Jan: …With marketing dollars, invest only what can be measured and cut everything else; but now is time to be aggressive with company’s messaging—so PR and communications strategy important (can do a lot these days with relatively low investment). Focus on building out only the essential features of your product, forget the nice to haves; make certain that the features you build are what your customers actually want.

Greg: Getting funding is still a marketing exercise, but one that has to be done with integrity. As investors become more conservative, they will take more time to dig into your business. Nothing will send investors running faster than a sense that a founder/CEO has not been 100% truthful. I think the key is to get an investor to come over to your side of the table. Ask for advice. Don’t shy away from talking about challenges and issues. If an investor is truly interested in putting money to work in your business, he or she will want to engage at that level.

(from Alyssa Royse’s interview on Seattle 2.0 with VC’s Greg Gottesman of Madrona and Jan Hendrickson of Denny Hill Capital.)