Getting in front of investors takes several steps. Columbus extracted $1.5 Trillion in gold and silver from a $14k investment by sailing west and discovering the America’s. Solve problems, create businesses to solve those problems. 75% of small businesses used some kind of financing in 2015-2016. Where’s the money?. How can I gain access?. What will it take to persuade them to give/lend it to me?. The baseline question in all these situations, will your business make me money?. Only three things separate entrepreneurs who’s companies get funded from those that don’t…. Information. Acccess. Expertise. Investors need quality deal flow. Most early stage investors will only look at a deal if someone they know and trust brought them the deal. We need to know who we are trying to connect with. People that will already have an association with notes apps or wanting to write things down. Twos advisory board. Overall survival rate for tech startup companies: 20%. Overall survival rate for early stage tech firms that complete one of the mentoring programs offered by incubators: 80%. Dream It Ventures. 500 startups. There are millions of reasons a potential investor will not invest in your company. Your idea came in ‘cold’ aka did not come with a recommendation from someone they know. Use your networks to gain access to warm introductions with key decision makers. Develop the expertise to get through the funding process successfully. Do everything to position ourselves in the best way possible. Investors identify high potential entrepreneurs from two key characteristics. The entrepreneur understands the investors objectives. The entrepreneur builds their startup with the exit strategy in mind. When entrepreneurs know how investors think it gives them the opportunity to present themselves for the most likely yes. Clear, irresistible offer. Nine numbers you need to crack the funding code. Who knew that any one of the most popular apps (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook) would become part of our daily lives.. The most successful entrepreneurs often had what seemed to be some of the craziest ideas. But they also had passion, understood the mind of their investors, had great business plans, and were able to explain in clear and compelling terms what their business was going to accomplish.. Even with the best business and pitch in the world you will still get rejected.. Every entrepreneur knows the key to success is persistence.. Columbus had never captained an expedition and had been rejected by many investors, until Queen Isabella gave him the money.