Funding
SAFE Notes vs Priced Rounds: Mechanics, Cost, and Control
Ray KowalskiA SAFE is fast and cheap because it defers the hard questions; a priced round is slow and expensive because it answers them — and the deferral itself has a price.
Funding
Seed through late stage rounds reported with structure.
Funding
How to Run a Series A Process: Timeline, Materials, Metrics
Ray KowalskiA Series A is a six-week sales campaign with one product — evidence — and the founders who run it as a process, not a conversation, price it best.
Funding
Liquidation Preferences: The Term That Decides Who Gets Paid First
Ray KowalskiThe valuation headline tells you what the company is worth; the liquidation preference tells you what your shares are worth — and in any exit below the last round, only one of those numbers is real.
Funding
OpenAI Raised $40 Billion: The Terms Behind the Largest Private Round
Ray KowalskiSoftBank led the March 2025 round at a $300 billion valuation — but the tranches, the restructuring conditions, and the debt component did more shaping than the headline number.