Chapter 18Raising Money

You have a great idea and now all you need is the money to fund it. Friends, family, and fools are usually the first stop on the funding train. However, I strongly discourage people from seeking funding for their start-up from friends or family. They are generally the worst people to have as investors.

Friends and family usually aren’t sophisticated investors and don’t have the disposable funds to invest in your untested start-up. For every success story of parents draining their retirement savings to fund their son’s new social networking site for cats, there are untold numbers of failures. This can make Thanksgiving and Christmas a lot more awkward. People who aren’t used to investing in early-stage companies aren’t ...

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