Founder vs Investor

Hi everyone, sorry about missing last week - I had some unfortunate personal news.

Today we’re talking about a podcast and book combo where a founder and VC chat earnestly about the realities of the startup/VC relationship. It’s a must-listen.

Then as usual, I’ll be sharing which startups announced their early stage fundraises, complete with amount raised, industry and the VCs that funded them.

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Founder vs Investor

If you’ve ever wanted an investor to tell it to you straight, here you are. Founder Elizabeth Zalman and VC Jerry Neumann go head to head and neither side pulls any punches as they take a raw look at the incentives and realities of the entrepreneur-investor relationship.

After reading the book (and loving it!) I was delighted to see the authors on the Invest Like the Best podcast. I tuned in straight away and their conversation was everything I hoped it would be - a no holds barred, honest look at where the friction lies between two parties whose priorities often diverge.

As I said above, it’s a must-listen, and you can catch it here.

This week in fundraising

Munch - AI Content Creation - $7.2m
This Israeli startup was founded 2 years ago and was funded by A* Capital, Liquid2, Cardumen Capital, and Reimagine Ventures.

Quoherent - Quantum Computing - $4.2m
This American startup was founded 2 years ago and was funded by Morpheus Ventures, Draper Associates, Khosla Ventures, and Alpha Edison.

Phare Health - Healthcare - $3.1m
This British startup was founded 1 year ago and was funded by General Catalyst, KHP Ventures, and Bertelsmann Investments.

Osium AI - AI Materials Discovery - $2.6m
This French startup was founded 1 year ago and was funded by Y Combinator, Kima Ventures, Singular, Collaborative Fund, and Raise Phiture.

Fence - DeFi - $2m
This Spanish startup was founded 1 year ago and was funded by Semantic.vc, Crane Earth, and Actyus.

Solar Foods - Synthetic Food - $8.7m
This Finnish startup was founded 6 years ago and was funded by Springvest Oyj, Happiness Capital, Lifeline Ventures, VTT Ventures, and Frazer Group.

My funding spreadsheet now has more than 100 startups that recently announced early stage raises. If you’d like a copy, just follow the steps below to refer a friend to subscribe to this newsletter.

Have a great weekend.

Nelson