[malvosenior]

Cool post. IANAVC but...

As per my other comment, traction is going to trump all of the strengths you list. As insane as it sounds, this: "solid businesses, great ideas, growing revenues, and strong earnings" is actually going to be a red flag.

VCs want HUGE wins. "Solid" is not what they're going for. They also need to see the opportunity to take over the entire industry. I'm not a B2B guy but in consumer software that means you need to be on track to acquire millions of users.

Having solid revenues, models and a working cash flow system implies a certain amount of lock-in to the way you are doing things now. Are you on an exponential growth trend? If not, then anything standing between you and a pivot (like paying customers) is going to be a hurdle for the investors to get over.

As for the clubbyness -- you're damn right it's too clubby! It's an unfortunate fact that investors come from a pretty insular world. Thankfully if you can show traction, it's going to open a lot of doors that wouldn't open based on who you currently are (or are perceived to be). If you have a rapidly growing base of customers/users, investors will chase you down. If you don't, you need to reevaluate your desire for investment or your focus (traction, traction, traction!)