Founder to Founder (F2F) Board

A B2B SaaS in 🇹🇷 Türkiye.

Afraid for failing

I am afraid of failing...

Solo founder & CEO of a Pre-seed Dev tools in 🇵🇱 Poland.

Six investors are in "once you have a lead." There is no lead.

Raising $1M pre-seed. Over nine weeks I've collected six soft commits between $50k and $150k — call it $550k of "I'm in, who else is in?" Every single one is conditional on a lead. Nobody will be the lead. The largest check told me, with ze…

Co-founder & CEO of a Seed B2C SaaS in 🇺🇸 United States.

Modeled our four stacked SAFEs for the first time. I own 11% less than I thought

Confession: we raised on SAFEs four times over two years — $50k uncapped with MFN, then $150k at a $3M cap, $250k at $5M, $400k at $8M — and I never once modeled the conversion. "They're not equity yet" was the cope. The ledger was a folder…

This worked

Co-founder & CTO of a Pre-seed AI/ML tools in 🇮🇳 India.

US fund says "just flip to Delaware." Our accountant says that's a taxable event

We're a Bangalore-registered company with $300k committed from a US pre-seed fund — contingent on a Delaware topco. The fund's view, delivered cheerfully, is that this is "a week of paperwork, every Indian startup does it." Our accountant's…

Solo founder & CEO of a Series A D2C / e-commerce in 🇪🇸 Spain.

Bridge at the old cap or a down round now — which one hurts less?

Seed was $12M cap two years ago, back when our paid channels printed money. The channels died, LTV compressed, growth went from 14% monthly to 3%. We have 7 months of cash. Two options on the table and I hate both. Option one: our existing…

A B2B SaaS in 🇹🇷 Türkiye.

Two faces of people

There are two faces of most people, the face they show you when signs are showing your growth (new investment, press release, new customer and etc) and when the signs show that you are in adversity.

Co-founder of a Pre-seed Fintech in 🇳🇬 Nigeria.

An investor asked "so who's the CEO?" We both answered at the same time

Three years building together, 50/50, no tie-breaker share, and it never mattered until a partner meeting two weeks ago. She asked who the CEO is. We answered simultaneously. Different answers. The silence afterwards is the loudest thing I'…

Solo founder & CEO of a Seed B2B SaaS in 🇺🇸 United States.

Founder-led sales got us to $28k MRR. Every investor asks what happens when it isn't me

41 customers, every single one closed by me. Demos, pricing calls, the 11pm "quick question" messages — all me. It works: we're at $28k MRR, up from $11k a year ago. But in this raise the same question keeps landing in different costumes: "…

Co-founder & CEO of a Seed Climate / cleantech in 🇫🇷 France.

Our "11 months of runway" includes revenue I don't actually believe in

The number I say in every investor call is 11 months. The spreadsheet behind it assumes two pilots convert to paid in Q3 and our biggest customer renews in October. The pilots are real conversations, but if I'm honest with myself the renewa…

Solo founder & CEO of a Seed Marketplace (B2B) in 🌍 Unknown.

My ex-cofounder owns 22% and hasn't answered a message in 14 months

We split 60/40 on a handshake in year one. No vesting, no cliff — we were friends and documents felt like distrust. He left 14 months ago ("burnout, no hard feelings") and renegotiated on the way out to 22%. I kept building alone. He hasn't…

This worked

Co-founder & CEO of a Pre-seed Logistics in 🇩🇪 Germany.

A $400k check wants a board seat and an observer. At pre-seed.

Our round is $800k. A small fund offered to take half of it — first institutional yes after four months of nos, and I nearly cried on the call. Then the draft terms arrived: one of three board seats, plus a board observer seat for one of th…

Co-founder & CEO of a Pre-seed Edtech in 🇸🇪 Sweden.

An angel asked our valuation and I said "$4M?" with a question mark

Second real investor conversation of my life. Forty minutes in she asks "what valuation are you raising at?" and I said four million — except it came out as a question, because it is one. I picked it because a friend's round was at $4M and…

A Seed B2B SaaS in 🇹🇷 Türkiye.

Non-returning investors

The most frustrating experience is not when an investor says "no" but when they disappear after having good meetings. Unfortunately, this is not rare. I respect those who reject and tell them that this is the second good response. But for t…

Solo founder & CEO of a Bootstrapped D2C / e-commerce in 🇺🇸 United States.

Haven't paid myself in 8 months and my partner is at her limit

Bootstrapped. $15k MRR, growing 8% month over month, but every dollar goes back into hosting + the one engineer I hired six months ago. I haven't taken a salary since last August. My partner has been supporting both of us. She's not unkind…

Co-founder & CEO of a Pre-seed B2B SaaS in 🇹🇷 Türkiye.

We're in Istanbul. Every investor calls us "the Turkish team." Help?

Building a B2B SaaS targeting US mid-market. Customers are US-based. Revenue is in USD. Team is in Istanbul because that's where we live and it's where the engineering talent is at our budget. Every investor call ends the same way: "Have yo…

Solo founder & CEO of a Seed Healthtech in 🇨🇦 Canada.

Got a term sheet with 2x participating preferred. Walk or sign?

Small round, our first priced. The lead wants 2x participating preferred. I've read enough to know participating is unusual at our stage and 2x is aggressive. But this is our only term sheet. We've been at it for 7 months. Cash is short. I…

Co-founder & CEO of a Bootstrapped AI/ML tools in 🇩🇪 Germany.

Cofounder is mentally checked out. I can see it. Do I confront or wait?

Two years in. He's the technical cofounder, I'm CEO. For the last three months he's been responding slower, shipping less, skipping standups with "doctor" excuses. Code quality is fine when he does ship — but he ships maybe 30% of what he u…

Solo founder & CEO of a Seed Fintech in 🌍 Unknown.

Our "financial model" is a fiction and the next investor will see it

I built our model in two weekends from a YC SAFE doc and a Google Sheets template I copied from a blog post. Numbers project us to $5M ARR in 18 months. None of the assumptions are defended. I just needed something to send. We got 3 angels…

Co-founder & CEO of a Pre-seed B2B SaaS in 🇺🇸 United States.

Lead investor pulled out the day before signing. What now?

Term sheet was signed, due diligence done, transfer scheduled for Monday. Friday afternoon I get the call — they're "pausing all new deals." No reason given. The other commits in the round are conditional on this lead. Two weeks of runway a…