Insights on seed-stage fundraising, VC meetings, and startup evaluation.
Pre-money is what the company is worth before new capital lands. Post-money is what it is worth after. The difference decides how much of your company you keep. This guide walks through the math, the SAFE switch that quietly transferred dilution risk from investors to founders, and what investors actually see when they read your cap table at the seed stage.
The complete due diligence checklist a seed stage founder needs in 2026. Written by a founder with 7 years on the investor side, this guide breaks the seed checklist into seven proof areas, shows which items get reviewed pre-term-sheet versus post, and identifies the red flags that kill deals in the first hour of review. Backed by data from Carta, Cooley, DocSend, Kruze, and Y Combinator.
Pre-seed funding in 2026 means raising $250K to $1M on a post-money SAFE, with median valuation caps at $10M for smaller rounds and $15M for rounds above $1M. This guide covers the 2025 Carta benchmarks, what pre-seed investors actually look for beyond the pitch deck, SAFE mechanics and common mistakes, the warm intro vs cold outreach gap, and a 10-item pre-fundraise proof checklist for first-time founders. Built from 7 years on the investor side of the table.
A SAFE looks like a one-page handshake. It is not. It is a fixed claim on your future equity, and most first-time founders model the dilution wrong until it is too late. This guide breaks down what a SAFE actually is, how post-money math works, the difference between caps, discounts, and MFN clauses, and the four mistakes that turn a casual SAFE round into a Series A surprise. Written by a founder who spent 7 years on the investor side.