Every resource founders actually use, in one library.

What founders use most, ranked by how many answers lean on it.

1. The cleanest milestone-based runway framework we found: raise for 18 to 24 months because fundraising itself burns about 6... NYU Entrepreneurship Article · 10 min read · Starting Up The Runway Equation: How Much to Raise and When to Spend It NYU Entrepreneurial Institute
2. This is the most direct answer to the question: it argues you should ditch the intro and open like a movie cold open, and it... Feel the Boot Article · 9 min read · Starting Up Cold Start Your Startup Pitch: Hook Investors from the First Second Lance Cottrell
3. This is the mechanical playbook for the 'send to 15 who actually invest, not 50' point: build a long list from Crunchbase,... Mercury Article · 12 min read · Starting Up Creating a target investor list for your seed round Mercury
4. This is what 'research the fund before you send' looks like for an Indian founder: a single fund broken down into its actual... Superscout Article · 8 min read · Starting Up Blume Ventures: The Early Stage Founder's Guide Superscout
5. This nails the core idea that you keep one story and change what it is asked to prove: adjust the problem framing, swap in the... Viktori Article · 10 min read · Starting Up How To Tailor Your Pitch Deck For Different Investors Viktori
6. This is the modeling tool to actually stack your conversions before you sign, which is the whole opinionated answer. You enter... Carta Tool · free tool · Starting Up SAFE and Convertible Note Calculator Carta
7. Written by an India-based cap table platform, so the modeling assumptions match how Indian founders actually raise. It walks a... EquityList Article · 12 min read · Starting Up Modeling Post-Money SAFEs in Your Cap Table: Tools and Mistakes to Avoid EquityList
8. This is the side-by-side numbers piece: three investors each putting in $1M at a $10M cap end up owning exactly 30% of you... Avisen Legal Article · 10 min read · Starting Up Pre-money vs. Post-money SAFEs: The Dilution Math Founders Miss Avisen Legal
9. This is the current RBI convertible note rulebook in one place, and it reflects the 2023 FEMA amendment that most older... TaxTMI Article · 11 min read · Starting Up Convertible Notes for Foreign Investors in Indian Startups: The 2026 Rules Explained TaxTMI editorial
10. When your investor insists on a SAFE, this is the piece that shows how the Indian version actually gets built: iSAFE lives as... Vinod Kothari Consultants Article · 14 min read · Starting Up The iSAFE Option to Startup Funding: Legality and Taxation Vinod Kothari Consultants
11. Written by a SEBI-registered Indian pre-seed fund, so the worked example is in the deal shapes you will actually see here, and... Eximius Ventures Article · 8 min read · Starting Up Breakdown of the Term Sheet: Liquidation Preference Raunak Bhiwal
12. This is the cleanest decision framework we found because it draws the line by cheque size, not vibes: under 1M and 1M to 2M go... CRV (Charles River Ventures) Article · 10 min read · Starting Up Priced Round vs. SAFE: How Founders Choose at Each Stage CRV
13. This is the cost and dilution receipt to go with the CRV framework: SAFEs run 2k to 5k in legal and close in a week, priced... Causo Hub Article · 12 min read · Starting Up SAFE vs priced round at seed: which, when, and the dilution math Causo
14. This is the piece that names the exact failure mode in your question: when your early investors all take their pro-rata, they... CRV Article · 12 min read · Starting Up Pro Rata Rights: A Founder's Guide to Term Sheets CRV
15. This is the actual term sheet most Indian angels and seed funds put in front of you, hosted on the official Startup India... Startup India (Government of India portal) Template · term sheet PDF · Starting Up LetsVenture Standard CCPS Term Sheet Template (India), Pre-emptive Rights clause LetsVenture
16. Where Graham gives the principle, Lemkin gives the honest tradeoff table so you can actually decide. He lays out both sides (a... SaaStr Article · 8 min read · Starting Up 5 Pros, and 5 Cons, to Taking a VC Round at a Very High Valuation Jason Lemkin
17. This is the number you need to sanity-check the offer in front of you, from a real Indian seed VC rather than US Carta data. It... Kae Capital Article · 12 min read · Starting Up How to Raise Your Seed Round in India Kae Capital
18. This is the canonical founder-side explainer of what a board actually is and when you owe someone a seat. It spells out the... Y Combinator Startup Library Article · 15 min read · Starting Up How to Create and Manage a Board Y Combinator (Kirsty Nathoo and Aaron Epstein)
19. Iskold does the board control math out loud with a worked example: two 40% founders sell 20% to an investor, and the investor... Startup Hacks (2048 Ventures) Article · 12 min read · Starting Up Understanding Startup Board Control Alex Iskold
20. In Indian deals the real control lever often sits next to the board seat: affirmative rights (reserved matters) in the term... Ediplis Counsels Article · 8 min read · Starting Up Affirmative Rights in a Term Sheet Namratha Krishnan
21. This is the canonical piece that named the option pool shuffle, and it shows the exact trick with numbers: an $8M pre-money... Venture Hacks Essay · 20 min read · Starting Up The Option Pool Shuffle Nivi and Naval Ravikant
22. This is the one piece that does both jobs you need. It runs the exact worked backward-repricing case (three angels on no-cap... Value Add VC Article · 10 min read · Starting Up Most Favored Nation (MFN) Clauses in SAFEs: Why They Matter More Than Founders Think Value Add VC
23. Kruze does startup finance and cap tables for a living, so this is the operator's take rather than a lawyer's summary. It shows... Kruze Consulting Article · 8 min read · Starting Up Most Favored Nation (MFN) SAFEs: What Startup Founders Need to Know Kruze Consulting
24. EquityList runs cap tables and ESOP admin for Indian startups, so this places MFN inside the instrument choices an Indian... EquityList Article · 12 min read · Starting Up SAFEs vs. Convertible Notes EquityList

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