the best raises feel like the natural continuation of conversations that started many months earlier warm, repeated exposure from people the investor already trusts is how conviction actually forms one meeting rarely closes a check. a series of high-signal touchpoints from reputable sources does over time surfance max, hit them from every angle - yes, even cold outrech aswell this is why the smartest founders start building the relationship graph long before they ever open any round by the time they “raise,” the distribution system has already done half the work familiarity & trust compounds faster than any pitch deck can

the best founders are raising through other founders investors see hundreds of decks every month founders only pay real attention to a much smaller group of people they actually respect so when a credible founder tells a partner “this is one of the best teams I’ve met this year,” alot of things change the energy shifts around the whole situation become the kind of founder that other strong founders who have tread the path before you actually want to help and make warm intros for you can't really fake that reputation compounds inside the peer layer first over time and the capital follows later the ones who get this stop obsessing over perfecting the deck or investor meeting they start thinking about the long term, building trust and relationships

raising money is hard not letting the money ruin your focus is also very the second the wire hits, people start acting like they already made it bigger office, more hires, conference circuit, “we need to look like a real company.” all of that just burns the runway faster stay small. stay humble. talk to users every day. ship. everything else is noise.

internet capital markets are cracking fundraising wide open it’s very exciting but they’re also making it very easy to make even more long term mistakes early on in your start up for a lot of OG crypto founders it used to be more simple: pitch VCs launch a token now the stack has become much larger: - grants for runway - accelerators for signal - community rounds for distribution - auctions and futarchy for allocation - stablecoins for settlement lots of options, also very easy to get in over your head each tool can solves a different job a grant can buy runway but it doesn’t prove demand an accelerator can lend credibility but it doesn’t always replace diligence and launching a token really deserves extra caution.. a start up can suddenly have a public price, a crowd of holders, governance expectations and big compliance questions - all before the product or business model has settled and they've found PMF private structures can sometimes be amended around a table a traded token comes with a crowd of unsophisticated investors asking you what’s up every 5 mins, and a chart/market price that you can never get away from that’s constantly being jeeted by people with the attention of a gold fish you want to raise capital in the future ? you want to sell your Co or potentially IPO? good luck ... capital formation is becoming part of product design i’m not saying no one should launch a token but choose the wrong structure too early and you may spend years building around it or it may just ruin you all together goodluck out there frends and stay curios..

I keep looking at @Solana and thinking: this is becoming a very different way to build a company. Hackathons and incubators find the builders (shoutout @icmdotrun). @superteam chapters help them find their people, and all their connected communities bring the first users. What happens when those teams are ready to raise through equity or a SAFE though? How do they carry that trust into the round? That’s the bridge we want @fairdotclub to help build.

This is why I find the @superteam model so interesting A builder can enter @Solana through a hackathon, find their people through a local chapter, earn early users from the community, then experiment with entirely new ways to raise and coordinate capital. That is a very different company-formation machine from the one we grew up with.. The next question though is what happens when the strongest teams are ready to raise through equity, SAFEs or other private rounds? How do they take that next step while carrying forward the trust and transparency they built with the people and communities that helped them get there? That’s a gap we want @fairdotclub to help close. As a @SuperteamAU member, I get a front-row view of what makes this bottom-up movement so powerful: local communities finding talented builders early, backing them and helping real companies take shape. I want FAIR to become the natural next step for the strongest teams emerging from Superteam chapters - carrying that trust into a serious equity round with aligned investors and support around them. @SuperteamNL and @LaFamilia_so joining FAIR as curators is a meaningful step in that direction. Still early. Very interesting. Stay curious frens 🫡

The killer use case for @fairdotclub: • organize a structured equity raise around stablecoin rails • replace six fundraising tools with one deal room • bring your network while new investors discover the deal • keep token and futarchy paths open as the company evolves

Missed the @ycombinator deadline? Seven founder programs are still taking applications, including one for $1M in funding. I checked the terms and sorted them by who they’re best for: 1. Elbow Grease by @GutterCapital Best for: early teams that want experienced operators close to the work. $300K for 9%. Ten weeks in Chinatown, NYC. Each team gets a founder mentor and Gutter partner. Deadline: July 31. 2. @spc Best for: strong founders who are still deciding what to build. $400K for 7% upfront, plus $600K in your next external round. Eight-week bootcamp, then an open-ended residency. Deadline: August 2. 3. @mtndao Best for: builders who want a month of focused work alongside other founders. August 1–31 in Salt Lake City, with a 24/7, 14,000-square-foot workspace. Applications are still live. 4. Google for Startups Accelerator South Africa by @GoogleStartups Best for: growth-stage, AI-driven South African startups with a working product. Up to R1 million in non-dilutive funding with no equity taken. Three-month hybrid program with Google AI tools, cloud infrastructure and one-to-one mentorship. Deadline: August 28. 5. R[3]sidency by @fabric_vc Best for: teams working across Web3, AI, robotics and the machine economy. $300K . Twelve weeks in London. $100K + in credits. New York investor roadshow. Deadline: September 15. 6. Character Labs by @CharacterCap Best for: software founders still working toward product-market fit. $200K for 5%. Five-week hybrid program starting October 27 in San Francisco. Deadline: September 23. 7. AI House by @ai2incubator Best for: applied-AI founders with deep technical or industry expertise. Up to $600K via SAFE at a $10M cap. Incubation takes 7% common stock. Founders spend at least one month working from AI House in Seattle. Applications are rolling. Seven programs but very different deals. Great start ups shouldn’t depend on one institution saying yes though.. That’s why we’re building @fairdotclub: to open more paths between founders and aligned capital. Check it out if you're a founder, and apply for a free deal room 🫡