[balls187]

> make it clear that you aren't interested in investing in their company, but want to go for coffee/lunch/whatever on a purely personal basis.

You're 100% right (which is why I said don't mislead).

However, this is far more nuanced, than I first imagined. From purely a dating perspective, I'm not sure how a guy could recover from rejecting a women professionally, to getting her to accepting a date.

I guess the circumstances would have to be something like investment thesis don't align "we do biotech, your company is education."

In startups, I'd argue that founders personal lives and their businesses are inextricably linked, and rejecting one, is tantamount to rejecting the other.

Which makes for an inbalanced dynamic as acabrahams mentioned, which could be troublesome.