YC-s-Series-A-Guide #

YC’s Series A Guide #

Created: February 26, 2020 12:35 PM URL: https://blog.ycombinator.com/ycs-series-a-guide/ ! YC-logo-1200-1.png We started YC’s Series A Program two years ago to fix a problem faced by every startup raising an A: VCs understand how Series A’s work and founders do not. While we couldn’t work directly with every company in the world trying to raise an A, we realized that publicly distributing our learnings would help all founders. We’ve published some of what we learned:

• In Standard and Clean Series A Term Sheet, we analyzed dozens of term sheets to create the fairest one possible. For instance, we learned that:
• Founders on average have to meet with 30 investors to produce a single term sheet. The guide works best in conjunction with the internal programs and resources we’ve built out for YC companies. Our hope is that the Guide will remove information asymmetry from the Series A process, and help level the playing field between founders and VCs.