My personal experience contradicts this - and as context to that statement I've raised about 10 rounds from EU, US and Asian investors. Some of his points (e.g

My personal experience contradicts this - and as context to that statement I've raised about 10 rounds from EU, US and Asian investors. Some of his points (e.g. about not being shopworn) have some validity, but that can be avoided/mitigated with the right positioning and the upsides outweigh it. My advice would be: * Make it really clear you're not raising money yet. Don't pitch, don't take any slides/laptop, just have coffee with them. Talk about your business in a straight-forward/relaxed manner. This often bypasses the VC's pitch-defences (they've had 10 businesses already that week talk about how spectacular they are, and how they are world-leaders in a billion dollar market). * Position it that at some point in the future once you've hit your next milestones. Define those milestones as things you feel extremely confident (and not just as an optimistic entrepreneur) that you will hit. * At the end of the meeting, if you think you like them, ask them - 'so would you be interested in hearing from us when we're ready with our round?' as a soft conditional-close. VC's never like to say no (they just show interest, then stall), so they'll give you a yes as it costs them little. Also be prepared to ask their advice and for intros and use the fact VC's talk to your advantage. Ask them if this deal is in their space, and if not, are there any VC's they'd recommend you spoke to. Second only to making money VC's like to look smart and networked. So if you're credible, they can often introduce you to other VCs, or even useful industry contacts. * When you are then ready to raise, you have a warm prospect you can call on, and you gain credibility by hitting the milestones you talked about. It should be easy to position the partner you first spoke to into an internal champion, by letting him position it as a company he'd been tracking for a while, and that they are one of the first people you'd pitched to as a result.