Angels to entrepreneurs: You don't want our money

I think this is actually pretty solid advice. If you have to take on external capital do it only when your own resources are absolutely exhausted. If you have a fancy car, a house without a mortgage and you're going out there to get a couple of grand of seed capital in order to launch your startup you are doing something badly wrong.

Assuming, of course that you really believe in your new venture it is much smarter to:

- liquidate any assets that you have that you can easily get some money for

- borrow from your bank, they take interest, not equity

- use your savings if you have any

If the above is not an option and you are starting your startup with $0 in your pockets and out of necessity rather than because you really have a working idea then I would suggest to get a job, work for a bit, save a bit and try to launch your startup on the side.

Once it's a going concern, you have your idea ready to launch of you've already launched and you can present some initial growth figures then you're ready to take on external investors.