Legion

SPVs made private markets easier to access. They also made them easier to abuse. If an SPV burned you, keeping it private is part of why it happens again. SPV Confessions is live. Tell your story. Change the system. Fully anonymous: confessions.uselegion.com

Raising with no warm intro? In a survey of almost 900 VCs, only 10% of the deals they closed came from founders reaching out directly. These 10 funds publish how they handle the cold pitch: 1.@GoAheadVC : GoAhead Ventures. A one-way video pitch that all three managing partners watch. Typical response under 24 hours, about six days from pitch to offer. $1M typical check on a signable SAFE. 2. @January_VC : January Ventures. A two-minute form, no deck and no warm intro needed. Pre-seed. In 2022 it said about 18% of its investments came from a cold email. 3. @ajuniorvc : AJVC. India pre-seed. A three-minute form, yes or no within 48 hours, decision within a week of the call. Fixed terms: ₹1.5 crore (~$170K) for 9%. Read 11,000+ applications while investing its first fund. 4. @UnshackledVC : Unshackled Ventures. Replies to 100% of pitches through its form, with at most three calls to a decision either way. $150-750K first checks at day zero, for immigrant technical founders. 5. @NoaKhamallah : Don't Quit Ventures. Email your deck to the team address, get a reply within two weeks whatever the answer, with feedback on every pass. $50-150K. Solo GP, and 3 of the 17 Fund I bets are now worth $1B+. 6. @HarlemCapital : Harlem Capital. Investment form on the site, "allow us at least two weeks to get you our thoughts." $1-2.5M at pre-seed and seed, no product or revenue requirement, US only. In their 2019 review, 43% of investments came straight from founders. 7. @PrecursorVC : Precursor. Form on the site. Up to $500K first checks, 30-40 new companies a year, and their stated rule is never to tell a founder to come back with more progress. Four of five investors can write a check alone. 8. @KaporCapital : Kapor Capital. One of the first VCs to openly take cold pitches through its website. The form takes five minutes; if they're in, calls run over two weeks. Pre-seed to Series A for companies closing gaps of access. 9. @adaventures : Ada Ventures. UK pre-seed, £250K-1M, leads 70%+ of its deals. Open application, plus an AI tool it built that critiques your deck. Built on a British Business Bank stat: warm-intro founders are 13x more likely to get funded. 10. @ediggs : Eze Vidra, @RemagineV . Published his cold-email numbers: 400-500 a year, replies to most, a few dozen meetings, 1-2 investments. Tel Aviv pre-seed, $25M Fund II (Nov 2025). Save this for your raise. And if your fund answers cold email, tell us how fast below.

Facts: If you're ignoring private markets you are ignoring $6+ TRILLIONS of value.

Bad day to be a leveraged Neocloud in the markets Only one of these private companies in the sector has raised no debt this year

Trying to raise money this fall? These 12 programs all close before Thanksgiving: 1. @activatefellows: Activate Fellowship. Oct 30, noon PT. $100K a year to live on plus $100K for R&D, no equity. For scientists turning lab research into a company. Fellows have raised $6.5B in follow-on. 2. Innovation Crossroads. Oct 30, 8pm ET. A $115K yearly stipend for up to two years, embedded at Oak Ridge National Lab with its equipment and R&D funding. 57 startups so far, $327M raised after. 3. @foresightinst: Foresight Institute AI for Science & Safety Nodes. Oct 31, 11:59pm PT. Grants usually $30K to $100K, with compute and office space at its SF or Berlin hubs on offer. For-profits can apply if they can explain why they need a grant. The work has to be open source. 4. @startmate: Startmate. Nov 1, 11:59pm Sydney time. A$120K for 8%, mostly remote, for Australia and New Zealand founders. 67% of the companies it backs had no revenue when they applied. 5. @speedrun: a16z speedrun SR008. Nov 1, 11:59pm PT. $500K for 10% on a SAFE, plus $500K in your next round. Residency Feb 1 to mid-April in SF, Demo Day Apr 13. Back on the list because this is the next deadline. 6. @ycombinator: Y Combinator Winter 2027. Nov 2, 8pm PT. $500K: $125K for 7% plus $375K on an uncapped MFN SAFE. Apply on time and you hear back by Dec 11. 7. @eranyc: ERA. Nov 2. $150K for 6% on a post-money SAFE, four months in person in New York from January. 400+ startups through, $2.5B+ raised. 8. NLnet. Nov 3, noon CET. €5K to €50K first grants, no equity, for open-source internet infrastructure and software supply chain security. Open to applicants from Horizon Europe countries. 9. @EUeic: EIC Accelerator. Nov 4, 5pm Brussels. A grant under €2.5M, and optionally €1M to €10M in EU equity, for deep tech close to market. Only teams whose short proposal already passed can submit. 10. America's Seed Fund (seedfund dot nsf dot gov). Nov 4, 5pm your local time. Up to $305K for Phase I, zero equity. You need an invitation from an approved Project Pitch first. It is good for the next two deadlines, so a new one also covers March 4. 11. @alliance: Alliance. Nov 18. $400K at a $4M post-money on a SAFE with a 1:1 token side letter, plus $400K more at seed. 10 weeks for crypto and fintech founders, starting with two weeks in New York on Jan 11. 12. @Techstars: Techstars Anywhere. Nov 18. Standard US terms are $220K: $20K for 5% plus a $200K uncapped MFN SAFE. Remote-first for North American time zones, with three in-person offsites. Back on the list for the deadline. Save this and start now. 10 of these 12 programs close between Oct 30 and Nov 4.

Pre-IPO perpetuals keep getting bigger and bigger. People can already trade names like OpenAI and Anthropic on up to 18 venues. Almost $500M in volume this past week alone.