Sep 10, 2026 · 32 min · 10 segments
In this episode, Paul sits down with Elisabeth Bykoff ex-PwC, 10-year venture veteran, and founder of Boxsy, to break down why most founders start the fundraising process completely wrong, whether you…
Elisabeth BykoffGuest
Paul H. GrahamHost
You know, let me think of some interesting thoughts, at least just from my experience and then just, you know, within your platform.
So when someone's new to raising, like what advice would you give to a first time founder?
The first is like, do you actually need to raise, you know, or is there other creative ideas or non-dilutive, you know, capital that you can go after, whether it's grants or, and again, I shouldn't say friends and family are non-dilutive, but, you know, sometimes it's a bit easier to get a small check and get you going or keep yourself going versus going after directly institutional VCs, right? And again, not everybody can afford it.
Again, I'm not talking health tech and you need FDA approval and all those things.
Some of the amounts that we used to follow, I mean, even new 2018, 2019, the amount that you thought you needed to get going from a pre-seed or even get started has now completely diminished, right? And so I think that's the first question is how much do you need really to get going to prove that people want what you're building and put a first dollar on the bank? And then if you don't need that much, can you go after some of those private grants or or an accelerator, or, you know, even equity crowdfunding, I'm personally launched, I've launched an equity crowdfunding round, use, you know, we're building for founders.
So we're like, hey, why don't you just help us even 100 bucks, like, hey, be part of our success.
And you know, you get obviously lifetime discount on boxy, but we're kind of using that to I would prefer to give back to those founders that are supporting us from day one, then giving back to a VC.
I mean, again, nothing against the VCs, right? I'm just saying like, hey, could we build that community? So there's ways like that, depending on who you're serving.
And you'd be surprised, a lot of founders I've run into right now don't want to fundraise.
So it's been very interesting to have that since New York Tech Week last year.
Like the last year has been very, very interesting talking to a lot of founders out
You know, let me think of some interesting thoughts, at least just from my experience and then just, you know, within your platform.
So when someone's new to raising, like what advice would you give to a first time founder?
The first is like, do you actually need to raise, you know, or is there other creative ideas or non-dilutive, you know, capital that you can go after, whether it's grants or, and again, I shouldn't say friends and family are non-dilutive, but, you know, sometimes it's a bit easier to get a small check and get you going or keep yourself going versus going after directly institutional VCs, right? And again, not everybody can afford it.
Again, I'm not talking health tech and you need FDA approval and all those things.
Some of the amounts that we used to follow, I mean, even new 2018, 2019, the amount that you thought you needed to get going from a pre-seed or even get started has now completely diminished, right? And so I think that's the first question is how much do you need really to get going to prove that people want what you're building and put a first dollar on the bank? And then if you don't need that much, can you go after some of those private grants or or an accelerator, or, you know, even equity crowdfunding, I'm personally launched, I've launched an equity crowdfunding round, use, you know, we're building for founders.
So we're like, hey, why don't you just help us even 100 bucks, like, hey, be part of our success.
And you know, you get obviously lifetime discount on boxy, but we're kind of using that to I would prefer to give back to those founders that are supporting us from day one, then giving back to a VC.
I mean, again, nothing against the VCs, right? I'm just saying like, hey, could we build that community? So there's ways like that, depending on who you're serving.
And you'd be surprised, a lot of founders I've run into right now don't want to fundraise.
So it's been very interesting to have that since New York Tech Week last year.
Like the last year has been very, very interesting talking to a lot of founders out
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