Running a startup is stressful. Fundraising, in particular, is an inflection point in the journey that can amplify your anxiety. This is a workshop on how to master your emotions during a fundraise and learn how you can embody feelings of calm, confidence, and resilience to perform at your best. Aaron Harris (former Partner @ YC) and Amy Buechler (psychotherapist and YC's former in-house Founder Coach) talk about what to expect while fundraising and share best practices on how to regulate your emotions before, during, and after a fundraise.

​Collectively, Aaron and Amy have worked with thousands of founders and have helped them navigate the fundraising rollercoaster across seed rounds, Series As, Series Bs, and Series Cs.

We talk about:

• ​Why fundraising is emotionally difficult and what to expect

• ​Tips & tricks for monitoring and managing your psychology

• ​How to handle the inevitable rejections you'll get

• ​The dangers of comparison and optimization

Here’s v1 of the Google sheet Amy references - please don’t share: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Pv7yRVdQ9cWJqzwoff2Cm5An9CPn4Yy-gZxLblEoDmE/edit?usp=sharing

​Who are we?

​Aaron Harris runs Magid & Company, an un-conflicted source of advice to help founders navigate fundraising after their seed round. Previously, Aaron was a partner at YC for 7+ years where he built the Series A program and advised on 200+ Series A/Bs that raised over $3 billion. As a YC Partner he funded companies like Deel, Scale, Rappi, Groww, and Equipment Share.

​Amy is a licensed psychotherapist who was hired as Y Combinator’s first Batch Director and became YC’s in-house Founder Coach. While running and scaling the YC batches, she coached nearly 1000 early-stage founders at YC, and has coached nearly 1000 later-stage founders since opening her own coaching practice, The Founder Coach, in 2019.

The common thread that runs through everything I’ve spoken about today - is trust. You trusting yourself. Trusting your cofounder. Trusting that your perspective, and your feelings are valid. Trusting that you’ve gotten this far, and trusting that you’ll keep making it through.

You can trust that no one in the world knows your product better than you. No one knows more than you do - about your users, your market, your unique insight, your expertise, your team, or your vision. You’re it. You’re the expert.

These days there’s more content than ever out there from previous founders, investors, and advisors about how to build startups - there’s literally a coach for everything. It’s easy for founders to get tricked into thinking all that content means there’s a ‘right way’ and a ‘wrong’ way to build a startup.

The right way will always be you applying what you know to every situation you’re in. The right way will always be you sifting through your thoughts, your emotions, your values, your beliefs, and your experiences to figure out what’s best for you and your company right now.

Listen to yourself - stay connected. Trust yourself. The world needs more leaders who know trust, especially in tech - and you’re it.