Show Notes
Startup fundraising is harder than ever, and Season 3 of Build Mode is here to help. Whether you're raising a seed round, preparing for Series A, pitching venture capital firms, negotiating a term sheet, or exploring alternatives to VC funding, this season is packed with practical advice from founders and investors who have successfully navigated the fundraising journey.
Hosted by TechCrunch Startup Battlefield Editor Isabelle Johannessen, Build Mode is the TechCrunch podcast where founders, investors, and startup operators share honest conversations about what it really takes to build and finance a company. This season features Charles Hudson (Precursor Ventures), Andrew Dai (Elorian), Ashley Tyrner-Dolce (FarmboxRx), Kristina Subbotina (Lexsy AI), Sydney Sykes (NVIDIA), Xavier Chi (Mbodi), Jack Groetzinger (SeatGeek), Sasha Orloff (Puzzle), Everette Taylor (Kickstarter), Manan Mehta (Unshackled Ventures), Julia Hartz (Eventbrite), and more. Together, they cover topics including avoiding down rounds, raising capital in today's venture market, working with corporate venture capital, crowdfunding, startup financial readiness, fundraising as an immigrant founder, IPO lessons, and how to deliver a winning startup pitch.
If you're an entrepreneur, startup founder, investor, or operator looking for actionable fundraising advice, this season is your playbook. New episodes begin July 9 and release every week on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Subscribe now and learn how to raise capital, grow your startup, and build with confidence.
More from Build Mode
Venture capital is more concentrated than ever, making it increasingly difficult for early-stage founders to land their first check. So what does it actually take to stand out to investors?
For years, crowdfunding had a reputation as the place founders went when they couldn’t raise venture capital. Kickstarter CEO Everette Taylor thinks founders should look at it very differently.
Ashley Tyrner-Dolce spent more than a decade building FarmboxRx without taking a single dollar of venture capital and ultimately exited the company while still owning the majority of it.
Building flying taxis takes billions of dollars. So instead of relying on traditional venture rounds, Archer Aviation went public just a few years after it was founded.
Robotics is having an AI boom, but don’t expect it to have a ChatGPT moment.