Welcome to the 10-minute entrepreneur podcast, intended to equip and encourage business owners and

aspiring entrepreneurs, taught by active business owner, best-selling author, and teacher, Sean

Castrina. All right, Sean Castrina with the 10-minute entrepreneur podcast. The most valuable 10 minutes you will get in any podcast, the most information that will help you start and grow a business. It will help you unstuck your existing business. Let's jump right into it. What we're going to talk about today is how you get funding from investors.

The title, you got to have a fancy title, seven bells you need to ring to attract an investor

for your funding. Okay, these are the seven bells. Okay? If you ever watch, I forgot that show

on TV where they, with the gladiators and they have to keep going from one section

to the next section you kind of hit a bell at the end well you need to hit all seven of these

if you want an investor to put money into your startup again this isn't going to your family and

friends i don't think that's always a great idea. And if you ever do go to a family

and friend for money, my rule is this. Never take money from somebody who cannot afford to lose

it. Next, never take money from a family or a friend unless you would bet your life on your

idea because it will make the next family get together extremely awkward when you

owe somebody $50,000 or something like that.

All right, let's go through the seven bells you need to ring.

First one, you need to clearly show an investor who is considering funding your startup proof of concept okay they need to know

they absolutely need to see that there is a proof of concept so that it will you know it's going to

work you know they need to know they know that your product and service does what it says it's

going to do. And so, you know, you better have this, okay? You better have this. All right. Number two,

you have a competitive advantage that will differentiate you from others. Okay, you're pitching your idea to them.

They want to know how are you going to be different. And I always say Shark Tank is very similar

to how it's going to go. But you propose your product and then you have other, you know,

competitors out there assuming you're not in a completely blue ocean with nobody else near you.

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