Fundraising for First-Time Founders: A First-Principles Guide ($70M Raised from 1,500 Investors)
A first-principles walkthrough of how early fundraising actually works, synthesized from Biyani's experience raising roughly $70M from about 1,500 investors across three companies. Covers how to think about investor incentives, sequencing, and running a process.
Fundraising StrategyRaise ReadinessPre-SeedThe 10 Most Common Fundraising Mistakes (From Helping Founders Raise $5B)
Breslow frames fundraising as a game with learnable rules and lists the ten most common founder mistakes, including building investor relationships too late, over-long decks (VCs spend ~3 minutes on a deck), and taking rejection personally.
Fundraising StrategyPitch DeckAny StageVenture Is Binary: Why VC Math Breaks Good Businesses
Wilkinson, who built Tiny to hundreds of millions in revenue without VC, explains the structural problem with venture money: in the VC's portfolio math you're either a zero or a billion-dollar company, which forces risky bets on companies that could have been excellent linear businesses.
Alternative CapitalFundraising StrategyAny StageThe Reverse Term Sheet: Compressing a Raise Into Three Weeks
Helgesen relays a tactic from a mentor who raised $500M+ and went public: never accept a VC's term sheet, send your own, with a hard deadline and only two blanks (price and amount). Week 1 set meetings, week 2 pitch and send the term sheet, week 3 review offers and sign, exploiting the fact that VCs behave completely differently on 'hot' deals.
NegotiationTerm SheetsAny StageArchivedThe Pitch Deck Is a Vehicle for Emotions, Not Facts
Chen's much-quoted maxim: the #1 fundraising mistake is treating the pitch deck as a delivery vehicle for facts when it is actually a delivery vehicle for emotions. It anchored his broader public work on narrative-driven deck design at Runway.
Pitch DeckStorytellingAny StageArchivedFree Pitch Feedback for Black Founders: Closing the Candor Gap
The closing post of Chen's June 2020 thread offering Black founders direct, live pitch feedback, the kind VCs are typically uncomfortable giving, naming the candor gap as a concrete fundraising disadvantage.
Fundraising EthicsPitch DeckAny StageHow to Raise a Crowdfunding Round, by the Founder Who Raised $5M in 12 Hours
Lavingia's post pointing to his 'How to Raise A Crowdfunding Round' guide, drawn from Gumroad's landmark March 2021 Reg CF raise: $5M in 12 hours from 7,303 investors (5,800+ first-time angels) at the newly raised legal cap.
Alternative CapitalFundraising StrategyAny StageSC Emerging Managers: Chamath Funds New Investors from Nontraditional Backgrounds
Chamath announces Social Capital's Emerging Managers program: money, training, and community for aspiring investors from diverse, nontraditional backgrounds, the other side of the fundraising table, on who gets to allocate capital.
Alternative CapitalFundraising EthicsAny StageDefault Alive in the Downturn: Surviving the 2022 Reset
Written at the start of the 2022 correction, the Skillshare founder predicts an unprecedented wave of shutdowns, layoffs, and down rounds over the following 18 months and lays out how founders should get to default alive before the fundraising window closes.
Failed RaisesFundraising StrategyAny StageArchived