Cockroaches or Venture Capitalist?

I hate to be so negative but I would rather lay still and let 1000 cockroaches crawl all over my naked body than to present my ideas to a venture capital group again. Why? They hate me, that's why. Does that sound too emotional to you? Unreasonable? Maybe even a tinny bit hysterical? Should I be more professional and not take things so personally? They didn't chew me up and spit me out because they think I'm full of shit. They simply think my idea is full of shit. Oh, okay, that's different.

Whew, okay, now that that's over. I can tell you about my adventure into venture funding.

I had some limited experience with seeking venture funding for the expansion our previous company. We ended up selling instead of expanding in October of 1999. After we sold the company I started to work on another one. This time was going to be different, I told myself. I would start by raising money like other dot com companies. No more bootstrapping for me. One of my advantages was the experience from our last dot com company. We were profitable! We sold for big cash! That's success! Isn't it? This time around I have a successful track record which would make the funding process easier. I guess I'd been reading too many positive-thinking books.

I began my funding efforts through the "incubator" companies that are supposedly set up for helping early stage technology companies get off to the right start. They profess to provide all the guidance, staffing and funding needed for their member companies to be successful. That sounded great. Most of these incubator companies have web forms that enable interested companies to fill out their information and then they look at your team and your idea and then, if they approve, your on your way. I believe these forms are pretty useless. I'll bet, although I'm not positive about this, that there hasn't been one company that has gone through that process and gotten funding without an inside track. The web-enabled screening process worsens the odds that you will be funded. Now instead of these guys looking at 100's of loser business plans a week they get to look at 1000's.

But with or without the outcome of funding, the process of trying does have merit for the early-stage company. For me it provided a deadline to get my plan together. Deadlines help me. And a plan is a really good thing. The process helped me get clear on what I wanted. It wasn't a waste of time, although the process isn't what I would describe as enjoyable. Standing in front of eight guys who have no interest in anything you say - even before you say it - is tough but has its rewards.