We're Raising $3.5m in Funding: Here is the Valuation, Term Sheet and Why We're Doing It
Buffer publishes every detail of its $3.5M Series A: the valuation, the actual term sheet, investor list, ARR ($4.6M), and the unusual structure that let founders and early employees take secondary money. A landmark in fundraising transparency.
How I raised a $5.1M seed as a first-time, female, solo founder for a biotech moonshot
Halioua details exactly how she raised $5.1M pre-product for a dog-longevity biotech as a solo, first-time, female founder: building the narrative for a moonshot, sequencing investors, and handling deep-tech skepticism.
Dear White Venture Capitalists: If you're reading this, it's (almost!) too late.
The viral 2015 essay, written while Hamilton was broke and pitching her fund, calling out venture's failure to fund underrepresented founders. It directly led to her first LP check and the founding of Backstage Capital.
Black Swan Seed Rounds
Altman observes that the best investments he's made were rounds nobody else wanted, and the hottest, most oversubscribed seed rounds mostly produced mediocre outcomes. Explains why consensus and quality are inversely correlated at seed.
The Problem with Taking Seed Money from Big VCs
Dixon's classic warning about signaling risk: when a large multi-stage VC seeds you and then declines to lead your A, the market reads it as a kiss of death, regardless of your actual progress.
The Anti-Portfolio: Honoring the companies we missed
Bessemer's famous public list of the legendary companies it passed on, with self-deprecating explanations ('friend rented her garage to Google's founders; David asked how he could leave the house without going near it').
How to Develop Your Fundraising Strategy
Suster's process playbook: qualify investors like a sales pipeline, research partners not firms, sequence your best prospects after warm-up meetings, and manage the raise like an enterprise deal.
The Rise of the Solo Capitalists
Named and documented the solo-capitalist phenomenon: individual investors raising nine-figure funds and winning competitive rounds against firms, and what founders gain and lose by taking their money.
Black Swan Farming
Graham explains power-law returns from the investor side: the best ideas look like bad ideas, YC's returns come from a handful of companies, and even professionals can't reliably pick winners at the time of investment.
Some Thoughts on Seed Investing
Wilson candidly reviews USV's own seed investing record and explains how a multi-stage firm actually thinks about seed checks, follow-ons, and the reserved-capital math behind them.
A Founder's Guide to Venture Capital & Startup Fundraising
Tunguz's index of his data-driven fundraising posts organized as a founder's guide: how VCs decide, round dynamics, valuation math, and negotiation, each backed by his analyses of actual funding data.
A Question About Risk That Founders Forget to Ask VCs
A short, sharp diligence-reversal tactic: ask every prospective investor 'what's a risk you're more comfortable with than the average VC?' and use the answer to test fit and conviction.
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.
Bessemer's Published Investment Memos (LinkedIn, Shopify, Pinterest, Twilio and more)
Bessemer publishes the actual internal investment recommendation memos behind its best deals, showing exactly how partners argued for LinkedIn, Shopify, Pinterest and others: the risks flagged, the numbers at the time, and the bet being made.
The Confidential YouTube Investment Memo by Sequoia
Sequoia's actual 2005 YouTube Series A memo, made public through the Viacom lawsuit: written when YouTube was two months old with no CEO and no business plan, it shows how a top firm underwrote a raw, risky deal.
Who Gets Funded to Build in Africa? Lessons from a $7.3M Nigerian Seed Round
Uses a $7.3M seed round raised by an American founder for a Nigerian-market app to examine who global VC actually trusts to build in Africa, and what local founders face by comparison.