Fundraising

Market headwinds continue to dog startups chasing venture backing. That’s the top-level finding of a new PitchBook report that looked at VC trends toward the end of 2022, specifically Q4, including investments made at the seed, late-stage and nearing-the-exit levels. First, the good news: 

There isn’t much hope that 2023’s fundraising environment will be better for startups than last year’s. It seems likely that it will get worse before it gets better — even at the earliest stages, which have largely been insulated thus far. But for burgeoning companies capable of

In fundraising, a founder's greatest challenge is not selling any particular product or strategy. Instead, it is often unwinding and realigning the investor's biases. The competition is not your market competitor or incumbent. More often, it is the investor's set of operating heuristics

With over $9 billion in assets under management, GGV Capital is one of venture capital's largest and most prominent players. The 22-year-old firm invests in startups from seed to growth stages across a variety of sectors, including consumer, internet, enterprise/cloud and fintech. This year was

Building an investor network from scratch sounds daunting. This is true particularly if, like many founders, you don’t happen to be part of a social or economic circle where striking up early conversations with potential investors is a no-brainer. We recently sat down with three VCs who have

The most important asset early-stage companies possess is their intellectual property. But IP can be difficult to protect during fundraising, because venture firms reviewing confidential pitch materials do not regularly sign NDAs as is traditional in other industries, and applicants lack leverage t

Amid 2021’s record-breaking funding activity, it wasn’t uncommon to see startups raise rounds composed of numerous small checks from a large number of firms and angel investors. But now that said companies are looking to raise extension financing, they're realizing that more investo

If you’ve read anything about pitching your company, you’ve probably come across advice that says that you need a warm introduction to an investor. Without a doubt, a good, friendly introduction — ideally from a founder they’ve already invested in — is the best way to get on t

This month, we're five years into building Contrary. Along the way, we've raised hundreds of millions from some of the world's top institutions and have been fortunate to back startups like Ramp, Anduril and many others. But just like the stories of the startups we back, the journey has

So they’ve looked at your pitch deck and you’ve got the intro. Now, you have 30 minutes to win over an investor. What do you tell them? What would be convincing enough for them to buy in? How do you show them what’s possible? The simple answer: Demonstrate that you are set up to g

Startup funding continues to dwindle and layoffs keep making headlines as 2023 nears. And yet, pre-seed and seed companies don’t seem to be enduring the same state of panic as their more mature startup peers. A recent survey of 450 early-stage founders in the U.S. and Europe by pre-seed-focus

I usually tell founders that cold emails to prospective investors aren't all that effective. But they can work provided you do extensive research and find the right fit. A lot of founders skip the research phase, though. Michael Bamberger is not that kind of founder. “I’

After a particularly slow summer, the mood in venture capital seemed to change with the season come Labor Day. By the end of September, it felt that maybe the worst had already come in terms of this year’s falling venture funding numbers. Investment volume had stopped declining and was starti

John Foley clearly didn’t take (ahem) a brake after leaving Peloton. The former co-founder and CEO of the connected fitness company — who stepped down as CEO in February and left the company altogether in September — is back with a new startup. Ernesta, which aims to laun