Most investments in a start-up company, from the smallest “seed” financing that may be based on little more than an idea for a start-up, to a $50 million round for a profitable company preparing to go public, is preceded by an entrepreneur standing in a room explaining why venture capitalists should part with their money.

We asked Brian Jacobs, general partner with Emergence Capital Partners, a San Mateo, Calif.-based technology investor that is investing out of a $200 million fund raised in 2007, to take us behind the scenes of a typical company pitch and explain what goes through the mind of an investor as he’s watching and listening.

The slides below are a selection from an actual presentation made by Emergence Capital portfolio company InsideView Inc., a San Francisco-based company selling software that helps salespeople find new clients, improve existing relationships and close deals. The information is customized for each user and is provided through a Web-crawling search engine that finds and filters potentially important sales leads and information from in new social media sites and other emerging data sources. The presentation was shown to new investors, but eventually the company chose to accept the insiders’ investment proposal which resulted in an $11.5 million insider Series B financing in April from Emergence Capital, Rembrandt Venture Partners and Greenhouse Capital Partners. The company has now raised more than $25 million.

We interviewed Jacobs while looking at the slide presentation, which was similar to the one he saw that first spurred his firm to invest in the company. He took us into the mindset of a VC as he decides whether to, as Jacobs says, “give away millions to people we’ve just met.”

What qualities do you look for in entrepreneurs?

"We are always looking for a few things, and they really don't ever change," Fates told ReadWriteWeb. "We look for strong people with experience and leadership qualities that have either the technological knowledge or that something special that allows them to be a leader."

I hear a lot about how a VC invests more in the entrepreneurs than the business idea itself, so it's not surprising that Fates jumps right to the quality of people when considering potential investments. A team with experience and leadership will go much further with an okay business idea than will a team with a great idea but neither of these qualities.