YC founders confess their actual fundraising mistakes: optimizing for valuation, taking bad money, serial meetings, and misreading investor interest.
Short compilation of real named mistakes; pairs well with any how-to content.
This video was created by Y Combinator and features YC founders. We summarize and link with attribution; all rights belong to the creator.
Watch on YouTube →
58 min
Startup Grind London panel on the snakes and ladders of fundraising: founders trade stories of near-misses, lucky breaks, and process disasters with investor commentary.
33 min
Founders at YC's Female Founders Conference compare fundraising experiences: rejection patterns, investor bias, and tactics that worked, with disagreement between panelists on the right approach.
1h 6m
Canva co-founder Melanie Perkins recounts pitching for three years and being rejected by more than 100 investors before closing Canva's first round, including how she reworked the pitch around each objection. She details the kitesurfing-with-investors period in Silicon Valley and how rejection shaped the company's strategy.