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Does negotiating help?

Founders who closed a deal made 1.3 counter-offers on average. Those who did not made 0.4. Correlation, not cause.

Founders who closed a deal made more counter-offers

Sample of 245 pitchescounter-offers per pitch

Closed a deal · counter-offers per pitch

1.3

Sample of 167 pitches

No deal · counter-offers per pitch

0.4

Sample of 78 pitches

Pitches by number of counter-offers

Closed a deal

No deal

  • 0 counter-offers69%
  • 1 counter-offers21%
  • 2 counter-offers8%
  • 3+ counter-offers3%

Correlation, not cause.

Across 167 deals, founders made 1.3 counter-offers per pitch on average. In the 78 pitches that ended without a deal, they made 0.4.

Read this with care. A founder can only counter an offer that exists, and many pitches without a deal never received one. Countering goes together with closing a deal, but that does not prove that countering causes the deal.

What was said

Mohamed Farouk

Revised offer

Our final offer to you is 5 million EGP for 25%.

OGBs (OGBs) · S5 E19 · 18:07 · Paraphrased

Mohamed Farouk

Revised offer

We can make it 30% for 3 million EGP, but anything less than 30% wouldn't be interesting for the two of us.

Plume (Plume) · S5 E17 · 24:10 · Paraphrased