When you set out on your fundraising journey for your company, your first challenge is to figure out who is willing to fund your startup at each stage and why. This helps you target your outreach efforts to the types of investors most likely to support you. That’s why I wanted to share this brief guide to who finances your startup journey. Here’s what you’ll learn: ✅ The startup financing cycle ✅ The relationship between risk, valuation, and time ✅ Why banks typically don’t f

Lack of product-market fit is a top reason why startups fail, accounting for over 40% of failures. (Startup Devkit) And yet, while many founders can fumble through a definition of product-market fit, many are hard-pressed to pinpoint the best way to measure it. There are many ways to think about product-market fit: 🔷 Your Net Promoter Score (NPS) 🔷 A feeling in your gut 🔷 When 40% (or some other threshold) of your users would be “very disappointed” if you stopped making yo

💰 I Collected the Top 100+ Pitch Decks From VC-Funded Startups So You Don’t Have To Only about 1% of pitch decks land VC funding. (Inc.) How can you make sure you’re on the other side of the 99%? One way is to study decks that have made it so you can replicate what they did right. That’s why I wanted to share these top 100+ decks from VC-funded startups. They include decks from: ✅ LinkedIn, which raised $10M in its Series B in 2004 ✅ Uber, which raised $200k in pre-seed fund

In the startup world, the difference between good and great can make or break you. After all, about 90% of startups fail (Embroker). Of the 10% that make it, it’s a safe bet that the founder(s) played a pivotal role. That’s why I wanted to share this advice from Selina Tobaccowala, co-founder of Evite and President of SurveyMonkey. According to Tobaccowala, great founders: 🔷 Have hard conversations with co-founders before they even start. 🔷 Nail the balance between internal

Most entrepreneurs study others’ successes to learn how to succeed in their own ventures. But there’s a lot to be learned from failure, too. And learning from other people’s failures is a lot less costly than learning from your own (although you should do that, too). That’s why I wanted to share some of the top reasons startups fail, with examples: 🔻 Ran out of cash/failed to raise new capital (38%) ➡️ Airlift, a Pakistan-based ride-sharing app/delivery service, closed down

There’s so much advice out there on creating a perfect pitch that entrepreneurs can easily get overwhelmed. But I’ve always believed that simplicity is key—to a great story, a great pitch, and a great company. That’s why I wanted to take this opportunity to show you the five essential ingredients of a great pitch. If you nail these five, you’re in a good spot. In a nutshell, your pitch must: 1️⃣ State a PROBLEM – What is the users’ pain point? 2️⃣ Provide a SOLUTION – How is

Running out of cash is the #1 reason startups fail, accounting for 38% of all failures. (CB Insights) That’s why having a handle on cash runway is so crucial. Here are 3 common cash flow mistakes to avoid courtesy of Sifted, a resource for startups founded by the Financial Times’ innovation editor John Thornhill: 1️⃣ Relying too much on manual spreadsheets. 👉 Make sure you have a structure in place so the information you’re relying on is up-to-date. 2️⃣ Only looking at actua

💰 Where We Are & Where We’re Going: What’s in Store for VC in 2022 2021 was, perhaps unexpectedly, a record-breaking year for venture capital. The year saw 27% more deals closing compared to 2021, and the capital invested rose by an incredible 98% to nearly $330 billion. (Forbes) Will 2022 keep up? The industry is facing higher interest rates, falling valuations, smaller corporate budgets, and slower growth. (Tomasz Tunguz) But it’s not all bad news. While we’re unlikely to