Dear high-tech friends and startup/entrepreneur types: you gotta stop beginning every answer with “so” – it’s just not hip anymore.
The origin of this is likely some entrepreneur who was tired of having to repeat the same pitch over and over again. And he or she sounded so cool doing it that his fellow Stanford Business School pals probably emulated it. (GO BEARS)
Each prospective funder would ask the same questions, and it must seem annoying to have to repeat. So (sic) the person starts their answer with “so, the neat thing is____”
“So…” implies
1) I’ve been saying this to a lot of people
2) I already know where you’re going with this
3) You may think your question is insightful but it’s not, I’ve answered this dozens of times
4) You’re actually not asking the right question, let me help you with what you probably meant to ask
5) I know more about this than you
6) You’re coming into this topic really late, let me help you catch up
7) This is really complicated and now I’m going to simplify it for you because I’m smarter than you
8) I’m generally arrogant, but I would like to think I’m not
For those of you who have been using “so” to preface most of your answers, this is going to be tough to change. But it will help.
So… we’re going to leave it at that.