I thought this too initially - "just make the fake data look professional."

Where it broke down for me: investors with technical backgrounds would ask edge case questions ("show me how this handles 10K records" or "what does error handling look like with real load?"). The fake environment couldn't simulate that complexity authentically.

The other issue was muscle memory. When I'm demoing something I use daily, I'm fast and fluent. In a fake environment, I'd hesitate or click wrong because it's not my real workflow. Investors noticed.

Have you found ways around those issues?