Raising Early Stage Venture Capital
A curated playbook of high-signal guidance for Pre-Seed through the Series-C
There's an ocean of fundraising advice on the internet. In our experience, it's about storytelling, trust, and timing. This lens assembles wisdom from legendary founders, VCs, and operators into a playbook for navigating your next round. From the first pitch to the final close. Good luck, and hope this proves useful.
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Start Here

  • Sam Altman: Prove You’re Ready...in 25 Words

  • How Funding Rounds Differ: Seed, Series A, Series B, and C...

  • What makes a round "easy"

    • Process Guidance

  • Fundraising Will Take You ~3 Months

  • The Only Right Way to Ask for an Intro (Everything Else Is Wrong)

  • How to write a cold email

  • Always run an auction

  • Why you should spend time with investors

  • How to build the right investor relationships

  • The coffee meeting

    • Pitching Guidance

  • What the Best Pitch Decks Have in Common with Mike Vernal (Sequoia Capital)

  • How to Present to Investors

    • Templates

  • Sequoia Capital - Pitch Deck Template

  • How to build your seed round pitch deck : YC Startup Library | Y Combinator

    • Excellent Live Pitches

  • DoorDash at YC Summer 2013 Demo Day

  • Zenefits (YC W2013) Application Video

  • Brian Chesky - Founder of Airbnb @ Startup School 2010 (1 of 2)

  • Evernote Pitch

  • Zenefits | Disrupt NY 2013 Startup Battlefield Finals

    • Legendary Pitch Decks

  • Crunchbase - Original Pitch Deck

  • Uber - Original Pitch Deck

  • Intercom - Original Pitch Deck

  • Facebook - Original Pitch Deck

  • Square - Original Pitch Deck

  • Tesla - Original Pitch Deck

  • Dropbox - Original Pitch Deck

  • Airbnb - Original Pitch Deck

  • AMA with John Doerr

  • Building a GreatStartup Board: Pt 1 | Greylock

  • You Just got a Term Sheet for a Down Round — Woohoo!

  • Travis Kalanick on Fundraise Timing

  • Why, if You Can, You Should Raise a $5–8mm Seed Round in Deep Tech

  • Alda Dennis: Guiding Founders to Success at Hawktail Ventures

    • Process Guidance

  • How to Choose Investors