Blog > Fundraising

How Much Should Startup Founders Pay Themselves [2026]

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

How VCs make money: dirty edition

Many founders ignore how VCs make money. In my opinion, that's a mistake. Today, we're fixing this situation! In this post, you will learn how VC firms actually make money - including some of their dirty tricks - and what it means for you as a founder.

Posted by Stéphane Nasser | July 17, 2025

Why investors don't give honest feedback

Investor feedback is rarely valuable because it's rarely true. When they pass, most investors give a generic, well-rounded reason. "It's not you, it's me" kind of thing. But why is it that way?

Posted by Stéphane Nasser | July 17, 2025

How to pick the right fundraising advisor

Should you use an external advisor to help raise funds for your startup? In this post, I want to give you the playbook on working with a fundraising advisor: is it a good idea for you, how to pick the right one, and what you should expect?

Posted by Jonathan Hollis | June 15, 2025

Top 20 crowdfunding platforms for startups

Crowdfunding platforms allow entrepreneurs to raise capital from “the crowd” in varying amounts. In return, investors get compensated with equity in the company or other rewards. This post covers the top 20 crowdfunding platforms for startup founders.

Posted by Shaun Gold | June 10, 2025

The Ultimate Guide To Venture Capital Due Diligence

A rigorous due diligence process can help investors avoid predictably bad investments and bring some sense back into decisions that can be highly emotional. This guide is designed to help both founders and investors nail the DD process.

Posted by Jori Karstikko | May 19, 2025

16 ways to scam a founder raising funds

In this post, I'll break down 16 ways founders get scammed when raising funds. Because there are no VC scams, only poorly informed founders.

Posted by Stéphane Nasser | April 26, 2025

How to build a startup pitch deck

This playbook is my home-made, battle-tested process to prepare the structure, content, and design of a typical early-stage startup pitch deck. These 2 hours of prep work will save you 10x more time down the road, I promise.

Posted by Stéphane Nasser | March 15, 2025

The best startup pitch deck ever built

What does the perfect pitch deck look like? Well, we built it. We took the absolute best slides, we put the together, and we created a deck that no investor could pass - ever.

Posted by Stéphane Nasser | February 22, 2025