I think this is generally decent advice about the mechanics of fundraising if you aren't an "in-demand" startup. However, this does gloss over the major fact that this is a bad situation to find yourself in, and you are much better off spending energy getting yourself into a good situation than you are swimming upstream in a bad one. And while I'm sure being in YC does help with fundraising (extra social proof), you certainly don't need to be in YC to raise money successfully.<p>If you don't think you will be good at fundraising (because you don't know a lot of rich people, you are a first-timer, you aren't good at pitching, etc), then you should be operating your business in a way where you don't need to fundraise. Be incredibly incredibly lean, generate revenue from day 1, figure out how to incrementally achieve ambitious goals, etc. There are a lot more ways to run a successful business than there are to run a successful fundraising --- investors are all looking for the same thing, and they could all be wrong. But if you grow fast enough or make enough money they'll come around.<p>There isn't too much reason to get into more details because pg wrote the canonical piece on fundraising, which certainly applies to non-YC companies as well: <a href="http://paulgraham.com/fr.html" rel="nofollow">http://paulgraham.com/fr.html</a><p>But generally, the premise of this whole article is flawed. Most startups fail. If you want to successfully raise money, you should be in the 1% (or 5% or 10%, but some suitably small number) of top startups. And if you aren't, then you should be spending your time getting there instead of raising money.
"Create artificial urgency by compressing your meetings."<p>Urgency. Yes. The above stands out as being true from my experience in any type of negotiation at all. It's the opposite of the "time kills all deals". Every negotiation needs a deadline and a reason to get people off the fence and make a decision (either way). Don't let things drag on. Don't give people the impression that you will always be around.<p>Also, don't do obvious telegraphs like "I have the following days opening" which essentially any person who takes meetings knows actually means "I am always available".<p>"Another cheap idea: Create a keyword campaign for the top investors on your list. Use their names as the keywords. They sure as hell Google themselves, and when they do, there you are."<p>My personal feeling is that this is a waste for several reasons. It obviously assumes that people will google themselves on a regular basis but also assumes they won't feel they are being stalked by an investee as well. Not to mention the fact that it's a little cliche, like the billboard that asks for a marriage proposal.
<i>Always say that you’re raising less than you actually want. If you want to raise $1 million, tell investors you’re raising $750,000. This tactic will come in handy when they ask you how much has already been committed. Always answer in percentages, not actual numbers.</i><p>Is this sound advice? Could someone explain the reasoning behind it?
Honest question here: I'm the OP, but my original title was, Reaction to “Was YC Worth It” – Startup Fundraising Lessons for the 99%. Someone changed my title? Is that normal when YC is mentioned in the headline?