When you raise with safes, you don't give up any board seats. After you close the investment, it's still just you and your co-founders calling the shots. You can be like this Zapier founders and never raise money again. And for them 10 years ago, that meant going fully remote.
YC Group Partner Brad Flora has seen startup fundraising from every angle: as a founder, as one of the most prolific angel investors in Silicon Valley, and now as a YC Group Partner. Brad has coached hundreds of companies on fundraising. In this talk, he shares stories and advice on how modern startup fundraising works.
Paul Graham Fundraising Essays:
http://www.paulgraham.com/fundraising.html
http://www.paulgraham.com/startupfunding.html
http://www.paulgraham.com/convince.html
http://www.paulgraham.com/herd.html
Geoff Ralston's Fundraising Guides:
https://www.ycombinator.com/library/4A-a-guide-to-seed-fundraising
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcevHkNGrWQ
YC Fundraising Resources:
https://www.ycombinator.com/library/2u-how-to-build-your-seed-round-pitch-deck
https://www.ycombinator.com/library/6q-how-to-pitch-your-startup
https://www.ycombinator.com/library/71-how-to-get-meetings-with-investors-and-raise-money
https://www.ycombinator.com/library/4O-raising-money-online-advice-for-startups
https://www.ycombinator.com/library/3u-different-types-of-investors-and-their-incentives
Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/SUS-apply
Work at a startup: https://yc.link/SUS-jobs