How to raise money without lying to investors

I think the biggest problem with VC's is that there is absolutely no quality control. When an entrepreneur decides to raise money, we will need to talk to at least 20 to 50 firms and most of the VC's that we speak to really have no clue as to what it takes to build a sustainable business. So after a while, if all we do is to chase after VC money, we become part of their echo chamber. My experience is that VC's are not miracle workers. I believe one study shows that 5% of the VC’s make 95% of the money. Therefore as entrepreneurs, we are competing with 95% of the dogs for 5% of the meat. I think bootstrapping is very important for both entrepreneurs and for the VC's. In my experience, the only way to have a meaningful conversation with VC's is when we are already shipping products. I usually don't even prepare a separate PowerPoint presentation. Instead I start the meeting by saying, "Let me show you how I convince customer ABC to buy our product". Life is good after that.

The following is a good read if you want to learn more about VC's from an entrepreneur's perspective.

http://www.startupforless.org/2007/10/how-to-turn-your-vc-in...

Impossible.

It says the solution is to simply find VC's that are different... great they all say they're different.

Ok, let's assume we find 4 VC's that _are_ different, you go through the exact same process as always: first make a list of who you want as a VC and do a targeted campaign, then widen the list, then widen it again, then say screw it and just do a scatter-shot strategy where you... gasp... where you have to lie to them for all the reasons in the article.