[hooande]

You shouldn't declare yourself to be the underdog, it shows a lack of confidence. Other people will do that for you. Everyone loves a David vs Goliath story, but this seems like an unnecessary concession.

And you can't say "screw black swans", it doesn't work that way. The whole point of "black swan" is a completely unpredictable event. Even if 500 Startups accepted only d-list players, they wouldn't decrease their odds of unforeseeable success.

[josephlord]

Portraying yourself as the underdog does have some advantages provided you still believe you can win. It can inspire greater effort to beat the odds, it can remove some pressure of expectation and place that on the other side. It can also free you to take risks as you have less to lose.

There are disadvantages too if it gives the opposition healthy confidence of if you don't actually believe that you can win.

I'm British so maybe my attitude to underdogs is a bit different to the US one.