How Startup Fundraising Works | Startup School

For detailed advice on how to actually get in touch with investors and set up meetings, check out this video: www.ycombinator.com/library/71-how-to-get-meetings… For YC's comprehensive guide to seed fundraising, check out this guide: www.ycombinator.com/library/4A-a-guide-to-seed-fun…

I'm currently 23, live in Southeast Asia, not from a rich family, and I just started out my career. Never in my life before thinking about building a startup. But in the past few weeks, I have watched several YC videos and get inspired to build my own startup! Sure I still have a lot of work to do, but learning from all of these great videos, I get assured that it's not impossible. Thank you YC for the great inspirations.

"Coin-operated lizard people" ... I will forever remember this when approaching investors. Lol. And Thank You!

I'm building an assistive technology company and had an investor tell me during a meeting HE asked for, "This is a great idea. Someone can do this, but I don't think it's you." So I stopped fundraising, dialed back my vision to the first, smallest, most accessible piece and it's working! While almost everyone around me is trying to stop me, it's great to have videos like this that prove what I'm doing is exactly how founders win. Thanks!

I'm 1 year into my business of agricultural products trading and talking to different investors and pitching for additional capital. I'm really glad I was able to stumble upon YC videos. My goal is to build my own feedmill to supply premium quality feeds at a reasonable cost for Filipino livestock and poultry farmers! I'm now planning to apply for YC's funding. Love from the Philippines, YC!

His last phrase: "You can do this. You can do this." 😢❤

This is some kind of different reality which i guess works in US only. I think i`ve spoken to 100+ investors, spending 1.5-2 years and raising 0 before i realized that all those investors are not interested in you or your team or your product. All they ask is what is your revenue and growth rate. Thats it. At first they will say "oh you are too early for us, but please let us know when you will reach X MRR" then "or you are too late for us, there is too much competition". Even though in your pitch deck it is clearly explained why you are different. Long story short, after we stopped chasing investors and focused on business, we managed to make it work organically without investors. Now we have entities in US, Europe, Asia and continue to grow.

Thank you. This is a fresh breath amidst all the negativity. Why don’t we have a world where builders get more air to experiment and find something people want. I have spent countless hours on my own to come to that stage. Now I have a business which is generating revenues. Still fighting and will keep fighting.

Proudly bootstrapping but love the content!

Thank you, Brad. I learn a lot each time I watch a Y Combinator video. The journey is not for the faint of hearts.

Recommended viewing! Brad has a knack for simplification. This video is worth the time of every founder just starting (or struggling through) the early fundraising journey.

The last bit is the biggest challenge for me, “you can do this”, thank you Brad.

This was just the video i needed for my confidence to manifest my start up. Thank You for this!!

I really thank you for this video. I always wanted to know that. And you took away my fears because now I understand that everything is so simple. You always imagine everything to be so difficult when you read about start-ups in the media. Thank you very much

Brad, I'm 47, a senior technical product manager who coded before. I'm building an app that solves the problem of trust between people. Your video was a soothing balm to my heart :) Being very conscientious in everything I do I tend to over engineer and worry too much. Very thankful for your video. Cheers from Vancouver! :)

I'm currently building my MVP. I'm more on the technical side of things so these videos are absolutely informative. I'm still going through a couple of books as well, just to name a few.: - The Startup Owner's Manual - The Lean Product Playbook - The Lean Startup - The Founders Dilemma Keep up the great educative videos.

Extremely transformational and inspiring! Thank you so much!

One of the best videos I watched about Start-ups. Thank you!

Simply an amazing video. I learned so much from it that I had no idea about. So many misconceptions addressed and debunked. Thank you!

Thank you so much Brad. I neededdd to hear the last part. "I def can do this". Much Love