Use a rifle, not a shotgun, when hunting Venture Capital

It takes an exorbitant amount of time, money and mental bandwidth to raise capital. Under today’s market conditions, one should expect to spend no less than six to nine months, $100,000 and 500 hours of senior management’s time to prepare, target, pitch, negotiate, paper and close a venture capital financing (i.e. an investment of anywhere from $2-15 million from an institutional professional investor into an emerging growth company).

That is just the simple reality of attracting outside investors and then converting their interest in your opportunity into money in your company’s bank account.

Can you shorten the time frame? Yes, but only if you act counter-intuitively to your first instinct, and use a sniper’s rifle and not a shotgun when targeting investors.
One of the biggest mistakes that entrepreneurs make in pursuing capital is over shopping or shot-gunning their deal. Most entrepreneurs, once they’ve put the finishing touches on their financial model, business plan, executive summary, elevator pitch and 12 slide investor presentation, feel the need to flog it to each and every person they meet.

By SEAN WISE

Full Story: http://www.canadait.com/cfm/index.cfm?It=106&Id=23275&Se=0&Lo=2

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(Before you do anything, get a copy of SMARTUPS by Rob Ryan http://www.entrepreneur-america.com/ . It’s got many of the answers you’ll need to get funded. Russ)