"Convertible Notes" is the main take-away from today's Churchill Club event titled "Startup or Hunker Down? What’s Happening With Tech Startup" through the experiences of 5 entrepreneurs.

Richard Archuleta, CEO, Plastic Logic
Rousseau Aurelien, CEO, Second Rotation
Susan Coelius-Keplinger, Co-founder & COO, Triggit
Martin Frid-Neilsen, Founder, Soonr
Puneet Gupta, CEO, Connectbeam

Basically, if you're looking for early funding for your start-up, skip VCs and business angels groups altogether. The advice is to go to a handful of business angels and seek a [1 million dollars, 6 to 12 months] convertible note. The amount and duration vary but just to give you an idea of what the panel seeked.

A convertible note will give you more time and won't dilute your ownership in the company. Really the best of both worlds. And if you can get away with a 10% "sweetner" you'll be a hero, like Second Rotation CEO, Rousseau Aurelien. But with 20%, you'll do as good as Soonr founder, Martin Frid-Neilsen and Connectbeam CEO Puneet Gupta. And somewhere between 10-20% is even better!

Susan Coelius-Keplinger, the co-founder & COO of Triggit, who also did a convertible note, mentioned the Venture Hacks web site as a good resource for would-be entrepreneurs.

From Rousseau Aurelien, CEO, Second Rotation:

"It's the best kept secret for getting started because VCs and the organised angel groups are really looking for traction before they commit. But angel investors will invest in people first".

From Martin Frid-Neilsen, Founder, Soonr:

"One thing we did that was extremely helpful and I'll pass it out to anyone who's starting a company and that is go out and do a convertible note as the very first thing to do. Because what that does is that gives you some time on the clock, gets some people on board without giving any equity... And that gave us a lot of confidence when we went out and done the fundraising and stuff and on top of that it gave us a lot of great contacts".