Fundraising

For all the focus on pitch decks (and more than 80 articles on the topic), you’d think that it’s impossible for startups to raise from angels or institutional investors without one. That’s not entirely correct. Here’s why. Going far enough back into the history of investing,

Something happens in the process when you collaboratively have the right people and objectives in place as an angel investor. At some point for the people in the room there is a realization that the next generation of business leaders is there right in front of us and that there's ways to help

Venture capitalists and startup founders alike went into 2023 eagerly hoping for the return of the industry’s exit environment — specifically, the resurgence of IPOs. After 2021, a record-breaking year for IPOs, everything screeched to a halt in 2022. PitchBook counted 296 venture-backed co

Last month, Chicago-based Chalo Ventures surpassed 100 LPs. For founder and general partner Haris Khurshid, it was a notable milestone toward the firm’s goal of hitting 1,000 LPs, a number that would likely make most legacy investors wince. But while there are a number of potential annoyances

Leslie Feinzaig, a venture capitalist, likes that her venture firm, Graham & Walker, sounds like an old, stodgy law firm. But apart from the name, there's nothing really stodgy about it: Her fund exclusively invests in female- and nonbinary-founded startups. It's a relatively new name f

When most people think of venture capitalists, they often think of investors, the people writing checks to fund startups. But that image is only one part of venture capital. In order to make those investments, venture firms must first have the money, which means they’re not only just the fund

When talking to investors, you’re answering the what (product), why (mission), where (if relevant) and how (strategy and go-to-market). But founders often ignore another important question: Why now? Why wouldn’t it have been possible to have built the company five years ago? Why would f

Throw half a dozen entrepreneurs in a room together with a whiteboard, and they’ll be able to come up with a thousand business ideas in a couple of hours. It’s the nature of entrepreneurship. Our brains are wired to keep an eye on what could be better and how that gap in the market can

A lot of entrepreneurs are incredible idea generators and hackers; they have a knack for seeing something that’s broken or something that could be better and creating a solution around that. The problem is this: It’s rare that even very good features make good companies. It’s rare

Venture capitalists may control capital, but one currency that they're always in search of is an elusive, evolving one: deal flow. Betting early on the next big startup is enough to cement the entire return of a fund (and then some) — and help that plucky investor make a name for themselves.

The facts are clear: Startups are finding funding increasingly difficult to secure, and even unicorns appear cornered, with many lacking both capital and a clear exit. But equity rounds aren't the only way for a company to raise money — alternative and other non-dilutive financing options are

We often hear companies claim: “We will grow into our valuation from 2021.” That statement is in reference to their expectations of when they’ll price their IPO, or with regards to a future private round. They are implying that they will wait to go public until they can price an IPO highe

Venture capital funding continued its slump through the end of 2022, and there aren’t any real signs things are going to pick back up for a while. That means more doom and gloom ahead for startups looking to fundraise. Many startups that tried to avoid raising a regular round in 2022 — or t

Depending on whom you ask, artificial intelligence will either vastly improve our lives or take away our jobs. For veteran venture investor Peter Wagner, it's a little more nuanced than that. We recently caught up with Wagner, who, along with fellow veteran investor Gaurav Garg, launched Wing V