Chapter 2 · Startups as Investments

Startup Lifecycle & Funding Stages

Pre-seed, seed, Series A through D, bridge rounds, extension rounds, secondary. It's its own vocabulary, and new-to-VC people spend a lot of time nodding when they should be asking what any of it means. So: the whole lifecycle, end to end. What each round typically looks like, who invests at each stage, how check sizes and valuations move, and what's expected between rounds. Get this down and every pitch deck suddenly reads faster.