by Aaron Harris2/7/2019

Funding rounds happen in one of two ways. Either a founder asks for money andgets it, or an investor offers money and the founder accepts it. This may seemsimple, but the dynamics are complicated.I’ve written about how founders should fundraise. However, inrunning YC’s Series A Program, I’ve noticed how many companies raise moneywithout any process at all.

by Jason Kwon1/28/2019

We’ve noticed a common problem: founders don’t know what “good” looks like in aterm sheet. This makes sense, because it is often, literally, the first time intheir careers that they’ve seen one. This puts founders at a significantdisadvantage because VCs see term sheets all the time and know what to expect.Because we’ve invested in so many founders over the years and have seen hundredsof Series A term sheets, we know what “good” looks like.

by Aaron Harris1/25/2019

One year ago, we announced the Series A program (YCA) to bring moretransparency and consistency to fundraising. Six months ago, we announced thefirst Series A Batch. Here’s how ithas been going, and a bit of what we learned.In the last year, YC companies raised over $945mm across 95 Series As.

by Aaron Harris1/16/2019

Our second YCA batch is now in session. These companies are about to startfundraising and we want to give more investors the chance to invest in YCcompanies. We’ll be doing that through a new portal we built. We will only beextending invitations to a limited group of Series A investors.These invitations will go out on 1/23.If you’d like access to that system, or to be considered for it in the future, please apply here[https://docs.google.

by Aaron Harris6/4/2018

We launched a Series A program 6 months ago, but we startedprototyping the program 6 months before that with a few companies. In that year,we’ve learned a huge amount about what works and what doesn’t work when raisingan A. I’ve written about some of those learnings on the YC blog.1We’re now ready to launch the next phase of the program: working with companiesthat are ready for a Series A in batches, just like regular YC.

by Aaron Harris5/22/2018

One of the hardest questions to answer when considering an A is “when is mycompany ready?” This is another one of those questions for which there arehundreds of answers on the internet, none of which are particularly satisfying.The reason these answers don’t work is that each rule has so many exceptions asto make the rule seem silly.Founders often want clean and concrete answers as to when they’re ready toraise. This is why the idea that VCs filter exclusively on metrics isattractive.

by Aaron Harris5/7/2018

In any negotiation, leverage is the pressure that you can bring to bear on theother party to achieve your goals. While leverage is never the only thing thatmatters, it is a powerful and generally misunderstood tool.1 It is critical tounderstand when and where to use leverage while fundraising. However, I’venoticed that many founders – and most first-time founders – don’t thinksystematically about leverage.