Fundraising
How to raise money from angels and VCs
From your first angel check to a Series A: understand how venture capital works, how to pitch, read a term sheet, build your data room, and close a round without getting diluted.
An angel investor funds early-stage startups with personal capital for equity, typically before VCs participate. Many are former founders or operators.
A pre-seed round is the earliest startup funding stage, covering idea to prototype. Check sizes range from $100K to $1M from angels and micro-VCs.
A seed round is a startup's first institutional funding, used to validate the product, build the core team, and reach the traction needed for a Series A.
TAM, SAM, and SOM are the three market sizing metrics founders use to quantify opportunity and show investors the realistic scale of their startup.
Learn how to write a startup one-pager that earns investor meetings — covering the essential sections, formatting rules, and the most common mistakes to avoid.
Equity is ownership — but most founders and employees can't do the math. Here's exactly how startup equity works, dilutes, and pays out.
How venture capital works — VC fund structure, what investors look for, fund economics, dilution, and whether VC is the right path for your startup.
A 409A is an independent appraisal of a private company's common stock fair market value, required by U.S. tax law before issuing stock options to employees.
A bridge round is a small financing to extend a startup's runway until a larger funding round or key milestone is reached.
A cap table tracks who owns what in a startup — founders, investors, and employees — and how ownership changes across funding rounds.
A convertible note is short-term startup debt with interest and a maturity date that converts into equity when a future priced round closes.
A down round occurs when a startup raises capital at a lower valuation than its previous round, triggering dilution and anti-dilution.
The structured investigation an investor conducts before closing a deal, covering financials, legal, product, team, and market validity.
Equity dilution occurs when a startup issues new shares, reducing existing shareholders' ownership percentage. It happens at every funding round.
An IPO is when a private company first sells shares to the public on a stock exchange, providing liquidity and access to large capital pools.
A Letter of Intent is a non-binding document expressing intent to enter an agreement, used in B2B sales and M&A transactions.
The right of preferred investors to be paid back before common shareholders in a liquidation or sale event, protecting downside.
Pre-money valuation is a company's value before investment. Post-money adds the investment amount. Both determine investor ownership.
The right of an investor to participate in future funding rounds to maintain their ownership percentage in the company.
Revenue-based financing gives startups capital in exchange for a percentage of future revenue, with no equity dilution and no fixed monthly payments.
A SAFE lets investors fund startups in exchange for future equity, with no interest rate or maturity date. Created by Y Combinator in 2013.
A Series A is the first major priced VC round, raised after a startup shows product-market fit and consistent growth. It funds scaling the go-to-market engine.
Series B is a growth-stage VC round that funds scaling a proven business. Typically requires $8–15M ARR, 80%+ YoY growth, and NRR above 110%.
A Series C is a later-stage funding round for startups with proven revenue, used to scale into new markets, acquire competitors, or prepare for an IPO.
A term sheet is a non-binding document outlining the key terms of a VC investment deal before formal legal agreements are drafted.
How to write a cold email to investors that actually gets a reply — anatomy of a great VC email, subject lines, templates, and what not to do.
Build a systematic investor relations practice — from monthly update emails to board meetings — that keeps investors engaged and working for you.
How to build an investor data room that passes due diligence — the exact documents, folder structure, and red flags to fix before investors ask.
A practical, step-by-step guide to raising a seed round: what to prepare, how to run the process, and how to close.
A complete guide to building a startup pitch deck — what slides to include, what investors look for, and mistakes that get decks deleted immediately.
What a Series A actually requires in 2024–25: the metrics, the process, the timeline, and what investors are really evaluating.
VC or bootstrap? The answer depends on your market, your ambitions, and what you're willing to trade. Here's how to decide.
A complete guide to startup exit strategies — how acquisitions, IPOs, and secondaries work, and what founders need to know before planning an exit.
The fundraising process is opaque by design. This article maps every phase — from prep to close — so you can run it like an operator.
VCs say they back great teams in big markets. The reality is more specific — and more useful. Here's the actual framework seed investors use to decide.
A founder's guide to every clause in a VC term sheet — valuation, liquidation preference, anti-dilution, board control, and what to actually negotiate.
A down round isn't the end. Here's how to navigate a valuation cut — managing dilution, investor relations, and team morale without losing the company.