Fund or Fumble: Spotting Bad Money Before It Burns You
summary
Crypto wallet Soulflare has 4 million users holding ~$20B, grew to $50M revenue in 2024 after a 15x oversubscribed 2021 seed but got rejected by ~200 investors in 2023; investors who push burn cash growth over profitable metrics are a red flag. Watch for too good to be true term sheets, mismatched strategic priorities, board control risks, and herd-funding in AI (roughly 60% of recent rounds) where mega-seeds and $700M-first-year revenue outliers distort valuation expectations.
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chapters (6)
- 0:00Introduction and setup
- 1:48Soulflare’s journey and growth
- 9:42Raising funds and investor alignment
- 16:25VC herd mentality and AI funding
- 23:09Selecting the right investor
- 28:06Closing and takeaways
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