OpenVC Blog

The Stages of Startup Funding: From Pre-Seed to IPO

As a founder who is going to be raising capital, it is essential to know what stage your company is in. This post covers all funding stages from boostrapping and pre-seed to seed, Series A series B, and late-stage.

Posted by Shaun Gold | August 15, 2025

Are startup accelerators worthless?

Learn which startup accelerators are actually worth it (if any) and what you should expect from them. We'll break down the actual value add for each case, as well as the associated funding and ownership dilution.

Posted by Stéphane Nasser | August 15, 2025

Seed round explained

This article aims to help understand everything you need to know about the seed stage: are you ready for seed, how much can you raise and at what valuation, who invests at seed, and more.

Posted by Shaun Gold | August 15, 2025

How to raise funds with cold emails

Everything you need to know about cold emailing a VC investor. Follow this step by step, and you are guaranteed to write a top 1% cold email to VCs. Includes checklist and examples.

Posted by Stéphane Nasser Edwin Mik | August 15, 2025

The VC list of VC lists - 53 databases listed

We have listed 53 VC lists that you can use to raise funds. Search free and paid VC lists, explore the databases by country or theme, and raise funds more efficiently.

Posted by Stéphane Nasser | August 15, 2025

How to design a winning fundraising strategy

Running an tight fundraising process will increase your chances of success while saving you a lot of time and stress. Here's how you can design a winning fundraising strategy for your startup.

Posted by Stéphane Nasser | August 14, 2025

How Much Should Startup Founders Pay Themselves [2024]

Founder compensation is a tricky topic. How much are you supposed to pay yourself? What will your investors think? And are you even allowed to compensate yourself when your team is subsisting on cold pizza and borrowing the Wi-Fi from the nearest office? This article breaks down the many dimensions of the "tech founder salary".

Posted by Shaun Gold | August 14, 2025

Why Startups Fail at Agency Partnerships (And How to Succeed)

Many founders hire agencies like they're code shops when what we really need are partners who deeply care about our customers. This post will help you identofy what a great agency looks like.

Posted by Milosz Falinski | August 12, 2025

32 signals VCs use to eliminate founders

Signals are small hints used by investors to make a quick decision about your company. This post lists down all 32 signals used by VCs and investors to quickly eliminate founders.

Posted by Stéphane Nasser | July 28, 2025