Raising money requires considerable research and perseverance. Too often entrepreneurs reach a premature "I can't raise money" conclusion because they target the wrong venture funds at the start. To avoid receiving an inbox full of fast turn-downs, you have to be willing to match your company's business plan and funding needs to VC interests.

The good news is venture funds have done well in health care investing. Venture fund managers back technologies and companies that have a good chance of being bought out by larger healthcare players even before they become profitable concerns.

But not all venture funds that invest in medical technologies are the same. Venture funds such as Alliance Technology, Bear Stearns Health Innoventures, YFY Bioscience, MVM Life Science Partners, Alta Biopharm Partners, New Leaf Venture Partners, Ascent Biomedical Ventures, H.I.G. Partners, Triathlon Medical Ventures, Oxford BioScience Partners and Baird Venture Partners have a history of investing in "life sciences" or "bio-tech" companies. Funds that are more inclined to back pharmaceutical technologies would not likely be good funding candidates for your company.

Other funds such as Three Arch Partners, Flagship Ventures, KB Partners, Versant Ventures, Alloy Ventures, Boston Millennia Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Bay City Capital, Aberdare Ventures, Venturi Group, MPM Capital, Invest Care, 3i, Psilos Group, Boston Millennia Partners, Sanderling Ventures, Seedling Enterprises, and ABS Ventures invest in "broad" healthcare technologies.

You may also run across funds like Accuitive Medical Ventures, which specialize in funding medical device innovators. It's tricky. You really have to read through each fund's stated "investment criteria" at their web sites. Locally, Frazier Healthcare Ventures, Arch Venture Partners or Polaris Venture Partners may be candidates to research.

Another avenue for research consideration are funds that invest in "enterprise software." Research funds like Benchmark Capital, Matrix Partners or Sigma Partners.

Here are some other VC targeting strategies:

• Look for funds that invest in "early stage" companies.
• Address your plan to the partners who specialize in your industry. Assume that a fund's managing partner won't have a lot of time to participate in the early solicitation dance.
• Talk to the targeted partner's administrative assistant for guidance on sending executive summaries, scheduling first conference calls and engaging the partner's analyst.
• Each time you receive a "no" take the time to ask the VC to suggest names of other funding candidates.

Here's one final comment. It is true that VCs like to have a voice at board meetings and contribute to strategic discussions. They also like to open doors to help portfolio companies establish new sales and technology alliances.

But it's not the VCs job to research strategy. If VCs suspect that a management team is too indecisive, they will quickly turn their attention to other businesses. You are too far along as a company to expect investors to join in core strategy development discussions that are more common for "seed" or "incubation stage" funding partnerships.

Simply stated, the more research work you do now, the faster money will fall into your company's bank account. You can do it!