What Investors Decide Before You Speak
Grammar: Nominalisation
A Business English English lesson exploring business.
What's in this lesson
A Business English ESL lesson on business, practising nominalisation. The worksheet has a reading, target vocabulary, a grammar reference with practice and discussion questions.
From the reading: What Investors Decide Before You Speak
In 2023, Y Combinator received more than 45,000 applications for its two annual batches and admitted fewer than 1.5 percent of them. The rejection rate is not a measure of bad ideas — it is a measure of poor communication. According to Dalton Caldwell, a partner at Y Combinator who has reviewed tens of thousands of submissions, the single most reliable predictor of a fundable pitch is not the novelty of the product but the clarity of the narrative: the founder's ability to move an investor from problem identification through market validation to a specific, quantified ask within ten minutes.
Vocabulary
- clarity of the narrative
- problem statement
- value proposition
- proof of concept
- addressable market
- traction
- ask
- unit economics
- burn rate
- analytical rigour
Grammar: Nominalisation
- Verb → noun phrase
- We will grow fast. → Projected growth of 40% annually. — remove the verb; lead with the noun
- Nominalisation in
- Market expansion across Southeast Asia remains the primary objective. — one noun phrase replaces a full clause
Discussion questions
- Tell me about a time you had to persuade someone powerful — what worked?
- When did you last fail to convince someone and why do you think it happened?
- Have you ever prepared a formal presentation that felt completely ready — and still went wrong?
What Investors Decide Before You Speak
Grammar: Nominalisation
What's in this lesson:
Full lesson plan with reading, grammar, vocabulary, and discussion.
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