Asking yourself, "if I knew what I know now, would I still pursue this business?" If the answer is no, you've saved yourself a lot of time! If it's yes, proceed with full force!

[Seed Investor in Paypal & Co-Founder of Eventbrite] Kevin Hartz, GP at A* Capital; what does he look for in a founding team? Biggest learnings --> - Show investors that you have grit & intellect - how? It should be obvious from your background.

Tesla for Motorcycles? - Oben's Founder, Madhumita Agrawal; funding a hardware startup in a recession - Keep fundraising until the money is in the bank! - Referrals, referrals, referrals - Fundraising is for founders

What's it like to win Techcrunch Disrupt? Minerva Lithium's founder shares what they did, how she felt, and what their building!

How to nail your first meeting with a VC--> 1. Solve for getting a second meeting 2. Nail your story/narrative 3. Don't explain every part of your business!

Ashley Aydin is a Principal at VamosVentures. They invest in early-stage tech-enabled companies led by Latinx and diverse founders!

Why multiples have actually gone down and what to do about it! Who will get funded now? - Capital efficient, but don't suck too much capital - Velocity - Consistency - great investor updates

The most impactful strategy you used to close your round? - Wrote a white paper...there are a lot of companies out there. They wrote a white paper about the future of work - Wrote it on Notion, put it behind a wall, 15-20 min read...filtered out those that are interested...

Angular Ventures's, David Peterson: 3 things VCs look for what YOU might not have in your deck?

Nail these 4 things if you want a chance of raising in this environment - Who was your warm intro? How well do they know the space? - Founder conviction is super important. What brought you to this point? How did you come across this problem? Why dedicate the next 10 years to solving it? - Real advisor relationship in your slide deck? - Can you withstand industry expert scrutiny? - How organized is your data room? Send it fast and make it detailed.

How do you show a VC that your company could return their fund? --> Strategic Sequencing...

[$12M Seed Greylock invested] Rishabh Jain, Co-Founder of Fermat Commerce; raising in a downturn - thesis alignment is more important during a downturn - what is your mega trend?

You have something in your business that is scary to a VC...make sure you share it the right way

What's it like to raise a round right now? Learn what Hersh did to close a $12M Series A. Companyon Ventures, Atlassian Ventures, and CreativeCo join returning investors to fuel accelerated go-to-market investment

- sharing your GTM tests and strategies in your deck - getting creative with your GTM and how to share that with investors

- How to respond to --> "Why is Microsoft not going to do this?" - How to do VC updates, and common red flags during due diligence - Investment breakdown

Nail your story - you have heard this before, BUT it is the most important thing you can do Go deep with the problem in a verbal pitch Work with VCs that know your space

- Don't raise, unless you have to - Get ready for 2x as many follow up questions - Get ready for 2x as many representatives from the VC on the call - IRL still matters

Timing matters Investing is best...when you have time to watch them operate False sense of urgency Customer calls Don’t downplay

Eric Youngstrom shares how they closed $42M. He dives into how he thinks about valuations and where he spent his time during the raise. #SimilarToEnterpriseSales

Learn how Gated raised millions by prioritizing branding, manifestos, and investor newsletters. Here exactly what he did!

LEARN - How a VC evaluate a company that they actually invested in - The top thing to consider in your pitch

Learn: 1. Top three trends Rajeev is investing in now 2. How to improve your pitch 3. What VCs are saying about you after the pitch

Andrew raised $5M from YC and others without a deck... Biggest learning --> He shares how they structured their YC application

See a deck that Alon used to close $5M from top VCs in a difficult macro environment.