"This stinks!"

That was my dad’s reaction when I showed him my first business plan, when I was raising money for a startup that produced audio books. Alfred Hollender was the president of a global advertising agency and later launched a successful venture-capital firm. His practiced eye quickly spied my plan’s biggest blemish: the projected sales were wildly over-optimistic.

Dad’s advice has spared me much pain. "Calculate the amount of money you think you need based on a conservative sales forecast," he told me. "Then raise twice as much."