In the mining business, where I had my first job, when prospectors find something that looks like gold, they rub a touchstone across the ore. That ceramic stone tells them whether they’re holding real value or fool’s gold.

Venture capitalists have their own touchstones. And if you’re heading into a VC meeting without knowing what they are, you’re already losing.

Here’s what most entrepreneurs get wrong: they think the pitch is about the product. It isn’t. It’s about you.

“VCs don’t invest in technology or markets,” says Ilse Treurnicht, former CEO of MaRS Centre. “They invest in people.” Full stop.

So what are they actually testing when you walk through that door?

One: How big is the pie?

VCs want mega-markets. Not a respectable niche — a category that could dominate. Facebook started with college students. That was enough of a beachhead. The question isn’t where you are today. It’s how large the market could get if everything went right. Have that number cold, and know how you plan to grab it.

Two: Do you have what it takes, will you fold?

In 1775, a 21-year-old named Henry Knox walked up to George Washington with an audacious plan: haul 59 cannons across 300 miles of frozen lakes from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston. No forklifts. No Mack trucks. Just sheer tenacity. When the largest cannon fell through the ice, Knox’s men dove into freezing water and hauled it back up. They arrived in Boston, positioned the artillery on the hill, and the British sailed away without firing a shot.

Washington didn’t fund the plan. He funded the person. Mr. Knox had the drive and energized his team.

That’s exactly what a VC is doing when they look at your team. Can you execute under pressure? Will you make excuses when things go sideways, and they will go sideways, or will you dive into the icy water and keep moving?

“As soon as a CEO says things like ‘we missed our target because our suppliers let us down,’” says investor Daniel Debow, investor in Sheertex, Borrowell, North, Ritual, Clearco, and more. Capital, “I know for sure this is not an entrepreneur I’d invest in. They just don’t have it.”

Three: Do you understand the relationship you’re entering?

A VC investment isn’t a transaction. It’s a seven-year marriage, minimum. They are not handing you a cheque and wishing you luck. They are betting their fund’s reputation — and their own — on you.

That cuts both ways. Yes, they will scrutinize every assumption in your model. Yes, they will ask questions that feel like cross-examination. But the smart entrepreneur recognizes that creative tension for what it is: a feature, not a bug. Your analytical VC and your entrepreneurial instincts, together, make a stronger business than either one alone.

The trap most founders fall into? Not knowing the fund before they walk in. There are as many varieties of funds as animals in a zoo. Do your research. Which industries have they backed? Who’s in their portfolio? What’s their reputation when deals get hard?

Because here’s the quiet truth VCs won’t tell you: they want to be chosen too. They want to know you’re genuinely excited about them — not just their cheque.

The investment community runs on six degrees of separation. Your reputation precedes you into every room. As Publilius Syrus wrote in 110 B.C. — and nothing has changed — “A good reputation is more valuable than money.”

Know your market. Build your team. Do your homework.

The touchstone is waiting.

Based on insights from my book Money Magnet: Attracting Investors to Your Business.