All of our Fundraising articles

Starting Up

Building a Deep Tech Company? Most Startup Advice Doesn’t Apply — Read This Instead

Learn from Loyal founder Celine Halioua’s rigorous approach to milestone-based planning, fundraising and multi-product strategy for deep tech companies.

Starting Up

Here’s What You Can Really Expect When Pitching Your Seed-Stage Startup at a VC Partner Meeting

There isn't much advice to guide founders on navigating their first VC partner meeting. So First Round Partner and former founder Liz Wessel shares her playbook for seed-stage startups tackling one of fundraising's most opaque processes

Starting Up

The Not So Cookie-Cutter Approach to Company Building — 8 Lessons from Zapier

Wade Foster, founder and CEO of Zapier, shares his contrarian takes on building a billion-dollar company — from fundraising advice, go-to-market strategy, and hiring mistakes.

Fundraising

Step-by-Step Fundraising Tactics from the NYC Legend Who Raised $750M

Kevin Ryan has spent decades on both sides of the fundraising table. Here, he provides secrets seldom shared for getting and keeping VCs interested before closing the deal.

Fundraising

How Zapier Pulled Off Its One-and-Done Approach to Fundraising

Zapier CEO and Co-founder Wade Foster is a fundraising contrarian. But he doesn't think he should be. He shares how it's possible to approach financing as a boost — not a crutch — and ways to approach key business decisions early on to keep the itch to fundraise at bay.

Fundraising

The Fundraising Wisdom That Helped Our Founders Raise Billions in Follow-On Capital

First Round launched its Pitch Assist program to help founders raise follow-on capital. Here are the most important fundraising lessons we share.

Fundraising

AppNexus' First Pitch — Before It Steered Around the Cloud to Win Big in AdTech

AppNexus opens the vault and shares its very first seed funding pitch deck, created before its impressive pivot.

Fundraising

What the Seed Funding Boom Means for Raising a Series A

Josh Kopelman on why raising a Series A is harder than ever, and how startups can adapt to survive the changing investment landscape.

Fundraising

You Aren't Getting the Most Out of Your Investors — This is How to Start

Angel investor Paul Arnold has seen many companies fail to capitalize on the wisdom and resources of their investors. Here's how others have succeeded.

Fundraising

Not Another VC Blog - First Round Review

Introducing The First Round Review, the first VC-run publication providing actionable insights from the top people in technology.

Fundraising

Zach Sims of Codecademy on Lessons in Raising $12.5 Million for the First Time

Codecademy CEO and Co-founder Zach Sims shares what he learned about choosing the right investors for his company.

Fundraising

Take Your Fundraising Pitch from Mediocre to Memorable with These Storytelling Tips

Oren Jacob, CEO of ToyTalk and former CTO of Pixar, gives his advice for making the fundraising process far less painful.