7 Hard-Won Lessons on Founders, Funding, and Fear

1. A great entrepreneur is relatively disciplined but not patient. Drive outweighs discipline.

2. Before investing, angels want the big return. After investing, angels want risk mitigation. It’s human nature.

3. Sustainability is always a nonprofit’s number one challenge.

4. Most of the leads we get come from proactive efforts we made to generate them. “If we build it, they will come” is a faulty principle.

5. People don’t fund ideas. They fund businesses.

6. When a prospective investor raises a concern about you or your business, what you say matters not. It will always be there, even if he funds the deal. Can you live with that?

7. You know you got it and have to do it when you come to this conclusion: What it can be is more important than the fear of me failing.