Mixpanel Was a Week From Death: Suhail's Fundraising Story
Suhail Doshi recounts Mixpanel's 2009 raise: $15K from YC, half the batch dying after demo day, 11 firms saying no, two firms wanting to replace him as CEO, and a VC telling him point blank he'd fail, before closing $500K at a $2M pre a week before running out of money. He extracts what actually drove the eventual yes: team and whether the idea is personally interesting to the investor.
Objections & RejectionFundraising PsychologySeed200+ Nos and 12 Wasted Months: Udemy's Seed Mistakes
Gagan Biyani walks through every mistake three first-time founders made raising Udemy's seed: 200+ rejections and 12 months of wasted fundraising before barely pulling through. Each mistake is framed as a lesson for new founders.
Objections & RejectionFundraising StrategySeedFundraising 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 StageWhat I Learned Raising My First Seed Round (and Turning Down 30% Dilution)
A first-time founder of virtual-workspace startup Branch narrates his first seed raise: struggling with traditional VC, generating ~$4M in commitments largely through online friends, and learning that 'money is expensive', taking every offer would have cost over 30% of the company at seed.
Valuation & DilutionClosing the RoundSeedVenture 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 StageHow to Raise a Seed Round: One Complete Process
A step-by-step seed fundraising process from a pre-seed VC: build a tiered investor list, gather external feedback on materials, and run the raise as a structured pipeline rather than ad-hoc meetings.
Fundraising StrategyTarget ListPre-SeedThink Like a VC: Erik Torenberg's Favorite Seed-Raising Tips
A compilation of seed-raising heuristics anchored on a Paul Graham paraphrase: pretend you're the VC, adopt their incentives, and convince yourself you'd invest, then that you could convince your partners too.
Fundraising StrategyFundraising PsychologySeedThe Accidental Mistake of Asking for Too Much Money
Lemkin dissects a real cold email he received: an interesting startup near $2M ARR with no funding that killed its own chances by asking for an oversized round. He explains how ask size instantly reprices the deal in an investor's head.
Fundraising StrategyValuation & DilutionSeries AFront Raises Its Series D in a Brutal Market
Collin announces Front's $65M Series D (Salesforce Ventures, Battery) at the bottom of the 2022 downturn, linking her written reflections. She is the rare founder who has published her actual Series A, B, and C decks publicly, with commentary; her Series B was famously 11 investor pitches over five days yielding 10 offers.
Closing the RoundFundraising StrategySeries B+The Biggest Hurdle After Your Seed Raise
A short thread on what actually gets hard after the seed closes: shifting from founder heroics to team-building, and setting up the metrics trajectory the Series A will be judged on.
Raise ReadinessFundraising StrategySeedOpen a SAFE on a Higher Cap: Post-Round Momentum Tactics
Iskold advises founders who recently closed sub-$2M rounds with momentum to open a SAFE at a higher cap and keep taking money, explaining the runway-as-leverage logic in a down market.
Term SheetsValuation & DilutionPre-SeedHow 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 StageHow and Why We Raised a $6M Seed for Conviction Markets
A recent example of the raise-announcement-as-explainer genre: XO Market breaks down what it raised in its $6M seed, what problem the round funds, and what comes next.
Closing the RoundFundraising StrategySeedDefault 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