SAFE Notes vs Convertible Notes: One Protects Founders, One Protects Investors — Know Which Is Which
SAFE Notes vs Convertible Notes: One Protects Founders, One Protects Investors — Know Which Is Which Y Combinator created the SAFE in 2013 to make fundraising faster. It worked. It also shifted ALL the downside risk to...
May 27, 2026
What Is AngelList? The Platform That Democratized VC (And the Returns Problem Nobody Talks About)
What Is AngelList? The Platform That Democratized VC (And the Returns Problem Nobody Talks About) AngelList manages $171 billion in assets across more than 25,000 funds and syndicates. The median SPV return on that...
May 27, 2026
Capital Calls: What Happens When Your Fund Manager Wants More Money (And You Don't Have It)
Capital Calls: What Happens When Your Fund Manager Wants More Money (And You Don't Have It) In 2022, 67% of large LPs cut new private equity commitments because they couldn't meet existing capital calls. Pension funds —...
May 27, 2026
Advisory Shares: Why 90% of Them Are Worth Nothing (And When to Take the Deal)
Advisory Shares: Why 90% of Them Are Worth Nothing (And When to Take the Deal) Run the math. A pre-seed advisory grant of 0.225% equity, at a startup with a 15% chance of surviving, sold at a 6x exit multiple on a $1M...
May 27, 2026
L Catterton: The $40B Consumer PE Firm With LVMH's Playbook (And Its Blind Spots)
L Catterton: The $40B Consumer PE Firm With LVMH's Playbook (And Its Blind Spots) L Catterton sold Everlane to Shein in May 2026. A sustainable fashion brand built on radical transparency — sold to the company...
May 27, 2026
Common Stock vs Preferred Stock: The Liquidation Waterfall That Wipes Out Founders (With Real Math)
Common Stock vs Preferred Stock: The Liquidation Waterfall That Wipes Out Founders (With Real Math) A founder I know owned 45% of his company on paper. The acquirer paid $25 million — exactly what investors had put in...
May 27, 2026
Fund of Funds: You're Paying 2-and-20 Twice (Here's When It's Still Worth It)
Fund of Funds: You're Paying 2-and-20 Twice (Here's When It's Still Worth It) Put $1 million into a fund of funds and watch a 3.0x gross multiple shrink to 2.3x net over ten years. That's roughly $700,000 in fee drag on...
May 27, 2026
Seed Funding in 2026: How Much to Raise, What to Give Up, and Who Actually Writes the Check
Seed Funding in 2026: How Much to Raise, What to Give Up, and Who Actually Writes the Check Median seed round in 2026: $3–5M at $10–15M pre-money. That sounds like a healthy market until you look at what happens next....
May 27, 2026
Startup Funding Rounds Explained: Pre-Seed to Series C in Specific Numbers (Not Theory)
Startup Funding Rounds Explained: Pre-Seed to Series C in Specific Numbers (Not Theory) Only 24 to 27 percent of seed-funded startups ever raise a Series A. The funding ladder gets presented like a staircase every...
May 27, 2026
A PE Firm Just Bought Velcro. Yes, That Velcro. Here's What Middle-Market PE Sees in Iconic Consumer Brands That Growth Investors Miss.
Last week, while you were arguing on LinkedIn about which AI model will replace software engineers, a New York PE firm did something far more interesting. Arsenal Capital Partners agreed to acquire a majority stake in...
May 27, 2026
A Manufacturing Company That Hires From Dollar Tree Just Hit $1B. Why Sequoia and the Stripe Cofounders Backed a Factory Over Another SaaS Startup.
SendCutSend raised $110 million from Sequoia, Paradigm, and Stripe co-founders Patrick and John Collison , hitting a $1.01 billion post-money valuation on May 19, 2026. Let that sentence sit for a second. Not another AI...
May 27, 2026
Boston Scientific Paid $1.5B for 34% of MiRus — With a $3B Acquisition Option Attached. This Is How Corporate Venture Actually Works.
Most corporate venture capital is theater. A $5 million check, a logo on a cap table, a press release about "strategic alignment." Nobody gets acquired. Nobody wins. The real players don't play it that way — and last...
May 27, 2026