Hi certainstartup. Please reach out to me if you want to have a deeper discussion. Notes: 1. Be certain that you want to raise capital. By raising you're irrec

Hi certainstartup. Please reach out to me if you want to have a deeper discussion. Notes: 1. Be certain that you want to raise capital. By raising you're irrecoverably giving up leverage to investors. You will always be beholden to investor expectations going forward. If you're a mission-motivated founder, you will inevitably reach a point where investor motivations will be at odds with your motivations. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's important for you to go into this eyes wide open. 2. If this is your first round, this will likely be the point where CEO, board, shareholder rights get defined (e.g. what needs to happen to approve an acquisition? fire the CEO? issue more shares?). Make sure you have a good legal team that can help walk you through all of the minor consequences of the structure. 3. Make sure you're educated regarding share classes and different treatment for classes. Make sure you understand "preference" and "participation". Make sure you're getting favorable terms on these points. Having a good legal team helps a ton here. 4. The best way to create leverage is to increase demand. Optimize your process so that it culminates in an auction dynamic - where multiple interested parties are bidding to win. This requires intentionally shepherding parties through a gated process, pulling back people who are trying to move too fast and pulling forward laggards. Having been through this several times, I've been bitten by all of the above. I'm happy to have a deeper discussion if you would like. Please reach out to me at advait at goguardian dot com.