No. 10: People don’t fund ideas. They fund businesses.

14. A great entrepreneur is relatively disciplined but not patient. Drive outweighs discipline.13. Before investing, angels want the big return. After investing, angels want risk mitigation. It’s human nature.12. Sustainability is always a nonprofit’s number one challenge.11. Most of the leads we get come from something we did proactively to generate the lead. “If we build it, they will come” is a faulty principle.10. People don’t fund ideas. They fund businesses.9. When a prospective investor voices a concern about you or your business, it matters not what you say. It will always be there, even if he funds the deal. Can you live with that?8. 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.7. If you have a problem or concern about what is going on, talk to the person in charge. Office chatter is distracting and organizationally life draining.6. When do you start spending more freely in your startup? When you have figured it out and know your return on investment.5. How you think about yourself directly correlates to how you treat others.4. If you can complete an online course successfully, you probably have the discipline to be a successful entrepreneur.3. Character, competence, and compatibility are the three C’s of an investable entrepreneur.2. An exit gives you a new and bigger platform to influence others.1. If you are raising money on zero revenue, know it will cost you a ton of equity.