Is it a fair convertible note arrangement if we don't need another round or exit beforehand?

Yes. For USA based businesses – we consult on everything from conceptualization to completion, including federal, state, and local laws/regulations, etc. We even provide referrals for Branding (Logo/Product Packaging, etc.), Website Building & Security, SEO, Google Search, etc. If you know what you want to sell (and it is not prohibited by law), we are able to provide clarity to have you up and running within 30-days on average.

Simple: The right investor is someone who wants to invest on standard terms at a good valuation relative to your current stage. Extra bonus points for someone who has relevant industry connections that could accelerate your business and is willing - at the right time - to make introductions for you. But you should have really quite low expectations of most angel investors. Certainly they should have NO operational control of the business. Although I want to be as helpful as possible to companies I invest in, it's entirely for the entrepreneur to drive me, not the other way around. There are very few exceptions to this rule, for example when angels who actually do have very recent and relevant experience want to back someone who is inexperienced and need oversight in order to feel comfortable investing early. But this is a real rarity. Finally, to answer your question about what entrepreneurs do when they receive funding, they should spend it in the best possible way to accelerate the success of the business. I'd be happy to talk to you in a call to provide more clarity on the matter and also discuss when is the right time to accept investment. If you have people willing to back you, that's great. You want to make sure you have a clear plan and set expectations accordingly.

Im an investor and advisor. As many people as you ask, you will get different answers. The best and most successful way to raise capital is to start with people you know, aka friends and family. If friends and family are insufficient as they often are, then you need to find angels. If you dont know anyone, network. They arent hard to find. It might be a good idea to find a few prominent local people to serve as advisors and get their help in raising money. The worst part about raising money is that it almost always deflects from running the business. If you want to discuss this further, Im available.

A typical rule of thumb would be that an established company sets aside around 15% of the outstanding shares at any point in time for employee options. Those get split up among employees based on their contributions. Depending how key these VPs are relative to other employees you have (remember to give them something also) or expect to hire, you might give them 2-5% each. This assumes that you are an established company. If one of the VPs is going to quintuple the size of the business, they might push for being more of a 'partner'.

100M+ in revenues in 5 years or less does not happen very often. As an example of one sector, here is an interesting data visualization (circa 2008) of the 100 largest publically traded software companies at that time that shows their actual revenue ramp-ups from SEC filings (only 4 out of these 100 successful companies managed this feat, which themselves are an extremely small percentage of all of the VC-funded software companies): How Long Does it Take to Build a Technology Empire? http://ipo-dashboards.com/wordpress/2009/08/how-long-does-it-take-to-build-a-technology-empire/ Key findings excerpted from the link above: "Only 28% of the nation’s most successful public software empires were rocketships. I’ve defined a rocket ship as a company that reached $50 million in annual sales in 6 years or less (this is the type of growth that typically appears in VC-funded business plans). A hot shot reaches $50m in 7 to 12 years. A slow burner takes 13 years or more. Interestingly, 50% of these companies took 9 or more years to reach $50m in revenue."