Execution beats ideas when it comes to building a startup

If I had a nickel for every great idea…

As head of pre-screening for an angel group, I get pitched a lot of great ideas. Wonderful ideas. Fantastic research topics. Brilliant PhD studies. And most are, unfortunately, bad investments. Even the ones that might become great startups someday are not viable investments now.

This is news to most founders who think that investors invest in ideas. They refine those ideas, assemble beautiful pitch decks (though most early-stage decks are word salads covered with ketchup on a powerpoint bun), and spend the six months with their hands out asking investors for funds to bring those ideas to fruition.

They spend all day applying to VCs, then wonder why they’re not getting responses. They spam anyone on LinkedIn with investor or angel in their profile and get frustrated at the lack of success.

So how much is that idea worth? I want to say a nickel, but that’s dating myself. With inflation and tariffs, a fair price in 2026 is somewhere around 57 cents. For a really good idea, I might be prepared to pay a full dollar.

The $10M valuations founders are proposing would be farcical if the founders weren’t so damn serious. And the growth-stage VCs egging them on, telling founders they’re selling themselves short if they accept anything less than $20M for their brilliant ideas, are right up there among the most misguided advice ever. (Notice those same VCs won’t actually invest at that valuation.)

Most Successful Startups Are Obvious Ideas Done Well

I know your idea is brilliant. I’m just not sure that matters. I hear a lot of pitches for converting waste food, waste organic material, or waste plastics into virgin plastic or sustainable aviation fuel. I fully embrace the idea. But the economics usually mean it’s bound to fail. You just haven’t figure out all your costs yet, or all the complications of scaling production. It makes for a great pitch but is unlikely to succeed.

So what does succeed? Usually, it’s obvious ideas that are done well. Bubbly water with fruit flavoring or canned cocktails. Reusable rockets and space-based internet. A free alternative to Adobe. An online spreadsheet for cap tables. An online calendar tool. A SaaS version of everything. Other than the rockets, these aren’t rocket science.

What made these companies successful? A bit of dumb luck — being at the right place at the right time with the right product. But mostly execution. Finding customers, mastering messaging, putting together the right team at each stage. Not the idea which was available for the taking and had occurred to millions of people who said, “If only there was a free design tool I could use instead of paying $100 per month to Adobe?”

What Do Investors Invest In?

If you thought “early-stage investor” meant pre-product, apologies for the confusion. “Early-stage” generally means somewhere from a few tens of thousands in MRR to tens of millions. It doesn’t mean ideation or even development.

So if investors won’t invest in ideas, no matter how brilliant, what do they invest in? The answer is simple: we invest in businesses. Not ideas. Not pitch decks. Not business plans. Businesses.

More specifically, venture investors (VCs and angels) invest in businesses that hold the promise of growing to $100M within 5–7 years and getting acquired for 10x to 100x the investment price.

Execution > Ideas

Growing a business to $10M in revenues is a tough challenge that few founders ever hit. $100M in revenue isn’t 10x harder, it’s more like a thousand times more difficult. Can you? That’s what we want to know before we invest. It’s easy to come up with great ideas. It’s not much of a challenge to throw together a decent pitch deck. It’s a lot more difficult to build a big business from scratch.

Execution takes skills in engineering, sales, marketing, operations, customer support, QA, finance, accounting, legal, and HR (and I’m sure I’m missing a few more). It requires hiring and managing a team and dealing with employee conflict. Ideas sound great until someone has to build them. And that someone isn’t a nameless group of corporate warriors; it’s the founders.

Big companies have separate departments filled with specialists and big budgets for all those functions. Startups have a founder or two, perhaps a few employees, and no budget. Ideas don’t matter; it’s all about execution.

Can you execute? Before investing, we want to see evidence. That usually means initial revenue. Can you get the product to the stage where customers are willing to pay? That transforms the pitch from vaporware into an operating business.

Once there’s revenue, there’s a real product and real market signals. We can talk to actual customers and see if it fits their needs. We can check if you know how to build a commercial product and deal with customer support. We can see if you know how to hire and manage a team, apply for patents, deal with regulations and taxes, and discuss finances like a pro. In other words, can you execute on building a business?

At that point, you’re ready to begin pitching investors.

But…but…but…I need money now!

You have a great idea. But you need money to build it. If investors won’t stump up the cash to pay for development, how can you get your startup off the ground?!?

There are ways to fund your idea. But it’s not venture capital and it’s not angel investors, so stop wasting your time. Here’s the places to look for initial funding if you absolutely need it:

  • Personal Funds
  • Friends & Family
  • Customers
  • Government grants
  • Industry network
  • Crowdfunding
  • Find a Co-founder

And if all else fails…

You don’t have any rich friends, and your rich uncle Bob won’t take your calls. Your product won’t qualify for grants and getting customers without a demo is impractical. So thanks DC for your useless advice. What do you do now?

Prove you can execute. Find a way to build the product and start generating revenue. Once you show you know how to run a successful startup with limited resources, there will be no shortage of investors willing to trust you with their cash. Because execution > ideas, and traction > business plans.

If you have to, defer your startup dreams while you take a real job. One that gets you into the industry or a role at an early-stage startup. Build up your savings, build your connections, build your experience, and get ready for the next round when you can break out on your own with all the tools and experience you need to begin executing.

In the meantime, work on those great ideas at night and over the weekends. And keep reading my articles.