One of the fun things I sometimes do is help startups with various aspect of their business. Naturally, often these are risk, security and commerce startups; however, as an Israeli in the Valley I am also often asked to give feedback before a fund raising trip for Israeli, and sometimes European, startups.

When looking at pitch decks and listening to founders talk about their work, I hear almost nothing different than some of the most talented young entrepreneurs that I meet in California: same drive and enthusiasm, product and technology understanding, care for users and creation of value. However it’s quite often that I start my feedback by saying: “You have a great team, product and market, but the way you deliver your pitch you’ll have a really hard time getting funded around here.”

The reason? They don’t talk the talk. Their lingo is off.

Some of you may scoff. “Talking the talk” is a lot of time connected to hype, lack of substance, hustle with no meaning. That is not the case. Communicating value and traction is almost as important as creating it, since without the realization that value is created, you’ll have a hard time getting others on board. It has been demonstrated, through a series of researches starting as far back as the 70s, that native speakers tend to underestimate non native speakers with heavy accents on many aspects including intelligence, work competence and social status. Unfair? Maybe, but an important reality you must accept and learn to work with so you can succeed. It is not only about accent, though; it’s also about the words you use to communicate your ideas. There’s a lot of (rightful) snark around terms like “growth hacker”, “data scientist”, “social media expert” etc. and I’m not suggesting that you fall into the trap of using only hyped up terms (that would peg you even more as a provincial noob). Consider these questions: what’s considered an engaged user? What counts as traction? What are DAU and MAU and when are they relevant? Do you say “top line” or “revenues”? Should you describe yourself as “the X for Y”? Are you innovating, disrupting or ground breaking (or neither)? Using the right terms matters.

How do you do that? Approaches vary, and depend on the time you have available. Max Levchin, not one to take the easy way out, is one of those who invested a lot of time. He once told the story of how, as a teenager, he forced his Russian accent away by listening to and imitating American movies. You may not be available to take something like this on, though. The second best alternative is, like in any online forum, to lurk around until you get it. Reading Valley-speak-heavy blogs like TC and PandoDaily is one way to go, but participating in meetups such as Hackers & Founder and 106 Miles and hearing how others pitch their ideas is a priceless experience. Last but not least, practicing with a native speaker before you pitch is a very good idea.

Raising money is never an easy process, be there a bubble or excess of funds or whatever other story publications are now selling. You need to be able to tell your story in a way that resonates with people, and much like you wouldn’t expect pitching only in your native language, you must be prepared to use the right lingo for the right ideas. Too often do I see founders missing that point and ending up making a much lesser of an impression than they should. Don’t let that come between you and continuing to grow your company.