Inside Standard Capital: New $425M Series A Fund, Explained
Dalton (host), Michael (host)
In this episode of Dalton + Michael, featuring Dalton and Michael, Inside Standard Capital: New $425M Series A Fund, Explained explores standard Capital aims to standardize Series A with YC-like process Standard Capital is designed to apply YC’s speed, clarity, and founder-first process to the traditionally slow and opaque Series A fundraise.
Standard Capital aims to standardize Series A with YC-like process
Standard Capital is designed to apply YC’s speed, clarity, and founder-first process to the traditionally slow and opaque Series A fundraise.
The fund replaces warm-intro, deck-heavy fundraising with a lightweight online application intended to minimize founder time and uncertainty.
It publishes a standard Series A term sheet publicly, aiming to eliminate late-stage surprises, excessive legal churn, and opaque negotiation dynamics.
The standard deal targets 10% ownership, with founders choosing the dollar amount for that 10% (i.e., effectively naming their price up front).
Rather than taking board seats, Standard Capital plans quarterly peer “group office hours” so founders with product-market fit can share metrics, problems, and advice in curated cohorts.
Key Takeaways
If it’s not an explicit ‘yes,’ treat it as a ‘no.’
They argue founders waste enormous time interpreting “VC speak,” where lengthy, flowery updates typically mask a pass; optimizing for clear decisions preserves momentum.
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Series A fundraising is still stuck in an 1980s relationship-driven model.
Despite major innovation at seed (e. ...
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A standardized application can replace decks and warm intros.
Standard Capital wants founders to apply via a YC-like form so evaluation inputs are consistent, faster to parse, and far less costly than building and rehearsing pitch decks.
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Publishing terms upfront reduces stress, legal drag, and hidden leverage shifts.
By putting the term sheet on the website, founders can understand the deal before engaging—avoiding the common dynamic where complex documents arrive after founders are already committed.
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Fixing dilution while letting founders set dollars simplifies valuation theater.
Their “10% for X dollars” structure pushes founders to state what they want directly, reframing valuation as a clear choice rather than a prolonged bargaining game.
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Board seats are often negative expected value at Series A.
They emphasize board power (including firing the CEO) plus shallow relationship formation creates risk; they quote a founder view that most board members are ‘0’ or ‘-1,’ so avoiding ‘-1’ matters.
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Curated peer groups may be more valuable than investor advice.
They claim the best operating guidance comes from founders in the trenches, proposing quarterly cohort sessions where PMF-stage founders share metrics and solve hard problems together.
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Notable Quotes
“Any words that aren't yes is a no. If there's lots of words in it, that's a no.”
— Dalton
“Fundraising's a waste of time. Don't do it… do it in as short of amount of time as possible.”
— Dalton
“A board member is either a plus one, a zero, or a minus one… so try to get a zero.”
— Dalton (quoting a founder)
“There's no equation. Everyone just makes up numbers.”
— Dalton
“I started accelerating… when I stopped asking investors to summarize what they saw other great founders do, and I started to just ask those founders directly.”
— Michael (recounting Pedro from Brex)
Questions Answered in This Episode
What are the exact eligibility criteria for applying—do you require clear product-market fit, and how do you operationally measure PMF in the application?
Standard Capital is designed to apply YC’s speed, clarity, and founder-first process to the traditionally slow and opaque Series A fundraise.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
What is the promised ‘quality of service’ decision timeline (days-to-yes/no), and what internal mechanisms prevent exceptions from creeping in over time?
The fund replaces warm-intro, deck-heavy fundraising with a lightweight online application intended to minimize founder time and uncertainty.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
How will the standard term sheet handle common Series A edge cases (pro-rata, option pool sizing, protective provisions) while staying ‘standard’ and founder-friendly?
It publishes a standard Series A term sheet publicly, aiming to eliminate late-stage surprises, excessive legal churn, and opaque negotiation dynamics.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
If founders choose the dollars-for-10% number, how does Standard Capital decide whether the price is acceptable—what are the main reasons you’d say ‘no’ given otherwise strong traction?
The standard deal targets 10% ownership, with founders choosing the dollar amount for that 10% (i. ...
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Without board seats, how do you handle governance, conflict resolution, and situations where a founder might benefit from formal oversight?
Rather than taking board seats, Standard Capital plans quarterly peer “group office hours” so founders with product-market fit can share metrics, problems, and advice in curated cohorts.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Transcript Preview
Think about how much of our job at YC has been-
Yes
... decoding VC speak-
[laughs]
... into English.
[laughs] Yes.
Any words that aren't yes-
[laughs]
... is a no.
Yeah. [laughs]
But, like, with all this, like, extra accoutrements on the edges. If you get an email and there's like lots of words in it, that's a no.
Yes. [upbeat music] Hello, this is Dalton plus Michael, and today we're gonna talk about Standard Capital, the new fund by Dalton and PB. As a kind of 30-second preview, why don't you tell us a little bit about, um, how you decided to start this fund, and why is it different?
I think to start with, um, as you know, I give a lot of advice over the years as a YC partner on pivots.
Yes.
And one of the things I th- I try to do when giving someone advice about a pivot is I try to imagine of all ideas this person could work in in the world-
Mm
... where do they have the most unfair advantages? Where do they have the best network? Like, I believe that every person has, like, a perfect idea for them, and that my job is to try to pull out of any founder what their ideal idea is.
I have stolen that line.
[laughs] Like, maybe 100 times.
Yeah. [laughs]
[laughs] Maybe, maybe 100 times.
It's helpful, especially in the sea of, "Well, I could do anything."
Yeah.
Yes.
There's, there's too many choices. There's-
Too many choices
... um, but if you think about it this way, everyone has one really-
Yes, yes
... uh, good idea. And so-
By the way, I love that too, because it's kind of like in a really hard competition, you wanna play games you're good at.
Yes. [laughs]
[laughs] And like, the, the world is a really hard competition. [laughs]
[laughs] It's like...
Yeah. Okay. So-
And so, so this is an idea that I crafted very specifically for this founding team-
Yes
... which is PB, myself, and Brian Burg.
Yes.
And kind of the idea is to take a lot of what makes YC work at the seed stage-
Yes
... and apply it to the Series A. Um, the way I like to explain this is 20 years ago I raised a seed round.
Yep.
And when I raised a seed round, I had to get a lead investor.
Yep.
I had to get a priced round term sheet.
Yep.
I had to sell 25% of my company.
Yep.
I had to give up a board seat.
Yes.
And it took seven months.
For a seed round?
For a seed round. And Michael, let me be honest, it was a miracle.
[laughs]
Like, I'm, I'm, I'm so thankful. No, I mean, I really mean this.
Yeah.
Like, when I think back, I'm like, "How did I get that done?"
[laughs]
Like, I think I was just lucky or-
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