Quora Answer: How Do You Conceal an Ineffectual Executive Team to Fool a Potential Angel Investor?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “How do you effectively conceal a weak, ineffectual executive team and a general of lack experience in key business areas in a ‘Hail Mary’ attempt to obtain company-sustaining funds from a potential angel investor?” 

In a startup, there is nothing wrong with a general lack of experience.  We expect many of these management teams to lack experience, which is why we have founder mentors and advisors.  But a weak, ineffectual executive team does not improve with more experience.  That lack of leadership is not miraculously fixed. 

If the executive team is ineffectual, replace them with better people.  If that cannot be done, the company will die anyway.  No experienced angel investor will be fooled by a weak management team no matter how you try to conceal it.  The investor will speak to them as part of due diligence, and all it takes is a few searching questions and this will come out.  If the advisor attends that pitch meeting and speaks on their behalf, it will only confirm it.  The fact that you would ask how to conceal this is a worrying display of lack of ethics.