Fundraising

Nine data rooms compared for the two jobs founders face: a fundraise, where a light room with tracked links is enough, and a sale, where buyers expect a full virtual data room. Published prices, key features and how to choose.

14 legal tech venture capital firms that did a deal or raised a fund in 2025 or 2026: specialist funds, publishers' venture arms and the generalists behind legal AI, with stated cheque sizes and recent rounds. Plus legal tech funding data and what these investors check first.

Ten fractional CFO firms compared for startups: who each one suits, what each publishes about price, and when you need a part-time CFO rather than a model or a bookkeeper.

A liquidation preference decides who gets paid first when your startup is sold. How 1x, participating and 2x preferences work, what seniority does, worked examples at five sale prices and what's normal in 2026.

A cap table shows who owns your startup and who has been promised a piece. Get a free Excel template that runs from founding to Series A, with a SAFE and the option pool, and the maths explained in plain English.

Five worked financial model examples for startups, from SaaS to hardware, with the maths shown step by step. Plus a free Excel template where every output is a formula.

AI pricing models worked through for a fictional AI support-agent startup: per seat, usage and outcome pricing, inference costs, gross margin by year and the funding need. Plus a free Excel model.

A hardware startup financial model, worked through for a fictional warehouse-robot maker: unit economics, selling vs robotics as a service, cost-down, stock and the cash you need for the next milestone. Free Excel model included.

A free pitch deck template for startups: 14 PowerPoint slides with what to put on each one and what investors check, plus worked examples and a checklist.

A Series A pitch deck has to prove what a seed deck promised. One fictional SaaS company's seed deck, rewritten slide by slide: traction, market, why now, moat, team and the ask, with 2026 benchmarks.

A startup term sheet sets the price and the rules of your funding round before the lawyers draft anything. Every clause explained in plain English, what's normal in 2026, worked examples and a free template.

The 10 investor databases and list-building tools founders use in 2026, grouped by kind: full private-market databases, free founder-first lists, CRMs and AI-assisted discovery. Verified prices, the honest weakness of each, and how to turn an export into a qualified target list.

The 9-section investor update template we give founders, a fully worked example for a fictional seed-stage SaaS company, cadence by stage from pre-seed to Series B, the metrics investors expect by business model, and a free Markdown download.

Sourced 2026 seed round benchmarks in one place: median round size, valuation and SAFE caps, dilution, the SAFE-versus-priced mix, time to close and seed-to-Series A, what moved since 2024 and why, and how to size and price your own raise.

Sourced Series A benchmarks for 2026: median round size, valuation and dilution from Carta, PitchBook-NVCA and Crunchbase, the ARR and growth bar investors quote, efficiency metrics by ARR band, seed-to-A timing and graduation rates, and what moved since 2024.

What a pitch deck costs in 2026, provider by provider: DIY and AI tools, freelance per-slide and per-hour rates, agency packages and full-stack strategy engagements, with every number linked to a published price and an honest take on where deck budgets get wasted.

What a startup fundraising consultant actually costs in 2026: retainer bands by provider tier, success fees by round size with the Lehman formula worked through, equity, tails and minimums, the US broker-dealer rule most fee guides skip, and how Waveup charges.

How much equity founders give up per round in 2026: Carta's median dilution by stage, a 4-round worked cap table, why SAFE stacks and option pools dilute more than the headline, and the levers that decide what you still own at Series A.