[jasonlbaptiste]

It's like winning a lottery if you're raising for the wrong reasons, at the wrong time, or in the wrong market.

Wrong reasons- Not for growth but to "build a prototype"

Wrong time- Not seeing growth or the opportunity where the money could clearly make you a leader

Wrong market- Very few markets warrant VC money. Think again- Can what I'm building have a potential 9 figure exit or 10x money in. That requires a very very big market. "Oh it's a 6 billion dollar market." rule of thumb ill occasionally use with no specific scientific backing: is your TAD (total addressable market) smaller than Google's recent quarterly revenues?

[MicahWedemeyer]

No offense, but have you personally raised VC money? I see from your profile that you live in Silicon Valley, where they tell me such things are possible (although I'm still highly skeptical). Here in Atlanta it's definitely just a myth.

For the average Joe here on HN, the chances of raising VC money are about as good as the chances of getting drafted to a baseball team. Maybe you can get angel money, and by angel I mean "Mom & Dad", but even that's a risky bet.

You're much better off just working on your startup and bootstrapping off of revenue & other-work money.