(Summary reprinted from SUCCESSFUL STARTUPS, Chapter XI, page 160)

(1) OPPORTUNITY ANALYSIS: 
While the broader conclusions of this important success factor bear on why someone should invest in the entrepreneur’s vision, the message is hopefully clear: only carefully thought-out, scrupulously market-tested and verified large-scale opportunities in a growing market segment will be funded. Innovative, break-through business models and solutions, developed by a successful entrepreneur, will be first in line for a check when the valuation is reasonable.
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(2) MARKET VALIDATION: 
The experts are firm on this key venture-building issue: unless the entrepreneur’s team can present reliable, positive, quantitative evidence that the target client and market will purchase large numbers of the proposed product, the venture will not attract professional investors.  And the best-suited evidence to present is always purchase orders, invoices and accounts receivable.
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(3) MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE:
The second most-important question, once the venture’s business model has proven traction, is whether the founder and his/her team can produce the goods.  Industry and product marketing experience gained while managing a successful venture or department are huge assets but so are imagination, the drive to succeed and a disposition toward fiscal control and judicious corporate governance.
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(4) FINANCIAL PROJECTIONS:
Here the experts preach restraint and objectively as key virtues in number crunching because investors rarely see this practiced.  Many new ventures underestimate the cost and time needed to market validate a product, and over-estimate the start and volume of revenue generation, and consequently run out of money before their new world vision has a chance to succeed.  It’s OK to be optimistic, but being creditable with financial projections will earn more points when you really need them.
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(5) THE MARKETING MODEL:
Designing and implementing a successful marketing plan and strategy is an absolute, quantitative professional skill requiring a lot of practice.  The critical success issue here is whether you, the founder and CEO, have these skills in spades, or have someone by your side who knows how to reach and sell your customer.  Clever, successful marketing is built on both sophisticated testing and selecting the right customer-conversion tool.  Investors love to hear how you will do it.
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(6) COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS:
To disrupt a market and destroy the competition is the goal, and investors simply want to know if your product has the iron-clad, built-in differential to do this.  The more loudly you can parade this documented competitive differential, with confidence, the easier it is to proceed with a successful startup.  If there is no competition then you’d better be prepared to explain how you will create a new market with limited funds.
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(7) INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY:
If your product really has patentable properties, you go to the head of the line in terms of risk reduction.  You need to decide strategically when you can afford to prove and document this considerable advantage by using expensive professionals.  Our advice is to do some low-cost online research on your own to clear the title of your company and product names, and then seek out a patent expert who will guide you in the preparation of a provisional filing just to get into the fray.  Later you can focus on pushing the patent application with direct professional help when revenues will support this expensive, lengthy process.
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(8) VENTURE STRUCTURE:
Given all the other priorities entrepreneurs must confront, and the fact that a venture is constantly changing in some way, getting the right structure in place immediately is one tough challenge.  It is also an action that if done incorrectly will create its own set of problems.  The only consistent solution is a combination of experience and outside professional skills, and the entrepreneur must buy these one way or another.  The investor is either attracted or repulsed by the corporate structure of a new venture, so experts advise you to spend the time and money to get it right.
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(9) EQUITY PLACEMENT:
There are some lyrics in an old jazz song that shout: “First you say yes, then you say no…”  This is precisely what you have to do in producing a marketable, yet legally defensible, equity offering document.  As with Venture Structure, this is a skillful art form best practiced by really experienced entrepreneurs, advisors, and legal eagles all working together.  There is no single recipe as each deal is somewhat different, but there are huge amounts of available documentation examples to follow.  Like creative marketing, the best advice is to simply know and match your customer’s requirements, i.e., the investor.
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