Selecting angel investors is a minefield: Play the game right and you’ll win. One wrong step and it’ll blow up in your face. But the dream of riches and Techcrunch-fame distracts many founders from the truth until it’s too late.

Startups don’t get built in Silicon Valley or Palo Alto; they’re built between a rock and a hard place. Oftentimes, you have to make a difficult decision between two equally bad options. This is how you make the best choice when you’re in a dilemma.

Here's a post we originally published back in 2012 on our ElasticSales blog. We're republishing it because many people are still asking us how we got into YC.

Just recently, I had a sales office hour with a bright founder, and it was not about how to sell to customers, but how to sell to investors.