BackersStage Startup Program is live We screen early-stage Web3 and AI projects and connect the best ones directly with investors. if you're raising Pre-Seed, Seed, or Series A - this is for you. Apply: backersstage.com/apply

everyone asks how to work a room of 500 founders but that's the wrong question. the room isn't the game, the five people you still remember a month later are here's what i've picked up doing this for years - before you even show up, do the homework nobody does. pull the attendee list, skip the big logos and find the ten people whose work actually lines up with yours - message five of them a couple weeks out, nothing heavy, just "i'll be around, would love 15 minutes." that one note puts you ahead of almost everyone walking in cold - when you're there, kill the urge to pitch. fastest way to get forgotten is to start selling in the first 30 seconds - ask instead, something like "what's got you excited right now," then actually shut up and listen. people feel the difference between someone waiting for their turn and someone who's genuinely curious, and they remember the second one - follow up the same day, not next week, not when things settle down, same day while you're still a face and not a blur - skip "great meeting you" and say the thing they actually told you. send the deck as a link you can track and put a real date on the table instead of "let's find time" none of this is clever, it's just rare. the guy who leaves with 80 cards got nothing, the one who made five people feel actually heard got the only thing that compounds talk less, listen harder, follow up faster than feels normal that's the whole edge

Founders massively underestimate how much fundraising is actually a distribution problem Every warm introduction is a transfer of reputation from one party to another. That's why experienced operators treat introductions with extreme precision. Most founders approach intros transactionally: - "Can you introduce me to X?" The better approach is to make the introduction package immediately forwardable SEND: • who you are (concise summary) • what you've built (strongest proof points) • traction in one line • why you're specifically relevant to that investor • the ask (usually a short call) The objective is simple: reduce the cognitive load on the connector to near zero Another overlooked principle: introductions are earned twice - once when someone agrees to make the introduction - and again after the meeting The founders who consistently gain access to top-tier investors always close the loop. They send context back to the connector, share outcomes, and demonstrate that the social capital invested in them was well spent. Fundraising is often framed as a capital allocation exercise. In practice, it's a reputation allocation exercise. The founders who understand the difference compound access far faster than those who don't A simple message saying "we spoke, it was helpful, thanks for the intro" is often the reason you get the second introduction Fundraising is borrowed trust

Hiring SOON Keep your 90-sec intro ready

Where AI x Crypto capital is actually going in 2026 Pulled from the last six months of public rounds and a lot of private conversations with active funds Infrastructure is taking about seventy percent of all deployed capital - Decentralized compute and GPU marketplaces solving the supply crunch - Data layers around provenance and labeling. Verification primitives for proof of inference and model auditing - And agent infrastructure, meaning the wallets, identity, and payment rails that machines need to actually transact with each other. The other thirty percent is applications - DeFAI strategies, autonomous on-chain agents, AI driven security and audit, creator tools with IP and royalty rails baked in If your pitch does not fit one of those buckets, you are either too early, in the wrong sector, or telling the wrong story Most of the time it is the story

The room is the product - Read that twice - forty percent founders actively building and raising in AI x Crypto. - thirty percent VCs deploying capital this quarter, not the ones writing think pieces about the space. - twenty percent ecosystem operators and L1 foundations and the allocators who decide which funds get to keep playing. - ten percent operators and media who shape the next round. every single person was chosen, that is not a marketing line. - That is the actual admission policy and the reason last three events ran a sixty eight percent rejection rate. FYI: You do not pay to attend a room like this You apply to it Apply now: Founder x VC Summit 🇸🇬 Demo Day: luma.com/gdqakgz3 Happy Hour: luma.com/4lzbeit3

Your Singapore playbook for @token2049 week. Memorize before you fly Stay near Marina Bay or Chinatown. Walk to most events. Book by July or prices triple in September, cause of F1, this is not me being dramatic, compare previous rates yourself Use the MRT. Grab for everything else, not Uber, Uber is locked out of the market here. Atlas Bar at Parkview Square is where VCs end up after dinner, reserve in advance during conference week or you are not getting in. Lau Pa Sat for casual founder meetings. Hotel lobbies for fifteen minute calls between bigger ones Land two days early. Acclimatize. Singapore heat at 30°C and humidity at 90 will wreck you on Day 1 if you flew in jetlagged the night before. Save your most important meetings for Day 2 and Day 3 of the trip when you are sharp. Treat the week like a military operation, not a vacation with extra meetings - That is the only thing separating the founders who close rounds from the ones who post selfies.

