Tips to help you raise capital for your deal
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"The formula for success in business is to recognize opportunity, follow a realistic business plan, engage experienced and honest professionals, nurture a passion to succeed, focus, focus, focus, and never give up."  Robert T. Koveleskie, president Bizfin.com

• Accept the reality that financing your deal is going to be very difficult.
• Do a budget of what it will cost to finance the offering (legal, accounting, business plan, marketing, misc). Have the money before you begin.
• Be positive, professional, informed, focused, get lots of exposure for your deal, and network.
• If selling your deal by yourself, have indications of interest from accredited investors of at least 60 percent before beginning.
• You need only one VC or BD (Broker-Dealer) to say yes, and your next contact could be that one.
• If your deal has sound economics, all materials prepared by an experienced securities attorney, you have a chance to have a BD underwrite your deal.
• There is money out there for your deal, but you will have to turn many stones to find it.
• Your business should have a potential of at least 30 to 40%. ROI for investors to have interest. 
• To attract institutional capital you should have an IPO target date within 3 to 5 years, after first-stage capital.
• To attract institutional capital, the potential revenues of your product or services in five years should be $300-$500 million and growing around 25% a year.
• Use realistic numbers in the pro-forma. 
• Look at your deal as a three-leg stool: Economics, documents and materials, marketing. Absent one leg, your deal won't stand.
• There should be an absence of any major present competition for your product or service.
• On all correspondence use black print, white paper, Times Roman or Arial font, no color, no fancy fonts.
• Don't insult the VC or the Broker-Dealer with statements like "the Internet has a future" or "medicine is an important field."
• Always send crisp, spell-checked, and professional correspondence
• Submit your deal first to the capital sources closest to your home base. 
• Get professional help with your business plan. Get the cost in writing and get references.
• An early request for an investor to sign a Confidentiality Agreement will usually get your material unread.
• Expect to give away 40% of your company in return for venture capital or angles.
• Before taking money from a VC be sure their objectives and philosophies align with yours.
• Have an experienced management team in place who knows your product and the market for it.
• Don't pay up-front fees with promises of getting financed. 
• Adhere to all Regulation "D" securities laws.
• Before contacting a VC, visit their website to find out what their preferences are in terms of $-size, sector, and geography.
• Send a crisp one-page cogent synopsis to pre-screened sources. Use it to get the investor asking for more info.
• Use a max three-page executive summary to send after a brief synopsis--only upon request of the capital source.
• Do research of Reg "D" before going to an attorney.
• Send a business plan only upon request. Address the cover letter to the VC or Broker-Dealer contact person.
• State in the cover letter that you will be following up with a telephone call in two weeks--and do it.
• Include a postage-paid-return-envelope with your business plan. It will save printing more business plans.
• Maintain a contact log: name, mailing address, e-mail address, phone number, and date.
• Don't pester anyone to invest. It's their money let them invest where they want.
• Don't depend on relatives for your capital.
• Don't allow investors to invest if they have marginal finances.
• When selling an Offering, take checks only, and immediately deposit them in an escrow account.
• Don't spend any money from the offering until you legally break escrow.
• Use only an attorney having Reg "D" experience. Don't allow a lawyer to learn on your deal, get references and call them, get the legal cost in writing.
• Have a marketing budget and use it to get all the exposure you can get, within regulatory guidelines.
• Make no promises about future success of the deal or statements that are not in your offering material.
• Accept that you will have to pay the going rate in legal finder's fees and commissions--2% to 10%, maybe some equity. 
• Be forthright, conservative, and above all be honest in the complete process. 
• Follow federal and state securities regulations to the letter.
• Ask for references whenever you retain any services and call them.
• From beginning to end it can take you a year to raise capital and even longer--be prepared to survive.
• If you get depressed and discouraged it's a sign you are getting near the end of the tunnel. Press on.
• When you find venture capital consider yourself very fortunate. Less than one deal out of a thousand is financed by a VC.
• Most likely you will raise capital selling your deal to angel investors.
• Turn every stone in your search, focus, and if you believe in your deal: never, never, never give up.