How to Raise Money
Paul Graham's definitive essay on early-stage fundraising, distilled from watching hundreds of YC companies raise. Covers why fundraising feels harder than it is, breadth-first search weighted by expected value, getting to yes/no fast, and the dangers of raising too much or letting fundraising drag on.
A Guide to Seed Fundraising
YC's comprehensive seed fundraising manual: when to raise, how much, SAFEs vs. priced rounds, meeting mechanics, negotiation, and closing documents, written by a YC partner for first-time founders.
A Fundraising Survival Guide
Graham on the emotional reality of raising: why fundraising is demoralizing by design, why investors herd and stall, and how to keep morale and the company alive through the process. Written mid-financial-crisis.
The Non-Obvious Guide to Fundraising
A 4x founder turned VC lays out what actually drives fundraising outcomes beneath the standard advice: psychology, sequencing, the 'ladder of proof', and how VCs really talk about deals internally.
How to Convince Investors
Graham on the substance of persuasion: convince yourself first, be a domain expert, and make the truth about your startup legible rather than performing confidence you don't have.
How to Present to Investors
Practical demo-day-era advice on presenting: explain what you do in the first sentence, show a demo, and optimize for being understood rather than impressive.
How to Pitch Your Company
Seibel's formulaic, repeatable pitch structure: a two-sentence company description anyone can repeat, traction, unique insight, market size, and the ask, with examples of each done well and badly.
Safe Financing Documents
The official home of the SAFE: current post-money SAFE documents, side letters, and YC's user guide explaining caps, discounts, and dilution math.
How Fundraising Stages Work
Plain-language breakdown of what pre-seed, seed, and A actually mean now, what each stage's investors expect, and how round sizes and expectations have drifted from the labels.
Introducing Raise Millions
Launch post for Raise Millions, Hustle Fund's free book-length compilation of tactical fundraising guidance drawn from thousands of pre-seed pitches; the post links the full free resource.
How to De-Risk a Startup
Polovets enumerates the specific risks investors price (team, market, product, execution, financing) and concrete actions that retire each one, reframing fundraising as selling reduced risk at increasing prices.
A Seed Round Manual for Founders: Strategies, Pitch Prep, Valuation, Traps, Tips and More
A founder who raised $1.5M+ across UK and US investors documents the whole process as a manual: what worked, the traps she fell into, and differences between London and Valley investor behavior.
Founder Toolkit: How to raise your seed round from top VCs & Angels
A repeat founder and angel condenses his raising experience into a toolkit: list-building, sequencing angels and funds, materials, and close mechanics, with templates.
Fundraising 101: I'm currently in NY! *Buys Flight to NY*
A young founder's candid, funny account of the performative side of fundraising: manufacturing 'I happen to be in town' moments, reading investor signals, and the theater everyone pretends isn't happening.
Holloway Guide to Raising Venture Capital
A book-length, edited, citation-heavy reference on the entire venture fundraising process, from instruments and terms through negotiation and close, reviewed by dozens of practitioners.
For Fundraising, Seed is No Longer a Round, It's a Phase
Walk reframes seed as a multi-year, possibly multi-round phase of proving core value, not a single event, with implications for how founders should structure and sequence early capital.
What Are Pre-Seed Rounds & Why Do They Exist?
An early definition of the pre-seed round from one of the investors who named the category: what qualifies ($750K or less, pre-product), why the category emerged, and how it chains into institutional seed.
Which Fundraising Round Should You Skip?
With founders now raising 3-4 rounds before Series A, Go argues the total dilution math forces a choice: decide deliberately which round in the chain you'll skip, and shows how to reason about it.
How We Think About Pre-Seeds at NextView
The investor-side view of pre-seed construction: why NextView prefers small aligned syndicates over large party rounds at this stage, and what that means for founders assembling one.
It's All Pre-Series A Now
The leading pre-seed investor argues stage labels below Series A have lost meaning: everything before the A is one continuous proving period, and founders should plan capital and milestones accordingly.