This advice applies to a lot more than just startups. Any time you're asking someone for (real) money -- grants, etc -- the evaluation will be like this: 1) W

This advice applies to a lot more than just startups. Any time you're asking someone for (real) money -- grants, etc -- the evaluation will be like this: 1) What are you proposing to do? (proposal) 2) Will it make any difference? (market/impact) 3) Can you get it done? (personnel/environment) That's it. If you can't knock every one of these out of the park in a few short sentences, you are unlikely to be funded by either the private or public sector. And before anyone remarks on how different the two are, note that the SBIR/STTR program is mandated by Congress to pay out every penny of their granting budget each year to try and turn publicly-funded research into privately successful companies.