I’m in the midst of spinning up a company, and I’m having a heck of a time landing a commercial lease. When I first started pursuing the business, I got in touch with two spots, had a quick back and forth, and both expressed interest. I then ran into some vendor issues that delayed the business launch and by the time I was ready, both spots had been leased. I figured that since my hit rate was 100% before, it would be pretty easy to get it going again, but that hasn’t been the case. Since ironing out the vendor issues, all the conversations with commercial realtors have gone something like this... * **Them:** We think this concept is risky. * **Me:** Yes, it’s unproven in America. Two years of operations without profit are expected and I have budgeted for that. * **Them:** Well, we don’t want you to burn your entire life savings. * **Me:** I’m fortunate enough that this only represents a small portion of my life savings. I’m happy to prepay 2–3 years worth of lease up front. * **Them:** Uhm… well… this concept doesn’t really align with the brand vision we have for the space. I'm not in a huge rush to get it going, I want to find the right spot, but this week I got a bit pushed me over the top. I had a conversation with a commercial realtor representing a shopping center that is \~3 years old. They have \~50% vacancy, none of the currently vacant spaces have been leased before. Of the \~50% that are leased, about half are open 3-4 days a week. One place in particular, a cafe, is open just 18 hours a week, and is completely shut down about 1 week out of every 8. I'm having a hard time reconciling a commercial realtor letting a company that is open 60 hours/month on average sign a $4500/month lease, but not willing to work with a well funded company that'll be open well over 60 hours in a single week. Getting this up and running is my full time job. I have two decades of corporate experience, an MBA from a top school, and have been involved in several successful startups, albeit none in retail. I always include a pitch deck in my initial outreach that explains the concept, gives a bit of my background, and has a fair bit of financials. I’m currently reworking it to lead with financials in hopes that fully acknowedging the perceived risk will help. Any thoughts on how to change the approach?