

 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Raising Money - eladgil
http://blog.eladgil.com/2010/08/20-questions-to-ask-yourself-before.html

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tptacek
A simpler, more important question you should probably answer first:

 _If you are completely and utterly unable to raise enough external funding
for your current product concept to become viable, how will you modify your
go-to-market plan or your product to make your business viable?_

Put differently:

 _In the likely event that you fail to raise, how will you bootstrap?_

Two reasons:

First, towards the end of this list, the author mentions "what's your BATNA".
Your BATNA is crucial; it's probably 100% of your negotiating leverage. For a
first-time entrepreneur, getting funded without any significant leverage is
like winning the lottery: it does happen... but.

So, you'll have better luck raising if you have a real plan B. You'll be
harder to jerk around (VC in particular will absolutely jerk you around).
You'll be better able to allocate your efforts between real opportunities and
product/market development.

Second, you are probably going to fail at raising external money. Nothing
personal. Most first-timers are probably going to fail at raising external
money.

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eladgil
Great point. I think this is a broader question - what are all the ways you
can fund the business? _Can you have customers pay for development?_ Can you
file for a government grant? *Can you take out a loan?

In many cases, one of these routes may be superior then raising external money
to begin with...

