If you are an entrepreneur looking for venture capital, you are probably well aware of the frustrations in finding loose purse strings in the financial markets. Your business is too new or your product is still too untried to qualify for conventional intermediate- or long-term debt financing. Or, although you know you might qualify for a loan, you do not want to take on the risk of more debt.
A version of this article appeared in the March 1987 issue of Harvard Business Review.
