My fundraising coaching and execution will be moving from Skool. This community will be an entry point for founders to come and receive answers to their basic questions about starting a company that might become venture-backed. Stay tuned. If you want to stay in touch and your email is different from the one you list on Skool, please DM me and give me your preferred email address.

Just applied to Y Combinator; statistically, chances are 1%. No matter what happens, I am happy because I left it all on the court.

Article in the Financial Times today. Venture was frothy in 2021 and even in 2022, and lots of bets were made. Two quick takes: 1. Raise only what you need and keep raising only if you need to. (I.e. don't ask for so much money that you can't "grow into" what you create.) 2. Earn revenue as quickly as possible, and be profitable if possible, but EARN REVENUE. At the very least, investors will see product-market fit. If profitability is slow, an investor can help you tweak the expense side, but they're expecting you to be adopted by your customers and retained.

Guys, I have started a paid community that is part of my attempt to "fix" the fundraising process in the private and nonprofit sectors. The problem, I'm learning, is that the current reality requires people called fundraisers, brokers, "finders" (here in Texas). The fact that I've made my livelihood from doing what I do now for 30 years underscores a 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙗𝙡𝙚𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙𝙨 𝙛𝙞𝙭𝙞𝙣𝙜. People like me are unnecessary middle men -- we are like career legislators -- and I think we can find a way to compress the funding process, create shareholder value more quickly, and even out the power imbalance between the person seeking money and the one looking to allocate. HERE is the page. It is by application-only, and if you are a founder of a venture-scale company, I'd encourage you to apply.

Guys, I'm going to post several reports issues by Vela Wood in Dallas regarding venture deals in this state over the past several years. Kevin Vela is the principal of the firm and one of the top venture lawyers in the state. He teaches venture law at SMU and also does the legal work on all of Mark Cuban's deals on Shark Tank. The reason his reports are important is that if you as a founder have been reading the trade press on U.S. venture, the data you see will be skewed by the top cities (SF, NYC, Boston, Austin et al.). Even if you're not in Texas, you might check out his reports to see what the trends are between the coasts. ⚠️ 𝗖𝗔𝗩𝗘𝗔𝗧: Texas over the last year or two is a bit of an outlier and will continue to be, given the presence of Musk's companies and many companies now moving here from California and elsewhere. 👇 👇 👇 𝘾𝙊𝙈𝙈𝙀𝙉𝙏 𝘽𝙀𝙇𝙊𝙒: what reports or data would be helpful to you? 👇 👇 👇