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Fundraising, decoded.

Insights on seed-stage fundraising, VC meetings, and startup evaluation.

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Evalyze Alternatives for Founders: 8 Tools Compared, Free and Paid
David Rakusan ·

Evalyze Alternatives for Founders: 8 Tools Compared, Free and Paid

Founders shopping for an Evalyze alternative are usually hiring for one of three jobs: a cheaper deck score, a better investor list, or proof an investor can read before the call. Eight tools compared, with prices read from each vendor's own pages on August 11, 2026, and a best-for verdict on every one. Several of them beat SeedForge at the job they were built for, and the verdicts say so.

Questions to Ask a VC in Your First Meeting (2026)
David Rakusan ·

Questions to Ask a VC in Your First Meeting (2026)

The best questions to ask a VC in a first meeting test whether the fund is a real fit: stage and capital, the partner's conviction, the decision process, and what would make them pass. A founder's guide to running reverse diligence on investors, backed by data from Gompers, Forum Ventures, Carta, DocSend, and PitchBook.

Best Investor-Readiness Tools for Founders (2026): An Honest Guide
David Rakusan ·

Best Investor-Readiness Tools for Founders (2026): An Honest Guide

An honest 2026 comparison of investor-readiness tools for founders. What "ready" really means, why a polished deck is not proof, and which tool fits which job: deck builders, investor CRMs, data rooms, and the proof-layer approach for first-time founders who need to stress-test the business and hand investors a shareable, investor-ready profile.

Seed Round vs Series A: What Actually Changes for Founders in 2026
David Rakusan ·

Seed Round vs Series A: What Actually Changes for Founders in 2026

A seed round funds a promise. A Series A funds proof the promise is working. In 2026 only about 15% of seed startups reach a Series A within two years, and the traction bar jumped a full stage. Here is what actually changes between the two rounds, what investors weigh at each, and how to tell whether you are seed-ready or Series-A-ready right now.

How to Build a Startup Financial Model for Fundraising (2026)
David Rakusan ·

How to Build a Startup Financial Model for Fundraising (2026)

Investors read your fundraising model as proof of how you think. They already know the forecast is a guess. Here is how to build a startup financial model from real drivers, a clean burn calculation, and defensible unit economics, then back-solve the raise so the numbers survive scrutiny.

What Investors Actually Read in a First Email (2026)
David Rakusan ·

What Investors Actually Read in a First Email (2026)

Cold email reply rates to investors sit around 5%, and most of those replies are a polite no. This guide covers what the data really says, why most investor cold emails fail, and the templates and structure that turn a cold email into a reply, built on first-party data from Belkins, Woodpecker, DocSend, and Snov.io and seven years on the investor side.

Technical Due Diligence for Startups: What Investors Check in 2026
David Rakusan ·

Technical Due Diligence for Startups: What Investors Check in 2026

Technical due diligence is how investors confirm the engineering behind a startup is real: that the product scales, the security holds, the code is maintainable, and the company owns its IP. This guide breaks down what reviewers check line by line, what a polished demo hides, the AI-generated-code question reviewers now ask, and a seven-step readiness checklist so the same checks do not slow down every round.