Want to know why they won’t fund your business?

I recently came across Mike Belsito, because we’re authors in a similar space. Note I spoke with three other authors in this space who are coming out with books this year (like I am) and many gave me the cold shoulder… I won’t name names – but you won’t see their books on my recommended list like Mike’s is. Btw, if you want pre-release content from my book sign-up here. I read Mike”s book Startup Seed Funding for the Rest of Us: How to Raise Million for Your Startup – Even Outside of Silicon Valley in a single sitting and was nodding my head and saying “exactly” over and over again.

The things Mike talks about in his book feels like a repeat of every entrepreneur coffee I’ve ever had… how should I think about funding my business, what are investors looking for, but what if I’m not in the ‘valley’. Mike nails most of these on the head! These are fundamental problems that every entrepreneur, especially first time entrepreneurs face…

• When should you raise capital? before or after traction?
• How should you raise capital?
• What does a business look like that raises capital?
• What is a value-add investor anyway?

Mike covers all of these and many more in his book plus the website with free resources.

I would say that with the introduction of AngelList syndicates more ‘valley’ capital is being deployed outside the valley than in the past. I work with a great group of syndicates under Gil Penchina’s Uprising banner and we look at a lot of deals all over the country (plus Canada and the UK).

Back to Mike’s book – I had a bunch of thoughts that I scribbled down while reading it, so even if your an experienced investor/mentor or entrepreneur it is worth a read due to Mike’s direct style and easy to read prose.

In lifestyle businesses, software design/development can be a commodity and outsourced. In venture scale businesses, software contributes to the moat and can’t be outsourced.

No, founder teams aren’t married… they’re just in a 10-20 year relationship with kids.

Evidence that commodity businesses aren’t venture scale is that they focus on process and lowest cost provider – Most investors are looking for creative (hackers & hipsters) and relationship (Suit) talent… no one is looking for an efficiency expert on the founding team of a venture business.

In the land of a million great opportunities, you need more than cash to convince the best people to join your team.