Fundraising & Valuation

“Listeners can become an LP through acquired.fm/lp or by searching LP Show in their podcast player.”

“True moments of immediate conviction in pitches—where you know right away something is exceptional—happen only once or twice a year, or sometimes zero times a year for investors.”

“When founders sell their own shares as part of secondary selling during fundraising, they become more price-focused and optimization-oriented compared to when they are just selling equity from the cap table.”

“Entrepreneurs pursuing ventures like Webvan should get funded by the best investors, and investors should do everything possible to give them the best odds of success.”

“Some LPs question whether allocating capital to Benchmark is worth their time given the small fund size relative to their portfolio.”

“It's valuable to maintain close relationships with people in your network, as they can later become investors in your business.”

“The company previously operated under the name 'Bots and Us' when it raised pre-seed and seed funding, before rebranding to Dextery.”

“Coriander led a successful funding round for a Vibe Marketing company and brought in lovable founders to help win the deal.”

“A startup that just raised $20M from a top-tier VC had its founder quit the very next day.”

“A founder who just raised $20 million from a top two or three venture capital firm quit the very next day.”

“The Fundraise Capital Community functions as a battle council and brotherhood of empire builders where members meet weekly to discuss deals, dissect capital raises, and sharpen each other.”

“Your investors often have recruitment firms that can be really helpful in the hiring process.”

“Major investors including BlackRock and Fidelity invested hundreds of millions of dollars into Circle, with individual checks ranging from $300 million to $400 million.”

“A common mistake by founders is raising at very high valuations like $10 billion in early rounds without having built a product yet.”

“Lumo Labs has deployed around 22 million euros with an estimated 32 million euros in additional funding from third-party investors to date.”

“Lumo Labs is targeting a €100 million fund size and currently has raised over €40 million, with a final closing targeted for Q2-Q3 2026.”

“Without five to ten million in ready capital from cornerstone investors, launching a fund requires significant personal sacrifices.”

“Early evidence of product-market fit is more valuable for fundraising than optimizing metrics like ARR, LTV, and CAC ratio at the initial stage.”

“Raising the first round is relatively easy when coming from a credible background like Cisco with a good idea, but subsequent rounds in years two and three without inflection points are much harder.”