A few savvy entrepreneurs have picked up on August Capital general partner David Hornik's frustration with his recent online shopping experience for a barbecue by incorporating that into their pitches to him.

One search startup demoed their barbecue search function during a pitch. David said it was better than anything else he'd seen so far. Another entrepreneur made a good impression by referencing the barbecue search challenge and showing how his startup's technology could be applied to that problem. David wrote on his blog that he may not fund either entrepreneur, but both made positive impressions by personalizing their pitches to him.

Now, I'm not a bigshot VC that has a $550 million fund to invest so I don't expect the same response as David received. But, I did want to note that I am having trouble shopping for a new bed online. The one I want at Restoration Hardware takes 45 days to arrive. No wonder the company just hired a new chief operating officer. The others I like are too expensive. So, if anyone out there knows a good furniture shopping site or furniture search service, please let me know.

Tags: august+capital, david+hornik, vc, venture capital