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October 17, 2025 2 mins

How To Tell When the Startup Doesn’t Have Anything

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing.

Startups raising funding should bring customer engagement, if not traction, to the pitch.

Founders raising funding often compensate for the lack of customer engagement through distractions.

Here’s how to tell when the startup doesn’t have anything:

Revenue is only listed as a forecast with pipeline sales.

Key metrics are based on forecast sales, not actual sales. 

There are no actual customers in discussion, and no names of any partners.

The focus is on technology and how it works.

The product is a high-level vision of what will be, but nothing is under development.

The team has a handful of potentials but no actual results from their work.

The pitch is primarily how big the market is and the size of the opportunity.

The discussion focuses on how the competition is failing but never mentions how the startup is succeeding.

The deck shows huge returns to the investor, but there are no actual revenue figures listed.

In short, it’s all vision and no execution.

Look for these signs that the startup doesn’t have anything before pursuing investment.

 

Thank you for joining us for the Startup Funding Espresso where we help startups and investors connect for funding.

Let’s go startup something today.

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