For conversations around business financings and 
sales, there are natural tensions, of time, credibility, and trust, between entrepreneurs seeking to be financed/sold (“Sellers”) and the investors/acquirers that approached for $$ (“Buyers”).
And if these tensions are not resolved, a deal cannot get done.
Time Tension is the idea that our entrepreneur seller almost always seeks to have their business valued based on its future potential, while our investor / acquirer buyer seeks to price it based on past results.
Note that time tension is present no matter the stage or size of a business, from the startup raising its first round of capital to the multi-billion dollar public company explaining its quarterly earnings and giving guidance for the period to come.
Very importantly, it is almost always the sellers responsibility to proactively resolve time tension to move a deal forward.
First, this involves having clean, concise, and easy to access financial and company records (no matter how unimpressive they might be) available for buyer review, along with the ability to coherently explain why the results were what they were.
Secondly, it involves the Seller telling a Great Story of how results will improve in the future.
This great story must be both "Top Down" and "Bottom Up." The Top Down story is a firm point of view on what one's industry and marketplace will look and behave like in the future (say in 3-to-5 years time), and then how our business is well-positioned to profit from this evolving reality.
A great example of this is Travis Kalanick, Founder and CEO of Uber, who communicates with amazing eloquence his view on the future of transportation and mobility, and then how Uber's growth plan is being evolved and executed upon to benefit from this evolution.
And our great story must also be Bottom Up, detailing as specifically as possible how people, technology and financial assets will be brought together in a cost-conscious and hard-to-duplicate way to execute upon our growth plan.
Yes, creating both great Top Down and Bottom Up stories is hard and doing so requires the expenditure of a LOT of brain juice by smart and dedicated people.
But doing so at a high level can be worth a LOT MORE in accretive value (like $62.5 billion more, as in the case of Uber) and as importantly is the only way to...
Bridge the Credibility Gap. As a default, Buyers believe nothing that Sellers give and tell them.
For past financial results, they ask who prepared them.
For financial projections, they ask where is the proof that its assumptions will come to pass.
For our “Top Down” opinion on where our market is heading, they ask based on what.
And for our “Bottom Up” operational plan, they ask us to show them evidence from our past that we can execute upon it.
And as we provide this evidence, they ask if we are still motivated and young enough to do so again.
Sellers must put their pride aside and really hear and empathize with these buyer doubts, and then patiently overcome via attention to detail and via extremely high quality thought and business presentation...
...and via a Pig-Headed Determinationto repeat that business presentation over and over again until some buyer (and it often just takes one!) says yes.
Yes, Webster defines determination as "Willfulness infused with discipline."
Willful, determined entrepreneurs, who through their work ethic and discipline produce high quality business stories, and then repeat those stories over and over again...
...well they are the ones that the resolve the Buyer - Seller tensions of time and credibility, and build trust so deep that only a handshake is needed to get a deal done.