YC partners share real investor horror stories from their founder days and from companies they've advised: exploding term sheets, tranched deals gone wrong, investors behaving badly after wiring, and how founders should protect themselves.
Rare honest catalog of investor misbehavior from credible insiders, with concrete defensive tactics.
This video was created by Y Combinator and features YC partners. We summarize and link with attribution; all rights belong to the creator.
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9 min
Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel break down rookie mistakes founders make around investor terms and incentives: what investors actually optimize for, misaligned terms to watch, and how naive founders get squeezed.
59 min
YC's Carolynn Levy (inventor of the SAFE) and Kirsty Nathoo teach investor-school mechanics: instruments, rights, and what founders and angels each misunderstand about early-stage paperwork.
24 min
TWiST legal-basics episode on board seats: why you effectively can't fire a VC from your board, and the cautionary situations that produces.