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This week's Startup Index Newsletter highlights data from our new report "The Anatomy of a Series A Raise". As subscribers, you are the first group to see this exclusive data and can register to get priority access to the report and Q&A webinar. Do you have experience raising a Series A? Reply, if you'd like to do a Q&A.

A Series A By The Numbers (from our new report)

More insights we'll share in the new report

• Find out what parts of your Series A pitch deck VCs are the most interested in.
• Learn what the optimal timeline to raise is.
• Discover what to expect in your Series A round, from how many investors to contact to how long it will take.

Get priority access to the report and webinar

Join Russ Heddleston, CEO of DocSend, for our webinar Q&A where he shares new data from the upcoming report The Anatomy of a Series A Raise on what it takes to raise a successful Series A round.

When: Thursday, October 29th at 10 am PST (7 PM CET)

Pitch Deck Interest Metrics Update

The average time investors spent reading per pitch deck went down last week. This is unique because it marks the second-lowest recorded “investor time spent” metric in 2020 at 2:47 minutes and is 20.29% lower than the same week in 2019. (tweet this) Read our full analysis of last week's changes in the fundraising marketplace.

Recommended Reads

On Raising Seed and Series A as a Female Founder

Amber Atherton, founder and CEO of Zyper, and Iba Masood, cofounder and CEO of TARA, share their experiences going from Seed to Series A, their process for fundraising, and how they were able to succeed.

Watch the video on YouTube.

How To Raise Money from a Venture Investor

In this second of a 3-part series (which originally aired as YouTube videos), a16z Managing Partner Scott Kupor shares actionable fundraising advice based on his experience of seeing thousands of startup pitches and working on all of a16z’s investments.

Read the full post on A16Z.

When to Raise a Series A

One of the hardest questions to answer when considering an A is “when is my company ready?” This is another one of those questions for which there are hundreds of answers on the internet, none of which are particularly satisfying. The reason these answers don’t work is that each rule has so many exceptions as to make the rule seem silly. Aaron Harris of Y Combinator shares his framework.

Read the full post on Y Combinator.

Participate in DocSend Fundraising Research

If you've enjoyed all of our research this year, you can be part of the next round by participating in this year's fundraising survey. Founders and investors from anywhere can submit their responses. All data is aggregated and anonymized.