The H1B visa has been used by some of America’s best founders and executives, including the founders of eBay, Zoom, the CEO of Microsoft and Elon Musk.

I’ve been in Silicon Valley for almost 20 years and during that time the Series A round has barely changed.

Founders are responsible for the first sales a startup will make. For many founders, this is one of their very first experiences of sales and mistakes are often made.

While there are many factors that influence seed fundraising, your behavior during the process makes a big difference. Here’s the most common traits of founders who successfully close their seed round.

After you’ve committed to an idea for your startup, get feedback from potential customers as soon as possible. Insights from your first potential customers help direct product strategy, increasing your likelihood of making a sale.

YC’s next batch deadline is coming up. Should you apply? The answer is YES.

Getting a potential customer interested in learning more about your product is hard enough, but unfortunately early interest from a lead is a long way from a sale. Here’s how to take the process further and convert your first leads into real, paying customers.

Receiving a Term Sheet from a VC usually takes weeks of work and is often accompanied by understandable euphoria. However, signing a Term Sheet for a “priced round” is a much larger commitment than for a SAFE/Convertible Note. Thus, you need to ensure you follow the right steps to secure the best deal for your company. Here’s what you should do after receiving a Term Sheet.

Bad investors can do untold damage to a company and they only show themselves at the worst times. It’s hard to know in advance how an investor will behave in tough situations, so it’s best to protect your company by ensuring you have the right terms.

Selling tech products in Europe is harder than most people think. But the US? Much easier. Here’s why.

Fundraising has few guidelines and you won’t get feedback from most investors who pass. You will have more success and spend less time fundraising if you avoid the familiar pitfalls. Here are 3 of the most common mistakes and how to avoid them.

Seed fundraising places founders under significant pressure from a constant rush to close, to the slew of investor questions to secure their commitments.

Investors don’t like saying “No” to your face as a founder, even if there is zero chance they will invest. This creates difficult situations for founders while fundraising, which can be catastrophic for your round. Here are some of the most common scenarios and what to expect.

Huge progress this week in AI with outlier performance results from the latest Grok models and Perplexity launching Comet, the first credible competitor in the browser space for years. But all this progress is not without cost, as it's clear some companies are focused on speed versus safety.

If you’re in College or Graduate School and thinking about starting a company, then the summer is usually a perfect time to give it a try. Let everyone else sip wine in the Mediterranean, you have a company to build.

A lot of fundraising rounds fall apart during closing. Most of these collapses can be avoided by correctly handling investor communication after they verbally commit to invest. Here are the steps to make sure every yes becomes a check.

Interview projects are take home tests for job candidates. They demonstrate a candidate can help solve your company’s near term need, in addition to the culture and interpersonal skills reflected through in-person and phone interviews.

Raising your seed round is a big milestone for a startup, as it gives you runway for 2 years to scale both your team and customers into a rapidly growing and sustainable business.