Inside Startup Funding

If you've ever walked out of an investor meeting that felt great and then never heard back, this one is for you. Naseem Sayani has been on both sides of the table — Booz, BCG, a product studio that became a venture incubator, then Emmeline Ventures in 2021 and a hand in launching four funds since. Today she runs the Innovator Circle at WHAM, coordinating the early-stage women's health ecos...

For our first-ever live taping of Inside Startup Funding: Unfiltered, I sat down in front of a room of founders with two people who see the funding market from opposite sides of the table — and got the version of the AI story that doesn't make it online. Not the headlines. The version happening inside pitch meetings, term sheet negotiations, and board decisions right now. If you are planning a...

What does an early-stage investor actually need to see before writing a check? Mike Chan, Managing Partner at Deep Ventures, joins Helena Fogarty to break down how he evaluates startups at the earliest stages, including companies that are still pre-product and pre-revenue. Mike explains why founders still need to show proof of demand, how he evaluates founder-market fit and distribution, and why s...

Jenny Duan, CEO & Co-Founder of Clair Health, and Abhinav Agarwal, CTO & Co-Founder, join Inside the Round to break down how they went from meeting at Stanford to building a hormone-aware wearable and raising $11.6 million in total funding. Clair Health is developing a wrist-worn device designed to track estrogen, progesterone, LH, and FSH. Jenny and Abhinav explain why they saw a gap in e...

Having a great company and knowing how to raise money are two different skills. Lucia Mari Sanguino, co-founder and CEO of AIVA TECH, joins Inside Startup Funding to break down the strategy behind her $1.5 million pre-seed raise. Lucia shares how she and her co-founder condensed investor meetings to create urgency, built warm introductions through other founders, refined their pitch from investor...

Laura McDonald and Dr. Christy Lane are the co-founders of Flora Fertility , the first individually owned fertility insurance platform. After raising a pre-seed round in 2024, Flora recently closed a $5M seed round led by Manchester Story Group. In this episode of Inside the Round, Laura and Christy break down what it took to raise capital while building an entirely new category of insurance. They...

Fern Morrison, Co-Founder and CEO of IronGrid, joins Inside Startup Funding to break down how IronGrid raised a $4 million seed round led by Climactic, went through Y Combinator, and became 2x oversubscribed. IronGrid is building risk frameworks for a new class of assets, including robots, batteries, and complex hardware that traditional insurance struggles to price. Fern shares how her background...

Mark Volchek, Founding Partner at Las Olas Venture Capital, joins Inside the Fund to talk about the full founder-to-investor journey. Before becoming an investor, Mark co-founded Higher One as a college senior and helped grow the company from three founders in a dorm room to profitability, more than $250M in revenue, 1,000+ employees, and an IPO. But before that outcome, there were moments when th...

Charlie O’Donnell, 20-year VC turned VC coach and author of Founder Unfriendly: What Investors Won’t Tell You About Getting Funded , joins Helena Fogarty on Inside the Fund to break down how venture capital decisions actually get made. In this conversation, Charlie explains why most cold outreach fails, what makes an investor actually answer, and how founders should think about running a first pit...

In this episode of Inside the Fund , we sit down with Zoe Jakubowich, a fractional Chief of Staff and a member of the investment team at VHS Ventures, to unpack a common misconception in consumer startups: venture capital isn’t the right path for most CPG brands. Zoe explains why founders should only raise if they’re ready to scale, what it actually takes to build traction, and how to think about...

Andrew Ackerman, 2x startup founder, venture capitalist, and author of The Entrepreneur’s Odyssey, joins us on Inside the Fund to talk about valuation, investor psychology, and what founders get wrong about fundraising process. In this episode, Andrew explains why most founders have less leverage on valuation than they think, why competing term sheets matter so much, and why investor FOMO is often...

Fundraising isn’t about getting to a yes. It’s about how you handle all the no’s along the way. Maria Intscher-Owrang, CEO of Simplifyber, joins us on Inside the Round to break down how founders should really think about fundraising, rejection, and long-term investor relationships. Simplifyber is building a new category of materials with bio-based, moldable fibers that can replace traditional text...

