Once you’ve found a market to exploit you need to present a air of competence regarding its operation. You of course don’t need to actually understand the market rather, you need to be able to fool the investor into believing you are knowledgeable and competent. An excellent way to accomplish this is through the use of acronyms the investors is likely to have heard. During investor meetings use acronyms such as SEO, ROI, XML and SOA.  Your target probably doesn’t understand and certainly doesn’t need to know that your vertical has no use for XML and certainly won’t be providing ROI but by using the acronyms you gain the upper hand. How so? The answer to that lies in an average person’s answer to the question, “Do you like to feel stupid?” By using highly technical or esoteric acronyms that your target is unlikely to truly understand you maintain an air of competence while discouraging troublesome questions. Remember that investors want to believe they are the top of the food chain and thus do not want to appear weak or unknowing to perceived subordinates.

Today we’re going to be discussing a very important concept of your business model, perhaps the only important concept. Take a look at the attached image and truly contemplate the possibilities. What you need to understand is that Phase 1 and Phase 3 are the only areas that interest your investors. Phase 1 introduces your investors to an idea. Your idea doesn’t need to be novel or concrete, it only needs to wet their appetite. Your presentation will sell them on the fact that this idea is excellent, it’s excellent because you say it is. At this point you should immediately jump to Phase 3. Distract them from the how’s and why’s of your business to the what will I get out of it. Think of it like this, your investors aren’t concerned with Phase 2, that’s a “your problem”, they’re only interested in how their investment will bring them profit. Of course we know that the only person who will actually see a profit is you but we don’t need to let the investors in on that little secret. And remember, they’re investing in you. That simple fact provides concrete evidence that these investors are neither as intelligent nor as enterprising as you are.

You’re visiting my site and you can see it’s content. Why are you here? You’re here because you’re interested in my ideas. I don’t have a solid business model, in fact I don’t even have a business model. But I have content, content that interests you. You and the millions of other internet users are all my potential investors. Do you see those advertising blocks on the right? They’re not filled yet but I still have the blocks visible. They’re visible so that potential investors know they can give me money for my ideas. That’s something you always need to remember, let everyone know they can give you money for advertising. When asked what their advertising dollars are going to provide just use esoteric words that sound like they mean something. Use the acronym SEO as much as possible. Use whatever methods possible to come up with new words that sound important yet have no real meaning. Methodology, SEO, transparency, these are all excellent words to use when describing your business model to investors. They distract your investors from the reality that you have no business model.

Why does this site exist and what is “my vertical”? It has become abundantly clear in the Web 2.0 days that you don’t need a solid business model, you only need to sell an idea to investors.

What is your vertical market? It’s whatever you can sell to investors. And while we’re on that topic who are these “investors” we’re talking about? They’re whoever you can dupe into purchasing your idea. You see investors don’t have the initiative or intelligence to create their own idea, they’re buying your idea in the hopes that your idea is going to create revenue. By the simple fact that you have duped them into paying for your idea you have shown that you are more intelligent than them.  That’s what’s so wonderful about vertical markets. You don’t have to produce an actual product, you only need to sell an idea to investors.