Startup Secret No. 4: I've got the brains, you've got the looks

The entrepreneur/funder relationship is not one of two equals. Use that to your advantage.

Rafe Needleman Former Editor at Large

Rafe Needleman reviews mobile apps and products for fun, and picks startups apart when he gets bored. He has evaluated thousands of new companies, most of which have since gone out of business.

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Rafe Needleman

Dec. 9, 2011 9:01 a.m. PT

"Raising money is the art of young people seducing older people."

--Via a prominent angel investor (who didn't want credit but isn't hard to find).

If you're out there on the circuit trying to separate someone from his or her greenbacks, remember what they are buying: Hope. Youth. Excitement. Risk.

As it is during a seduction of the physical kind, the brain's higher functions may come in to play only late in the negotiation, and only to justify the baser desires and instincts that are flooding the mind of person being seduced.

So be exciting. Be brash. Be clever. Be charming. Whatever the person holding the checkbook is, be the opposite. That's what they're paying for.

Startup Secrets is based on personal interviews with people building companies and from their blog posts and news stories. Subscribe to Startup Secrets on Twitter or come back to Rafe's Radar every day for a new one. See all the Startup Secrets.