How much of a startup’s outcome is shaped before anything goes wrong? In this episode, Yashreeka Huq, Partner at Perkins Coie, shares a behind-the-scenes look at the legal side of venture. From board control and investor rights to how lawyers influence founder decisions, this conversation breaks down the mechanics that quietly shape company trajectories. One key takeaway: “Believe the no, not the...

Maddi Holman, General Partner at Daring Ventures, joins Inside Startup Funding to break down what actually matters for founders building today. In this conversation, Maddi shares how the landscape has shifted from building being the hard part to winning being the hard part. We get into why distribution, trust, and timing now matter more than ever, how founders consistently misjudge customer behavi...

What actually makes a startup defensible now that it’s easier than ever to build? In this episode of Inside the Fund, Helena Fogarty sits down with Jess Schram, Partner and Director of Investments and Incubations at Remedy Product Studio, to talk about how founders should think about fundraising, valuation, diligence, and what separates the best companies from the rest. Jess explains why selling a...

Andrea Hippeau, Partner at Lerer Hippeau, joins Inside the Fund to discuss how early-stage investors actually evaluate founders. Andrea breaks down what she looks for before traction exists, why conviction often forms long before a formal pitch, and how long-term relationships between founders and investors shape many of the best investments. She also explains why trying to “fix” founders rarely w...

Oren Michels, CEO of Barndoor AI, joins us on Inside the Round to break down how Barndoor raised $13.6M pre-product, why enterprise security can’t ship a janky v1, and how “fast fundraising” is usually the payout for years of relationship-building. Oren shares what changed from Mashery (where the iPhone era pulled them into enterprise) to Barndoor AI (where day-one customers are household name com...

Don’t follow capital. Let capital follow. In this episode of Inside the Round, Nima Roohi of Blooming Health shares the fundraising hot take he wishes more founders lived by, plus the real mechanics of how he pushed through roughly 100 investor passes and kept the company moving anyway. Nima unpacks: • Why founders should be less malleable to investor feedback • How he iterated his pitch after eve...

What does a valuation actually mean once you take venture math seriously? In this episode of Inside the Fund, Justin Kang of Visible Hands breaks down the mechanics most founders never fully internalize. A valuation is not a payout. It is a projection inside a fund model governed by liquidity cycles, LP expectations, and fiduciary duty. Justin unpacks: • Why LP capital is locked up for years • How...

In this episode of Inside the Round, host Helena Fogarty sits down with Caroline Dell, CEO and Co-founder of Goodword, to break down the real realities of raising their $4 Million Seed Round led by Human Ventures. Caroline shares her journey from working in consulting at Bain and as a strategic operator at Chief to the pivotal moment she realized she was ready to be a CEO. This conversation goes b...

In this episode of Inside the Round, Helena Fogarty sits down with James Zahn, Founder of Ranger AI, to break down the real realities of fundraising that most founders don’t talk about. James shares his journey from solving industrial tendering problems as an engineer to raising a $2.5M pre-seed round for Ranger AI, including lessons from angel investors, design partners, non-dilutive government f...

In this episode, Michael Martin shares the real story behind how Circadian Risk raised $10M after being ghosted by VCs. We break down: Why investors initially passed on the idea How the team built conviction before consensus What changed between rejection and a successful raise Lessons for founders building in misunderstood or emerging categories A candid conversation about fundraising, persistenc...

In this conversation, Jacyln Siu of Starcycle shares her journey from growing up in Hong Kong to becoming a successful entrepreneur in the U.S. She discusses the emotional challenges of shutting down startups, the importance of community and networking, and how these experiences shaped her new venture, Starcycle. The conversation emphasizes resilience, learning from failure, and the significance o...

In this insightful episode of Inside the Process, Helena Fogarty, interviews Samir Bakhru from Orrick, Harrington, and Sutcliffe. They discuss the intricacies of raising capital, the importance of choosing the right legal counsel, and the evolving landscape of early-stage investing. Samir shares his journey into the startup ecosystem, emphasizing the significance of having tough conversations earl...

In this episode of Inside the Round, Helena Fogarty speaks with Ella Moloney-Cook, co-founder and COO of Upper Echelon, about her unique entrepreneurial journey from Australia to the US, the importance of strategic capital, and the role of mental health in entrepreneurship. Ella shares insights on building community, effective investor outreach strategies, and creating unique experiences for inves...