Founder Fridays No. 149
June Funding Data + How Google Created The Single Best Business ModelFF
Happy Friday!
Welcome to the month of July.
Check out the the June venture capital funding data from AngelList.
How Google Created The Single Best Business Model
The most profitable business model in history wasn't discovered through market research—it emerged when two Stanford grad students solved the wrong problem and accidentally built the internet's front door. Google's PageRank algorithm, originally designed to rank web annotations, created such superior search results that competitors like Excite literally couldn't adopt it without destroying their own revenue streams based on keeping users trapped on portal pages. The real magic happened when Google cracked advertising through "ad rank"—combining bid prices with click-through rates to create "the most magical economic transaction ever known to man," where better ads cost less and irrelevant ads disappear. This created "super scale economies" where growth didn't just reduce costs but actually increased revenue per search, enabling Google to outspend every competitor on distribution and build an unbreakable moat around the world's information. Acquired Briefing (14 minutes)
Pre-Seed
Median Money Raised:
$1,236,250
Median Post-Money Valuation:
$11,500,000
Seed
Median Money Raised:
$2,695,000
Median Post-Money Valuation:
$24,500,000
Series A
Median Money Raised:
$16,818,750
Median Post-Money Valuation:
$86,250,000
Series B
Median Money Raised:
$36,765,625
Median Post-Money Valuation:
$226,250,000
Startup Funding Guides
I’ve put together a series of guides to equip founders to excel at fundraising. These guides break down the deal term by term and give you negotiation tips so that you can speak to investors with confidence.
Convertible Note: Guide / Video
Should a Seed Round Cost $100,000?
A friend recently told me his relatively straightforward $7 million seed round costs over $100,000 in legal fees — much higher than initially quoted. Unfortunately, this is becoming more common. However, for an experienced startup law firm, a standard seed round based on NVCA docs should cost $20,000 to $40,000 all in. At my firm Westaway, this complete seed round package is a flat $25,000. (It’s also included in our General Counsel — Grow plan.) No runaway legal costs. No surprise bills. Just transparent pricing. If you’ve got an upcoming fundraise, let’s talk.