About this episode From the show’s notes We've cut down the ninth week of lectures to be even shorter and combined them into one podcast.
First, a lecture from Carolynn Levy. Carolynn is a partner at YC. Her lecture covers modern startup financing.
Read the show’s notes in full Then a lecture from Jared Friedman. Jared is also a partner at YC. His lecture focuses on advice for hard-tech and biotech founders.
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Topics
Chapters 24 · press a time to start there 00:00 Intro 00:33 Carolynn Levy - Modern Startup Financing 01:33 The basics: form a corporation, need money to grow?, sell a part of the company 02:58 Fundraising terms 03:58 What has changed: structure, access, focus 05:10 What hasn't changed: preferred stock financing, valuation and dilution, communication 06:42 Old way of raising early money: Series A preferred stock financing 08:33 What was broken? 09:33 The transition: bridge loan financings 10:46 Realization: convertible promissory notes are a better way to fund early stage startups 12:01 Modernization of the convertible - SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) 14:03 When do priced rounds happen? Show all 24 chapters 15:12 Is modern early stage financing perfected? 18:01 Takeaways 19:30 Jared Friedman - Advice for Hard-tech and Biotech Founders 20:25 What is a hard-tech company? 21:35 Why start a hard-tech company? 25:06 YC is the largest bio and hard-tech seed investor in the world 25:49 How much of YC's advice applies to hard-tech founders? 26:33 How do you make progress when you have a "heavy MVP"? 31:49 How do you prove people will want your product, if you haven't built it yet? 32:57 Letter of Intent 34:10 Fundraising for hard-tech and biotech companies 
