How do you get your first investors?  Patience, perseverance and a lot of faith! (and remember, hope for 6 months of hard pitching once your materials are ready, but PLAN for 12 months!)

• Patience to find your investors (I called 100+)
• I had a rule that I would call TWO (2) new contacts every day (so I didn't just spin in circles calling the same people and feeling busy)
• One friend recommended that whenever you got turned down, ask for a referral.  They're not easy to get, but it doesn't hurt to ask
  
• Network network network for investors
• It's an opportunity
• You're not "asking for money", you're providing an opportunity to invest in a win
• You're not "asking for money", you're offering a chance to make money. 
• Change your attitude and you'll change how they perceive you
• Leverage your university ties
• The Stanford network is particularly strong, if your alma mater's isn't get after them! 
  
• Get on mailing lists, get access to alumni databases, you need to extend your reach
• Particularly in the heartland, reaching out to larger markets, where there are folks with "larger wins" is CRUCIAL to your success
• Less than 20% of my funding came from Utah.  About 90% came from either direct or indirect Stanford connections (my MBA is from the Stanford GS.  The rest of it came from BYU contacts (my undergrad).
  
• DON'T focus on the local "rich folks", they get hit up all the time.  Of the funds that came from Utah, it all came through referrals from the Stanford network, and they were investors who "usually didn't invest in Utah"
• Especially in the middle (in the middle of the U.S. or the middle of the "rest of the world", if you want any chance of standing out with the local investors who are investing, just not always locally, you have to be a "standout deal" and you'll get their by getting introduced from outside the state. 
  
• Get smart investors first and other smart investors will follow