finalist: Sequoia Capital

Whoa, check out this link.  Now, if all investor pitches were this smooth....

Don't sugar-coat your investor pitch

There's a natural tendency for entrepreneurs to make their investor pitch as attractive as possible, to make the potential investor get that "I can't miss this deal" feeling.  In fact, I coach entrepreneurs how to do precisely that.  However, it's equally important to be straight with your potential investors, and disclose any and all skeletons, risks, issues, concerns, etc.  It's quite disappointing for an investor to discover these when reading the next update by the CEO after the investment was made.  That ruins the credibility of the CEO in the eyes of the investment community, which could have long-range implications in future fund-raising efforts.

Do you have a start-up chicken-or-egg product?

This is a tough one.  You have a great new idea for a product or service, but no one will want it until others already have it, or a database has been created.  But a database won't get created until you have customers...a classic chicken-and-egg problem.  Examples of this include MMOGs (massive multiplayer online games), auction sites, or anything that requires a database or multiple players/participants.  If you are considering starting such a company, it is imperative that you have a solid, proven go-to-market strategy that addresses this chicken-and-egg problem.

It's really tough to provide a general solution to this issue, since it will depend on your product or service offered.  You might be able to "seed" the site with an initial list of products, or an initial list of participants.  Or, you might be able to create an initial database of phantom players just from within your company.  It will be important to make sure your customers get the feeling that you are up and running with a huge database of products/players/etc.  The point here is, make sure you have thought through this issue and have a solid plan to get through this critical launch of your product before it is needed.