At a glance
WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
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.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasIf 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.
Series A fundraising is still stuck in an 1980s relationship-driven model.
Despite major innovation at seed (e.g., SAFEs, angels), they claim Series A still features prolonged processes, ghosting, and late-stage reversals that pull founders away from building.
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.
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.
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.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotesAny 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)
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