Startup Fundraising


Earn Your Allocation

Pro-rata rights let an investor keep its ownership by buying into later rounds. For seed investors, they can be the difference between a good fund and a great one. For founders, they can decide how much room is left for a new lead or a strategic partner. This month, that […]

Earn Your Allocation: Ken McArthur on pro-rata rights

The Hometown Anchor: Who Backs First-Time Venture Funds in 2026

If you only read the headlines, venture fundraising looks healthy. US venture funds raised $108.5 billion through September 2026, according to the Q3 PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor. But if you’re raising a first fund, or pitching one, the picture looks very different. Here’s what the data says, who is actually anchoring […]


The Family Office Door

Family offices can be the most flexible investors a founder or fund manager will ever meet. They invest their own money, they can move quickly and they don’t answer to a fund’s timeline. But they also don’t run open applications. Here’s what the latest data says about how family offices […]


The Network Gate

The first check a founder raises usually doesn’t come from a cold email. It comes from someone who knows someone. Three reports released in the past ten days show what that means for women founders, and what founders and fund managers can do about it. Three Reports, Three Different Measures […]


The Second Door

For years, the venture exit had two doors: an IPO or an acquisition. Both are still open, but not wide enough to return the cash investors need. So more and more liquidity is moving through a third route: the secondary market. Here’s how that door works, who’s standing behind it, […]