IF YOU'RE ABOUT TO RAISE CAPITAL, READ THIS FIRST: Two CEOs share what they've learned when it comes to securing capital and taking your company to the next level.

• Author: Owen, Jason

Congratulations! You've weathered the storms of starting a new business and you're now the CEO of a successful startup. After fighting hard to get to this point, your company is probably getting ready to take on outside capital. All the late nights, sleepless weekends, and endless phone calls have paid off. The team is excited, and it finally feels like you're crossing the finish line.

Not so fast.

This moment is as far from the finish line as you've ever been--but don't feel daunted. The warmup you've endured until now has set you up for the most important and rewarding phase of your business. To get there, however, it's important to consider the many lessons we've learned over countless games of high stakes ping-pong. Whether you are raising capital for the first, second, third, or eighth time, we've distilled our own takeaways into a playbook of the 10 most important things to consider as you approach outside capital.

1. YOUR TERM SHEET IS ONLY YOUR BASELINE

   The term sheet you have at the negotiating table represents all of your growth to date. Rather than wear this like a medal, understand that your potential investors simply see this as your baseline. This is your floor, the jumping off point from which all future growth must come. Remain humble, get comfortable, and stay honest when it comes to this baseline. Use it as the benchmark from which to measure and prove increased value around every move you make going forward.

2. THE RIGHT INVESTMENT PARTNER IS KEY

   WFIO (pronounced whiff-ee-yo) stands for "we're [expletive], it's over." In Ben Horowitz' book, The Hard Thing About Hard Things, he discusses the "life-threatening moments" every company goes through when it appears to be the end. Guess what? It's rarely as bad as it seems. It might be really bad, but 99.99 percent of the time there is a way out.

   What's really important during these times, is to have teammates and partners you can lean on for guidance. Good partners pick one another up, share the load, and bear collective responsibility for guiding the business according to their areas of expertise. Pick the right investment partner, and you will be reminded daily of your company's most valuable assets. When growing a business, it's all about finding the right partner, not the biggest check.

3. REEVALUATE YOUR OPERATIONS STRATEGY

   Everything was firing on all cylinders before the capital raise. So, simply do more of what you've been doing, right? Wrong. Avoid the temptation to throw...