Fundraising & VC

Whether to raise at all, who the investors are, how a VC fund actually works, valuation, dilution, cap tables, SAFEs and notes, the process end to end, and pitching.

Lessons

• Should you raise money at all? — Raising is not an achievement, it is a transaction. The first question is whether you need it, and most founders skip it. (12 min)
• The funding stages, in order — Friends and family, angels, accelerators, pre-seed, seed, Series A and beyond — what each expects and what each is for. (12 min)
• Who the investors actually are — Angels, VCs, accelerators, family offices, corporate VCs, private equity, venture debt. They want different things — pitch them differently. (12 min)
• How a VC fund actually works — A VC is not a person with money. They manage a fund with its own investors, and that single fact explains almost everything they do. (15 min)
• What investors are actually assessing — Team, market, traction, insight, and whether the outcome can be large enough. In roughly that order, and mostly in the first ten minutes. (10 min)
• Valuation, pre-money and post-money — The most confused pair of words in fundraising, and the arithmetic that decides what you own afterwards. (12 min)
• Dilution — what you actually give up — Owning less of more can be better than owning all of little. But only if you know which one is happening. (12 min)
• Reading a cap table — Who owns what, in what class, and what happens when the next round lands. (12 min)
• SAFEs and convertible notes — How most first money is raised now — fast, cheap, and much easier to get wrong than founders expect. (15 min)
• Liquidation preference — The term that decides who gets paid when the company sells — and it matters more than your valuation. (12 min)
• The pitch deck — Ten to twelve slides whose only job is to get the next meeting. Not to close the round. (12 min)
• The fundraising process end to end — Prepare, list, introductions, first meetings, partner meeting, diligence, term sheet, legals, close. Three to six months, run as a process. (15 min)
• Due diligence — What investors check before wiring, and the four things that most often kill a deal at this stage. (12 min)
• Reading a term sheet — Two to four pages that decide the next several years. What each clause means and which ones actually matter. (15 min)
• Investor updates — A short monthly email that turns passive shareholders into people who actually help — and makes your next round dramatically easier. (10 min)