Avoid The 'Death Zone' Of Venture Capital

Do you have revenues of $5-$10MM and profits under $3MM a year?  Are you a company looking to raise outside capital for the first time?  If you answered yes to both of the preceeding questions, you are about to enter what I call "The Death Zone" for venture capital.  And, as the name suggests, "The Death Zone", much like its namesake in oxygen-starved environments north of 26,000 feet in elevation, can make for a suffocating experience when trying to raise capital.