From a lawyer who specializes in venture fund creation – the five most important things that investors want to know at a minimum, when investing with you:
1. Length of time that your fund will be in existence.
2. Carry, ie. 15 or 20 points?
3. Management fee, ie. 2%? 4%?
4. Distributions, or how do they extract cash?
5. Structure, ie. Delaware LLP

Some really great thoughts from a Venture seminar:
1. “Own the Need” – get your target audience (ie. the investor or fund) to internalize the problem that your product or service will solve. If they don’t get it, they’ll never fund it.
I see parallels with this concept and what I believe in what type of product/service I should and should not work on. I truly believe that there are products and services that I am the wrong person to work on, even if user experience and design principles are very universal. Some things just don’t resonate with me, and they don’t have a specific place in my life or serve any purpose or need of mine. Because I can’t or have not internalized it, I can only take this kind of product so far.
Now I also believe that this has little correlation of whether this will be a successful product in the marketplace. The world is full examples of people building stuff that I would never use or I have no affinity for, and yet they are viable businesses.
So this is like getting your investors to “own the need”. If they don’t feel some affinity for it, you’ll never get their support or cash.
2. Lead then with marketing vision – Once you get them to “own the need” then show them how you’ll take it to market and win over users.
3. Convert the toughest accounts – If you can win their respect and support, the other accounts will follow.
4. Avoid lifestyle companies. By lifestyle, they mean that there are entrepeneurs out there will have, on the surface, a great idea, but are only there to take your money and support their expensive lifestyle. Bad for investors because they don’t really care about the business, but only for their own needs….

So far, I’ve been hearing that funding is really prolific right now in the Valley. But not for everyone…
Here is a guy who has been experiencing trouble getting funding. He attributes it to:
1. He’s not part of the old boy’s network in silicon valley. not known to VCs.
2. Hasn’t had a previous company attempt, whether successful or not.
3. No personal brand to fall back on. Yahoo’s brand carried a lot of weight but going independent is rough.
Some thoughts, learnings, and advice:
1. Don’t work with any entrepreneurs who have an overinflated sense of self worth or demands. They’ll just be trouble later.
2. Gotta be hungry. Experiencing hunger motivates and drives success more than anything.
3. Contributing money derives commitment. Without appearance of money from all parties, you’re not really committed.
(We had a long discussion about how money changes people, and how people can change dramatically)
4. “Psycho partners” – what psycho means is relative to the eye of the beholder, but one can experience a lot of different sides of someone else’s personality when doing business with them and when money is involved.
5. New entrepreneurs don’t know how hard it is to start a business. it takes way more work than people realize.
6. Doing business with friends and family is tough. Always threat of losing friends and family, and there is an added sense of responsibility and seriousness when involving friends/families.
7. Take money when you can get it. It’s harder than you think to raise money. worry about spending it later. better to have more money than none.
8. Don’t worry about dilution now. Establish credibility, relationship, and get money over arguing about ownership.
VCs want:
1. “Big idea” and huge returns for their money, not just small returns.
2. “Lying” – or maybe exaggerating the truth about returns and goals versus being straight and telling it like it is has worked better for him in getting VCs excited.
3. They like big balls and vision. Don’t want people with small outloooks.
4. Like founders and engineers in the same office. Don’t like remote offices as much.