How Founders Win at Fundraising, Sales, and Hiring

Dalton and Michael discuss negotiation, leverage and how to "win". Discussion includes: what is "leverage" and why is it so important, how to build leverage, why fast growth beats a polished pitch deck, how long fundraising processes can pull founders away from building, why investors chase companies with traction, how a full sales pipeline keeps you from depending on one customer, why founders need to recruit as actively as they sell, how startups can appeal to people who want real responsibility, why press coverage rarely drives many signups, and how telling your own story can help you reach users directly. _ Dalton + Michael is brought to you by @Standard_Cap. Standard Capital is the AI-native Series A fund. Learn more at standardcap.com – About Dalton: Dalton Caldwell is Co-Founder and Partner of Standard Capital. He spent 12 years at Y Combinator, where he served as Managing Partner, worked across 25 YC batches, and advised more than 1,000 startups. His investments include Whatnot, Brex, GitLab, PostHog, Stock Space, Rappi, Razorpay, and Oklo. Before becoming an investor, Dalton founded imeem and App.net. About Michael: Michael Seibel is a Partner Emeritus at Y Combinator, where he served as Managing Partner of the early stage accelerator from 2014 - 2024. Michael also serves on the board of three companies: Reddit, Dropbox, and Kalshi. He moved to the bay area in 2006, and was a co-founder and CEO of two Y Combinator startups Justin.tv/Twitch (2007 - 2011) and Socialcam (2011 - 2012). In 2012 Socialcam sold to Autodesk Inc. for $60m and in 2014, under the leadership of Emmett Shear (CEO) and Kevin Lin (COO) Twitch sold to Amazon for $970m. – Are you an AI builder? Check out StandardDB. Discover offers, credits, tools, and partner programs from the StandardDB ecosystem.

Michael Seibelhost

Oct 5, 202624mWatch on YouTube ↗

EPISODE INFO

Released: October 5, 2026
Duration: 24m
Channel: Dalton + Michael
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Dalton and Michael discuss negotiation, leverage and how to "win". Discussion includes: what is "leverage" and why is it so important, how to build leverage, why fast growth beats a polished pitch deck, how long fundraising processes can pull founders away from building, why investors chase companies with traction, how a full sales pipeline keeps you from depending on one customer, why founders need to recruit as actively as they sell, how startups can appeal to people who want real responsibility, why press coverage rarely drives many signups, and how telling your own story can help you reach users directly. _ Dalton + Michael is brought to you by @Standard_Cap. Standard Capital is the AI-native Series A fund. Learn more at standardcap.com – About Dalton: Dalton Caldwell is Co-Founder and Partner of Standard Capital. He spent 12 years at Y Combinator, where he served as Managing Partner, worked across 25 YC batches, and advised more than 1,000 startups. His investments include Whatnot, Brex, GitLab, PostHog, Stock Space, Rappi, Razorpay, and Oklo. Before becoming an investor, Dalton founded imeem and App.net. About Michael: Michael Seibel is a Partner Emeritus at Y Combinator, where he served as Managing Partner of the early stage accelerator from 2014 - 2024. Michael also serves on the board of three companies: Reddit, Dropbox, and Kalshi. He moved to the bay area in 2006, and was a co-founder and CEO of two Y Combinator startups Justin.tv/Twitch (2007 - 2011) and Socialcam (2011 - 2012). In 2012 Socialcam sold to Autodesk Inc. for $60m and in 2014, under the leadership of Emmett Shear (CEO) and Kevin Lin (COO) Twitch sold to Amazon for $970m. – Are you an AI builder? Check out StandardDB. Discover offers, credits, tools, and partner programs from the StandardDB ecosystem.

SPEAKERS

Michael Seibel
host
YC partner; co-founder of Justin.tv and Socialcam.

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Dalton + Michael, featuring Michael Seibel, How Founders Win at Fundraising, Sales, and Hiring explores win startup fundraising, sales, and hiring by building leverage early The episode argues that “winning” in startups (fundraising, sales, hiring, marketing) is primarily about having leverage—i.e., delivering real value and being able to walk away—rather than mastering surface-level tactics.

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