Fundraising

Venture capital is not broken. But it is evolving.

No aspect of Silicon Valley etiquette is more jarring to newly-arrived founders than the fact that it is culturally acceptable to not reply to emails.

Why is ownership percentage such a big deal to VCs?

If an investor knows more about your competition than you do, that’s a problem.

Here are the steps that occur between signing a VC term sheet and the money being deposited into your startup’s bank account.

The stereotype that local investors don’t lead rounds but "foreign investors" do exists all over the world. But is it true?

To increase fundraising success with generalist VCs, hard tech founders must show that your startup fits the traditional VC model. Here's how.

Connecting on LinkedIn can be the easiest way to open a direct line of communication with a potential investor. But you have to do it right.

Pitching an investor at a party is very different from pitching in an office, a coffee shop or over Zoom. Here are 6 tips for pitching a VC at a party.

Is summer really a bad time to fundraise? And if so, why?

Founders and VCs both want valuation comparisons when fundraising. But the truth is, there is no such thing as accurate pre-seed valuation data.

There’s plenty of debate around whether or not founders should talk to associates at VC firms. But there’s another, more subtle fundraising dynamic at play that most founders are completely unaware of: the dynamic between partners.

Here are 5 misleading metrics that have no place in your fundraising deck.

Here are 5 tips for starting your fundraising process on the right foot and signalling to investors that you’re in control of the timeline.

How data analytics startup Glean raised a $1M pre-seed round…in 2012.

As an early-stage investor, velocity is the #1 thing I’m trying to measure when I meet with founders.

Plenty of posts have been written about how investors diligence startup founders, but how can founders diligence VCs?

One topic that gets founders riled up is the fact that many VCs won’t invest in solo founders. Why do solo founders make investors so nervous?

Pivoting is a right of passage for many startup founders. But too often, the road to a successful pivot is cut short by a critical mistake: the founders failed to fully reset the business.

Silicon Valley has a paradox: most people in places of power, influence and experience genuinely want to help up-and-coming founders, but their work and obligations leave little to no time for them to do so. Solving this puzzle is the ultimate cheat code.

As with many things in life, the little things can have far more of an impact on your success when fundraising than you might expect. Here are four small things that won't win you a new investor, but could potentially lose you one.

In a world of generative AI and LLMs, “What if Google builds it?” is no longer a bullshit question for investors to ask founders.

How do you convince a VC that your founding team is capable of excelling in areas where you have no relevant experience?

What happens to VC behavior when the adrenaline of deal flow runs out?

Here are 6 things cooking can teach you about fundraising.

Learning to put your best foot forward in writing is one of the most significant ways to increase your fundraising success.

Monique Woodard of Cake Ventures, Marvin Liao of Diaspora Ventures, advisor Mike Sigal, Web Summit host Casey Lau and I recently met with startup founders across Scotland. The one topic we kept returning to? The fact that VC isn’t right for 99% of startups.

Founders get a lot of VC diligence requests during fundraising. Here are 6 examples of appropriate VC diligence requests and 6 examples that should set off your alarm bells.

I'm going to be blunt. Angel investors or VCs asking for advisory shares as a condition of investment is not okay. Full stop.

One question many startup founders have is whether or not they should pitch VCs who have invested in their competitors.