10 Tips to Help You Grab the Money

8. You must have the patience of an alligator waiting for prey. Most investors are juggling a multitude of existing portfolio companies and closing deals on other investments, so you are left staring at your Blackberry hoping to get the call that will move you forward to an offer.

9. Keep sending positive information. In our case, we had prospects call us asking when our service would be up and running. We would forward the e-mails to our potential investors.

10. Don't throw yourself at venture capitalists' feet begging for the money. At the same time, don't take a long time to provide information or the investors will question your desire and work ethic.

Finally, if you get a term sheet, which less than 1% of entrepreneurs are lucky enough to receive, have knowledgeable people look it over and provide feedback. My initial view of our term sheet was negative until I sat back and realized I wasn't taking any financial risk. My outside advisors, all experienced in such matters, gave the deal a thumbs up with a few suggested tweaks that turned out to be very helpful.