as told by an ex-VC turned VC-backed founder (primarily focused on pre-seed/seed fundraising)

Hi! I’m Steph, founder of PIN, a VC-backed startup that enables communities/co-workers/friends to invest together in incredible founders/startups. We’re backed by investors I love and admire, including Initialized, Industry, NEA, GSR, and more 😚

I wrote this guide because I’ve been on both sides of the table and found that to be a huge advantage when I was raising (and even then, it was still hard). I was formerly a VC associate at NEA and was lucky enough to learn from sitting in on 1000’s of successful to not so successful pitches (and the internal partner meetings after these pitches). Now I’m a founder and have raised 3 times for 2 different companies, sometimes more successfully than others (lol).

Sooo, here’s my unfiltered guide to raising from VCs, told by someone who will gladly share all the things that I probably wouldn’t have been able to say if I were still a VC myself 🙃. Hope this saves future founders time making the same mistakes I did.

Thank you to the 100+ founders who gave early feedback on this doc to help improve it to where it is now! If you have any more feedback, fundraising advice/stories of your own to share, or other questions that aren’t covered, don’t hesitate to reach out: [email protected]. Hope this is a living document that I can add to over time.

And if you want to stay up to date on other stuff I’m writing, sign up here.

• interviews with successful VC-backed or bootstrapped founders about how they got started (got their first customer, met their first investor, met their co-founder, built their MVP, etc.)
• how to choose a startup to work at
• the ins and outs of how to make your first angel investment
• how to answer hard questions from VCs like “how much are you raising?” and “where are you in the fundraising process?” as a startup founder
• the ins/outs of venture incubators, and the pros/cons of working at or with one
• how to diligence VCs to work with as a founder
• learnings from exploring being a chief of staff at a startup (instead of getting my MBA)
• why investing on building your brand (via twitter, linkedin, newsletter) is well worth it + case studies of people who’ve changed their life doing so