EPISODE 134
"Your seed round is not your Series A."
with Marcus Velez (solo)
Why the investor you're pitching today is evaluating you for a round you haven't started raising yet — and how that changes your deck.
44:18ISSUE 178 · AUSTIN, TX
First Capital — the weekly conversation on the money you haven't raised yet.
A podcast for first-time founders learning how to raise, spend, and protect their first business dollars. Hosted by Marcus Velez, former Series B CFO who has wired $140M+ in seed capital, and produced by the FreshmanFund editorial team in Austin, TX.
Get the Founder's First-Capital Playbook
48:12
WHY THIS EPISODE
Where most founders lose the round.
Anika has sat through 600+ first-check meetings as a partner at a seed-stage venture firm. In this conversation she walks through the three structural decisions that separate the SAFE notes that close in 11 days from the ones that stall for four months — valuation cap placement, discount rate negotiation, and the post-money vs. pre-money trap that quietly costs founders 14% of their round.
Marcus pushes her on the questions first-time founders are afraid to ask: how much dilution is too much at the first check, what to do when a lead investor ghosts after a verbal commitment, and whether the Y Combinator standard form is really the right starting template for every deal.
- 01 How lead investors actually read your cap table before the first meeting.
- 02 The valuation cap is a storytelling tool, not a number — and how to set it without insulting the lead.
- 03 Why the MFN clause matters more than the valuation cap for first-time founders.
- 04 The four sentences in your SAFE that 80% of founders copy from a template and should rewrite.
THE RECENT ARCHIVE
Five conversations from the last six weeks.
Episodes are released every Tuesday at 6 a.m. Central. Each runs between 38 and 64 minutes.
Episode
Guest
Topic
Length
141This week
Marcus Velez (solo)
Reading your own SAFE like a lawyer would.
41:08
140Two weeks ago
Daniela Osei, founder of Bramble & Co.
What I got wrong about burn rate in my first 14 months.
52:33
139Three weeks ago
Henrik Voss, former CFO of two B2B SaaS exits
The 18-month cash forecast every first-time founder should write on day one.
57:46
138One month ago
Yuki Tanaka, partner at a pre-seed fund
Why your "traction update" email is killing your round.
46:21
137Five weeks ago
Priya Ramaswamy, co-founder of FreshmanFund
Spending your first $250K without firing yourself.
49:02
FROM THE HOST
"Most founders learn about founder capital strategy the same way they learn about dental surgery — at the exact moment it becomes urgent, expensive, and irreversible. First Capital is the conversation I wish someone had taped for me three months before I signed my first term sheet."
THE SHOW, BY THE NUMBERS
A magazine with a microphone.
- 92,000 downloads per month, average across Q1 2025
- #14 in the Investing category on Apple Podcasts, Q1 2025
- 52 episodes published since launch in March 2023
- 240,000 active subscribers across newsletter, podcast, and community
THE BACK CATALOG
More from the archive.
Selected episodes from the First Capital back catalog — the conversations readers ask us to send back to most often.
EPISODE 129
"I almost gave my lead investor veto rights."
with Lauren Hsu, founder of a D2C wellness brand
A near-miss story on protective provisions, and the one paragraph in her term sheet she had to rewrite at midnight before close.
51:04
EPISODE 124
"Spending $40K on a logo before product."
with Tomás Beltrán, co-founder of an AI infrastructure startup
The first $200K of pre-seed capital, itemized — including the four hires and three pieces of software that actually mattered.
47:50
EPISODE 118
"Setting up your books before you have books."
with Rebecca Onolaja, former head of finance at a fintech company
A primer on the chart of accounts, the payroll provider, and the runway spreadsheet every founder needs by week six.
39:27A podcast is a slow way to learn this stuff. The Playbook is the fast way.
Get the Founder's First-Capital Playbook