i underestimated how awesome they are early on, because we had so much interest when we started raising out here. And then a, investing the time to get to know them more and more was interesting. It's why i love being out here, because the default mentality is optimism. I mean, if you make great stuff, people recognize you. You can be one, you know, twitter. Dam sure.
Amber Atherton is the founder and CEO of Zyper (YC W18).
Iba Masood is the cofounder and CEO of TARA (YC W15).
The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.
Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.
Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/
***
Topics
00:00 - Intro
1:16 - Seed fundraising for Zyper and Tara
3:26 - Tara's pivot
4:31 - Series A fundraising for Zyper and Tara
18:11 - Evaluating investors
23:46 - Meeting with associates and partners
30:35 - Raising a Series A as a female founder
39:31 - Fundraising psychology
41:46 - What not to do when fundraising
45:01 - Talking to portfolio companies about investors
46:21 - What it's like to run a Series A stage company
1:00:41 - The most important piece of advice for fundraising