How a five minute meeting at a conference becomes a term sheet six weeks later Do not start by over-pitching. You need one clean opener: What you do, who it is for, the sharpest number you have, what you are raising If they show interest, continue. If they don’t, move on quickly. Conferences are high-volume environments and attention is limited. so, shift the conversation toward them. Ask what they are looking for right now. Let them describe the thesis, Map your startup to their words while they are saying them. The best fundraising conversation in history is the one where the VC ends up convincing themselves you fit Do not drag the interaction too long Leave while the energy is still high Before ending, lock in a proper follow-up call with a specific day or time window Leave before they want you to. End it high. Propose a real call this week, with a specific day. Then follow up inside ninety minutes with the deck, one reference to something they said, and a time slot. The founder who follows up first wins the slot. Conference week is a race, not a marathon.

The gap between a funded round and a rejection email is almost never the product. It is the framing The rejected version sounds like this. "We are building the future of decentralized AI. Our TAM is five hundred billion, We have no real competitors" Every partner has heard this exact sentence six times this week and they have started skipping decks that lead with it. The funded version sounds like this. "We solve this [XXXX] specific problem for this [YYYY] specific customer. Here is the proof we already have. Our wedge is this two hundred million dollar niche we can own in eighteen months. Here is who else is playing in the space and here is why we beat them on this one axis.\" Same [company, metrics, founders]. Different [Language, Outcome] VCs are not pattern matching to your product. They are pattern matching to founders who can articulate why they win. The articulation is the deliverable. Apply now: Founder x VC Summit 🇸🇬 Demo Day: luma.com/gdqakgz3 Happy Hour: luma.com/4lzbeit3

Announcing YC Crypto deals We're now providing crypto deals to support fintech builders funded by YC: support on tools like wallets, onramps, audits, blockchains, onchain data.

Raising money can be 10x harder if you ignore timing We’ve seen good startups struggle for months because they started raising during dead periods, while average startups closed rounds fast just because funds were actively deploying Jan-Mar is usually strong because new budgets open. Sep-Oct moves fast because funds don’t want to sit inactive before year-end Meanwhile Jul-Aug and Dec are where most conversations quietly die Most founders underestimate how much the VC calendar affects momentum ALSO: If you truly believe in what you’re building and the product has real potential, you can raise anytime, even when investors say they have no Money.

There are over a thousand side events at Token2049 this year. You will physically make it to five. Choose them like your raise depends on it, because it usually does. Anything described as "open to everyone" or "networking mixer" is a soft no Same for events with fifty sponsors stamped on the landing page and no published agenda. If anyone with a wallet can walk in, the signal is gone before you arrive. The events worth your time are the ones that ask you to apply The ones with a published attendee profile so you actually know who shows up. The ones with structured introductions instead of "mingle freely." The best events do not try to convince you to come They make you feel like you have to earn the seat. That is the asymmetry you are looking for. Apply now: Founder x VC Summit 🇸🇬 Demo Day: luma.com/gdqakgz3 Happy Hour: luma.com/4lzbeit3

BREAKING: This Handshake means a lot 🇺🇸🇨🇳

Today is the last day to apply for the first batch The link stays live but anything submitted after today goes into the next batch, which opens last week of May. If you're raising in Web3 or AI right now and want to be in this batch, get your application in today backersstage.com/apply

3 days left to apply Applications for this batch close May 1 After that we pause to finish matching the current pipeline, next window opens later this quarter If you're an early-stage founder in Web3 or AI raising right now, this is the moment backersstage.com/apply

You just had a great meeting with a VC at a conference. They seemed interested. They asked for the deck. And then you go home and send a follow-up email three days later with "Great meeting you, here's my deck" and never hear back Here's what you should do instead Send the follow-up within 2 hours. Not the next day. Not when you get back to your hotel. Within 2 hours, while your conversation is still fresh in their mind. Speed signals seriousness and separates you from every other founder they met that day. Open the email by referencing what THEY said, not what you said. "You mentioned you're seeing a lot of teams struggle with [specific problem]. Here's how we're approaching that differently and why it's working." This proves you were listening and positions your follow-up as a continuation of their thought process, not a cold pitch. Include one thing they didn't ask for. A customer case study they haven't seen. A technical architecture document. A data point from your latest cohort. Something that shows depth beyond the pitch and gives them a reason to forward your email to their partner. End with a specific ask and a specific date. "Would Thursday or Friday work for a 30-minute deep dive?" Give them a binary choice. Never end with "let me know when works" because that email goes to the bottom of the pile and stays there. The follow-up is where 80% of conference deals are won or lost Treat it like a second pitch. Apply now Demo Day: luma.com/gdqakgz3 Happy Hour: luma.com/4lzbeit3