I’ve raised about $10M for Time Study, and founders often ask me how to navigate today’s funding landscape. Here’s what I’ve been hearing lately from both founders and investors.

From founders:

• Pressure to raise more while facing tighter access to capital
• Less follow-on funding
• Intense competition in AI

From investors:

• Concerns about volatile valuations
• AI regulation
• Heavier LP reporting demands
• Balancing endurance and long-term growth potential

First, some context: My Funding Journey
Time Study launched as a post-revenue seed stage startup. I funded the friends and family round myself, which included building the product and onboarding early adopters who paid to use it.

When I raised our first round, we already had a product, customers, and a small team, and fundraising was still difficult. I pitched at Pipeline Angels in New York, and that angel check was just under $100K, followed later by follow-on funding and an investment from Hearst Lab. At the time, I had never raised venture funding and did not know anyone who had. Much of my early effort went into expanding my network. I took countless meetings, pitched often, and joined a few targeted accelerators/incubators, primarily for the network effect rather than the funding. The approach worked in some ways but was also time consuming. Also, this was pre-COVID (which feels like a lifetime ago).

Fundraising in 2025: Expectations Have Shifted
Before 2020, seed rounds typically required some early revenue traction, while Series A usually required $1M+ in ARR.

Expectations have shifted:

• Investors want to see traction earlier and more revenue before funding
• What used to be expected at Series A is now expected at seed
• For the average company, expectations are moving closer to $1M ARR at seed stage and $3M ARR at Series A
• There are always outliers, but they rarely apply to most
• A large share of funding has also concentrated around AI

The Point : Don’t forget other growth strategies
If your biggest challenge is fundraising, remember that fundraising is not the goal. It is only one tool for building and scaling a business. Too often we talk about it as if it is the only path. Media highlights unicorns and outlier cases, which makes it feel like raising millions is the only way to succeed.

The reality is that most founders will never raise venture capital. And many businesses do not need it.

Other tools exist:

• Talking to customers early and often
• Building revenue streams that cover operations
• Protecting ownership
• Testing pricing
• Focusing on the golden path (delivering the simplest version of your product that solves the customer’s primary pain point well and cost efficiently, without unnecessary extras)

Evergreen Advice : Optimize your time for what works
This post is not about rejecting venture funding, it is about rethinking its role and not depending on it as the only path to grow and scale. Funding can provide runway, but so can customers. The focus should be on getting your idea into the world, connecting with the people who benefit most from it, and growing it in a way that makes sense for you, your stakeholders, and your market.

Having said that, if you are pursuing fundraising, focus only on investors suited to your stage and your market, and who bring strategic value or long-term partnership. You do not have time to prove yourself to the wrong investors. If it is a “maybe”, it is probably a “no”. Move on.