As Cohen noted, it's a result of seeing so many pitches that investors can offer insights into what works and what doesn't work in a pitch. Here are a few of the most common mistakes that Cohen along with other investors list:

1. The pitch lacks clarity

You should be able to give a clear description of what your company does - what needs it meets and how it does so. This should be short and succinct - think "elevator pitch."

2. You don't talk about your team

As Chris Dixon suggests, you want to pitch yourself not your ideas. In other words, it's important to be able to describe what it is about you and your team that gives you the skills to accomplish your business's goals. Highlight what you've done in your past in order to demonstrate your abilities.

Thanks to the most devastating recession in decades and dramatic shifts in the venture industry, finding investors to write those first checks is a frustrating, time-sucking process for entrepreneurs – but that doesn’t mean they can’t be particular.

If you’re startup owner, it’s important to remember that you don’t need to take money from just any VC.

Venture capital, at its core, is the business world’s equivalent of a long-term, nearly inseparable, relationship.  You are marrying your investor.

Like any good relationship, it’s best if the two parties have a lot in common. They should have experience in the same areas. They should be good communicators. There should also have good give-and-take skills, as well as mutual tolerance, because periodic disagreements are inevitable. What counts when that happens is whether those disagreements can be resolved amicably and successfully. If these situations aren’t met, the venture capital you attract is just fool’s gold.

Here are four tips to keep in mind before you take any venture capital:

I was catching up over coffee and a muffin with a student I hadn’t seen for years who’s now CEO of his own struggling startup.  As I listened to him present the problems of matching lithium-ion battery packs to EV powertrains and direct drive motors, I realized that he had a built a product for a segment of the electric vehicle market that possibly could put his company on the right side of a major industry discontinuity.

(Editor’s note: Carl Showalter is a general partner with Opus Capital. He submitted this story to VentureBeat.)

  While the economy is finally showing signs of life, securing capital for early-stage ventures hasn’t gotten any easier- so it seems timely to let start-up owners in on the criteria by which they will be judged.

 

Each year our firm typically reviews more than 2,500 companies seeking seed or Series A funding and invests in between six and twelve. Here’s how we judge a young company’s viability.

First of all, we evaluate deals on three axes: The team, the market and the technology or product.

• We want a team with domain expertise in the market space—individuals who can see the opportunities in that market before they are apparent to others and can use that vision to become early movers in the market.
• We want the company to be targeting a market that is nascent or even nonexistent. It needs to be a market the entrepreneurs believe will, at some point, grow rapidly, creating an opportunity for the company to move faster than any incumbents.
• The company needs to have a product with some level of defensibility – something that’s not easily replicable once the market becomes more obvious to others.

In addition to these primary criteria, there also has to be a scalable business model that can generate interesting valuation multiples over time. Having a good way to make money is not enough; a high-growth market to support it and a team and product that can take advantage of that market opportunity are essential.

The next step is to ask hard questions across these three axes. If you’re in the hunt for capital, here are some of the questions you’re likely to hear:

Below you will find an outline for the posts I’ve done on how to raise VC.

The initial section covers what to do before you approach a VC (or if you should even raise VC at all), the middle section is what the presentation you send should look like and the final session covers what to do after the meeting.  If there a post description but no link it means I have not written the post yet.  If you need that covered urgently please write a comment and I’ll prioritize it.

Also, if there is a topic you’d like me to write about and it’s not on the list feel free to suggest it.

I’m not known for brevity.  Sorry.  I’ll try to be better in the future. If you take the time to click on the the links and read these, though, there is a lot of practical information on the fund raising process.  I’ve pitched maybe 100 times on the entrepreneur’s side of the table and had about 75 “no’s” (but I have had about 25 “yes’s”).  I’ve sat through hundreds of pitches on the other side of the table.  This gives me some interesting perspectives.

Thank you.