Startup Basics

Every startup begins with a decision. Not just about the product. Not just about the market. But about the person you choose to build it with. Your co-founder isn’t just your partner—they’re part of your pitch. Investors don’t just back ideas. They back teams. And if you get that team wrong early, everything else—your story, […]

Most founders wait too long to test. They build first—then ask if anyone cares. But by then, they’ve spent time, energy, and often capital building the wrong thing. There’s a better way. If you’re a technical founder, it’s tempting to dive into code. You want to see it run, see it move, see it solve

When you’re building early, especially in deep tech or AI, it’s easy to feel like you have no metrics worth showing. No revenue. No viral growth. Maybe not even a product in the wild yet. But here’s the truth: investors don’t just fund startups with traction. They fund startups with signals. You don’t need scale

Most people think data rooms are just for big rounds. For startups with traction, revenue, or a full product already in market. But that’s not how early-stage fundraising works anymore—especially if you’re building something technical. Today, investors want clarity early. Even if your product isn’t live. Even if you’re still refining the tech. Even if

Most founders wait too long to think about intellectual property. They’re busy building, testing, shipping. IP feels like something you’ll handle later—after launch, after traction, maybe after your first round. But “later” is often too late. The truth is, if you’re building something technical—AI, robotics, machine learning, deep infrastructure—your IP is your product. And how

If you’re early—like pre-revenue, pre-traction early—your pitch deck has to work harder than most. You can’t lean on big numbers. You can’t point to a long list of customers or a steady stream of revenue. What you can do is tell a story that makes investors lean in, ask questions, and take you seriously. A

Investors don’t just back products. They back people. Not just founders, but the tiny, early team that shows up before the headlines and funding rounds. Those first few hires? They matter more than you think. At Tran.vc, we’ve seen brilliant solo founders with great tech get passed over—not because their product didn’t work, but because

Let’s be honest—MVP used to mean “just get something out there.” Something scrappy. Something raw. Just enough to test the idea. But that’s changed. Today, investors see a thousand MVPs. Most of them half-baked. Many of them forgettable. What they’re really looking for? A signal. Proof that you can build something real. Something that works.

Let’s get one thing straight. Your cap table isn’t just a spreadsheet. It’s a story. A story about who owns what, who’s built what, and who gets what when things go right—or wrong. If you’re a technical founder building something real, something that could change the game, your cap table is one of the first