Beginner fundraising
Angel Investor
An angel investor funds early-stage startups with personal capital for equity, typically before VCs participate. Many are former founders or operators.
#fundraising
47 results
Glossary
Intermediate fundraising
Bridge Round
A bridge round is a small financing to extend a startup's runway until a larger funding round or key milestone is reached.
Beginner finance
Burn Rate
Burn rate is the monthly rate at which a startup spends cash. It determines how much runway remains before the company must raise more money or turn profitable.
Intermediate equity
Cap Table
A cap table tracks who owns what in a startup - founders, investors, and employees - and how ownership changes across funding rounds.
Intermediate fundraising
Convertible Note
A convertible note is short-term startup debt with interest and a maturity date that converts into equity when a future priced round closes.
Intermediate fundraising
Down Round
A down round occurs when a startup raises capital at a lower valuation than its previous round, triggering dilution and anti-dilution.
Intermediate fundraising
Due Diligence
The structured investigation an investor conducts before closing a deal, covering financials, legal, product, team, and market validity.
Intermediate equity
Equity Dilution
Equity dilution occurs when a startup issues new shares, reducing existing shareholders' ownership percentage. It happens at every funding round.
Beginner growth
Hockey Stick Growth
The growth curve every investor wants to see - flat for a long time, then a sudden exponential rise that resembles a hockey stick.
Intermediate exits
IPO - Initial Public Offering
An IPO is when a private company first sells shares to the public on a stock exchange, providing liquidity and access to large capital pools.
Intermediate finance
J-Curve
The pattern of initial losses or decline before growth - common in VC fund returns, startup unit economics, and post-investment metrics.
Intermediate fundraising
Letter of Intent (LOI)
A Letter of Intent is a non-binding document expressing intent to enter an agreement, used in B2B sales and M&A transactions.
Intermediate fundraising
Liquidation Preference
The right of preferred investors to be paid back before common shareholders in a liquidation or sale event, protecting downside.
Intermediate fundraising
Pre-Money and Post-Money Valuation
Pre-money valuation is a company's value before investment. Post-money adds the investment amount. Both determine investor ownership.
Beginner fundraising
Pre-Seed Round
A pre-seed round is the earliest startup funding stage, covering idea to prototype. Check sizes range from $100K to $1M from angels and micro-VCs.
Intermediate fundraising
Pro-Rata Rights
The right of an investor to participate in future funding rounds to maintain their ownership percentage in the company.
Intermediate fundraising
Revenue-Based Financing
Revenue-based financing gives startups capital in exchange for a percentage of future revenue, with no equity dilution and no fixed monthly payments.
Beginner finance
Runway
Runway is how many months a startup can operate before running out of cash. It defines the time to reach the next milestone or close the next funding round.
Intermediate fundraising
SAFE - Simple Agreement for Future Equity
A SAFE lets investors fund startups in exchange for future equity, with no interest rate or maturity date. Created by Y Combinator in 2013.
Beginner fundraising
Seed Round
A seed round is a startup's first institutional funding, used to validate the product, build the core team, and reach the traction needed for a Series A.
Intermediate fundraising
Series A
A Series A is the first major priced VC round, raised after a startup shows product-market fit and consistent growth. It funds scaling the go-to-market engine.
Intermediate fundraising
Series B Round
Series B is a growth-stage VC round that funds scaling a proven business. Typically requires $8–15M ARR, 80%+ YoY growth, and NRR above 110%.
Beginner strategy
TAM, SAM, and SOM
TAM, SAM, and SOM are the three market sizing metrics founders use to quantify opportunity and show investors the realistic scale of their startup.
Intermediate fundraising
Term Sheet
A term sheet is a non-binding document outlining the key terms of a VC investment deal before formal legal agreements are drafted.
Beginner growth
Traction
Traction is quantifiable evidence that a startup is gaining real customers and momentum - the key signal investors use to gauge product-market fit.
Intermediate finance
Unit Economics
The direct revenues and costs associated with a single unit of a business, used to determine per-unit profitability and scalability.
Beginner fundraising
Y Combinator
The world's most influential startup accelerator - launched Airbnb, Stripe, Dropbox, and 4,000+ companies since 2005. Known as YC.
Guides
Intermediate finance
12 min Build a Startup Financial Model
How to build a startup financial model from scratch - revenue assumptions, burn rate, runway, and investor-ready outputs that hold up in due diligence.
Intermediate fundraising
10 min How to Write a Cold Email to Investors
How to write a cold email to investors that actually gets a reply - anatomy of a great VC email, subject lines, templates, and what not to do.
Intermediate ai
12 min How to Build an AI Startup
A practical guide to building AI-native companies: from defining your AI edge to raising capital and scaling your model stack.
Intermediate fundraising
12 min How to Manage Investor Relations
Build a systematic investor relations practice - from monthly update emails to board meetings - that keeps investors engaged and working for you.
Intermediate fundraising
9 min Prepare Your Data Room
How to build an investor data room that passes due diligence - the exact documents, folder structure, and red flags to fix before investors ask.
Advanced fundraising
18 min How to Read (and Negotiate) a Term Sheet
A founder's guide to every clause in a VC term sheet - valuation, liquidation preference, anti-dilution, board control, and what to actually negotiate.
Beginner finance
9 min How to Read Your Startup's P&L
A founder's guide to understanding the profit and loss statement - what each line means, how to interpret it, and what to fix.
Intermediate fundraising
16 min How to Raise a Seed Round
A practical, step-by-step guide to raising a seed round: what to prepare, how to run the process, and how to close.
Intermediate fundraising
15 min How to Write a Startup Pitch Deck
A complete guide to building a startup pitch deck - what slides to include, what investors look for, and mistakes that get decks deleted immediately.
Beginner fundraising
7 min How to Write an Investor One-Pager
Learn how to write a startup one-pager that earns investor meetings - covering the essential sections, formatting rules, and the most common mistakes to avoid.
Articles
Intermediate ai
11 min AI Startup Fundraising
What investors actually look for when funding AI startups in 2025-2026 - the metrics, questions, and red flags that determine who gets funded.
Intermediate fundraising
14 min The Anatomy of a Series A Round
What a Series A actually requires in 2024–25: the metrics, the process, the timeline, and what investors are really evaluating.
Intermediate fundraising
13 min Bootstrapping vs. VC Funding
VC or bootstrap? The answer depends on your market, your ambitions, and what you're willing to trade. Here's how to decide.
Advanced fundraising
11 min The Down Round Playbook
A down round isn't the end. Here's how to navigate a valuation cut - managing dilution, investor relations, and team morale without losing the company.
Intermediate fundraising
12 min Startup Exit Strategies Explained
A complete guide to startup exit strategies - how acquisitions, IPOs, and secondaries work, and what founders need to know before planning an exit.
Intermediate metrics
10 min Startup KPIs by Stage
The metrics that matter change as your startup grows. The KPI framework founders should use from pre-seed to Series B, with real benchmarks at each stage.
Intermediate fundraising
15 min The Startup Fundraising Process
The fundraising process is opaque by design. This article maps every phase - from prep to close - so you can run it like an operator.
Beginner fundraising
11 min What Is Venture Capital?
How venture capital works - VC fund structure, what investors look for, fund economics, dilution, and whether VC is the right path for your startup.
Beginner strategy
10 min The Stages of Startup Growth
The five stages of startup growth explained - from ideation to scale - with key milestones, exit criteria, and common failure modes for each phase.
Intermediate fundraising
12 min What VCs Look for in a Startup
VCs say they back great teams in big markets. The reality is more specific - and more useful. Here's the actual framework seed investors use to decide.