Paul Stamatiou of Notifo, a YC-funded startup, tells this somewhat lengthy but interesting tale of getting funding in the Valley. The key point is an old one, from Paul Graham's Fundraising survival guide:
But although for most startups raising money will be the lesser evil, it's still a pretty big evil—so big that it can easily kill you. Not merely in the obvious sense that if you fail to raise money you might have to shut the company down, but because the process of raising money itself can kill you.
You won't learn anything new from this article if you read Paul Graham's article, but it is well written, enjoyable, and gives a glimpse into a real instance of fundraising in the kind of environment where getting meetings with 40 interested angels is not unexpected. For those of us stuck in the desert of the european funding landscape, it almost seems like a fairy tale.
