10 resources that save you weeks of fundraising & building

1. The best early-stage financial model template

Most financial templates are useless – either too generic or too complex. Creandum built the cleanest early-stage model template we’ve seen, and it reflects how VCs actually evaluate your business: growth drivers, retention logic, hiring plan, burn, and runway – all in the right structure. There’s no reason to pay $200-$500 for templates when this exists.

2. A pitch deck template that raised $4M at a $40M valuation (no MVP, no traction)

The internet is flooded with pitch deck templates – most look nice and convert…nothing. This one is different: it’s a real client deck that actually closed a seed round, not a “design example” or generic YC structure. Fully editable – steal the story structure, headings, flow, and positioning, then adapt it to your business.

3. 144 family offices that cut pre-seed checks

If VC is moving slow, family offices can be a great alternative capital path – especially outside major hubs. This list is a solid starting point for building a non-VC investor pipeline (and finding active private capital you’d otherwise miss).

4. 30-day sprint: Fundraising when “AI” is no longer enough

Fundraising is getting tough even for AI founders. And the worst part: it’s not clear what to do differently – you just hear “no”, “not now”, or silence. But a fundraising window is opening up right now – and founders who move fast will win it. That’s why we put together this webinar: we’ve looked at 60+ successful (and unsuccessful) rounds in 2025 to distill what actually works across growth, pitch decks, investor outreach, and more for pre-seed to Series A companies.

5. “No warm intro required” investor list

Cold outreach is brutal in 2026 – unless you’re targeting investors who actually take inbound. This list saves weeks. If you don’t have a warm network, start here.

6. Ultimate list of 750+ seed funds

If you’re building your investor list from scratch: don’t reinvent the wheel. This spreadsheet is one of the cleanest seed fund lists we’ve seen – and it’s actually usable.

7. The best partner for tech talent (and fast builds)

Great tech talent is extremely hard to find – and when you’re moving fast, you often don’t have weeks (or months) to do it. Pangea is our go-to partner for building fast with vetted tech talent and dev teams (MVPs, web/mobile, AI/ML when needed), with real screening and quality control. In short: a fast, high-signal way to ship without chaos.

8. 350+ places to post your startup

Distribution matters more than ever. This is a killer resource for: launches, hiring, visibility, traction signals, and getting early attention without paid spend.

9. Pitch to 300+ VC partners in one shot

If investor outreach is dragging, this is one of the cleanest shortcuts we’ve seen. Onstage lets you submit once and get exposure to 300+ VC partners, including leading funds. The next Demo Day is May 21, 2026 – so if you want to use it properly, get your pitch deck ready now.

10. AI copilots list (for startups + VCs)

A large list of AI tools worth testing if you want leverage without bloating headcount. Useful for founders who want faster: research, outreach, writing, ops, product, customer support.

148 posts

Igor

Partner & Co-founder, Waveup

Igor Shaverskyi is a Partner & Co-founder of Waveup, the London-based fundraising and growth advisory behind $3B+ raised for 600+ startups. He has 15 years in corporate finance and capital markets: he started as an investment banker at ICU, co-founded Waveup in 2014 and went on to create Waveup Copilot, Joltoo and n2labs. At Waveup he leads product development and the finance team. His perspectives on startup fundraising have been featured in TechCrunch.