You probably already know that you need a business plan to get your foot in the door with venture capitalists. But what some entrepreneurs forget (or willfully ignore) is that they need an exceptional business plan. Forget good or adequate—VC Vinod Khosla, the founder of Khosla Ventures and the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, reveals why that's not sufficient to the International Herald Tribune:

"So far, he has provided seed money to nine companies, including EcoMotors, which is developing a fuel-efficient diesel engine; Kaai and Soraa, companies that focus on laser development; and Topanga, a lighting company.

'But we've done the math; and for these nine companies, we probably received 1,000 plans, looked at 500 of them, selected to meet over 100 and did detailed due diligence on 20,' he said."