Are you ready to raise? Investors and operators here lay out the traction, narrative, and preparation bar you should clear before you send a single email.
28 min
YC partner Brad Flora's Startup School talk on how startup fundraising actually works: what investors are looking for, how rounds come together, SAFEs, and how to run a tight process. Draws on YC batch data and his own founder experience.
47 min
Michael Seibel's SaaStr session on pitching a seed-stage startup: the exact structure of a two-minute pitch, the most common ways founders confuse investors, and live Q&A with founders in the room.
8 min
Sendbird CEO John Kim on why most startup CEOs fail, drawing on his own near-death fundraising moments and what actually earned investor conviction.
51 min
Stitch Fix founder Katrina Lake at Stanford ETL on building the company through investor skepticism about women's retail, raising less than peers, and going public anyway.
23 min
sennder co-founder David Nothacker walks through his company's first fundraise at Slush's founder school: what worked in the process, mistakes made, and how they picked investors.
1 min
Marc Andreessen explains in two minutes what a16z actually looks for in startups and why strength of insight beats polish.
9 min
Angel investor Alicia Syrett catalogs the real reasons angels and VCs say no — most of which founders never hear — drawn from hundreds of her own pitch meetings.
53 min
Jenny Lefcourt walks through her 'ultimate pitch' framework slide by slide, showing exactly what a seed VC wants in each part of the deck and the meeting.
Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel at TechCrunch on YC do's and don'ts, including how founders should think about applying, demo day, and post-batch fundraising.
17 min
Recent YC Startup School session defining the key terms founders must know before raising: SAFEs, caps, pro rata, option pools, board seats, and liquidation preferences in plain language.
58 min
Aaron Harris's deep guide to raising a Series A: metrics thresholds, building investor relationships pre-raise, running the process, and partner-meeting dynamics.
57 min
Jason Calacanis answers founder questions about raising a seed round in 2026: current check sizes, AI-market dynamics, accelerator math, and what he funds today.
Jason Lemkin's fundraising workshop on what it takes to get funded now: real conversion rates from pitch to check, and what SaaS metrics clear the bar.
Point Nine's Christoph Janz presents the five metrics that matter when raising a SaaS Series A and B, with the benchmark ranges his fund actually uses.
23 min
SaaStr session on the risky business of Series B: why it's the hardest round, what growth-stage investors diligence, and the trap of a too-high Series A price.
55 min
TechCrunch Live pairs a founder with the VC who led their Series A to reconstruct the deal: first contact, diligence, the partner meeting, and the close.
19 min
TK Kader's structured walkthrough of preparing for a Series A after seed: milestone planning, narrative building, and process timing.
A walkthrough of raising startup funding as a first-time founder, from someone who raised angel through Series B as a solo founder in Silicon Valley.
53 min
Stanford CS183F Startup School session on how to raise money and succeed long-term, connecting fundraising decisions to company outcomes years later.
27 min
Pear VC's Pepe Agell at Slush on raising your first round: readiness signals, meeting dynamics, and how Pear decides on pre-seed companies.
26 min
Dash0 founder Mirko Novakovic (previously Instana) on raising a Series A as a repeat founder: how his second-time process differed and what investors preloaded.
1h 7m
Startup Grind panel on managing a downturn and fundraising through it: runway math, investor communication, and which rounds are possible in a frozen market.
1h 7m
YC co-founder Jessica Livingston on entrepreneurship through the venture lens: stories from early YC batches, what founders misread about investors, and how the best founders handled early fundraising.