Resources
Read this before the next meeting
Articles from Roger King on pitching investors, from thirty years on the investor side of the table. Then the outside links founders actually use: Y Combinator's library, and the cloud programs that can keep infrastructure off the round.
Articles
Programs and links
Pitch an Angel is not affiliated with these programs and does not receive a fee if you apply. Offers, ceilings, and eligibility change. Use the official page as the source of truth, and do not plan the company around a credit you have not been approved for.
Y Combinator
Free, public, and more useful than most paid pitch templates. Start with the library, then the SAFE documents if you are raising.
- Startup Library
YC's public essays and talks on pitching, fundraising, and building.
- How to pitch your company
Michael Seibel's seven questions. Clear, short, and hard to hide behind jargon.
- How to build your seed round pitch deck
What a seed deck is for, and what to leave out.
- Understanding SAFEs and priced rounds
Read this before you negotiate a cap you cannot explain.
- SAFE financing documents
The standard post-money SAFE forms and the user guide. Have a lawyer read them before you use them.
- Startup School
YC's free course for founders who are not in the batch.
- Paul Graham's essays
The older canon. "How to present to investors" is still worth the time.
Cloud credits
These are the programs founders use to keep infrastructure off the seed round. Ceilings and rules change. Read the current page before you apply. Most of them want a company website and an email on that domain.
- AWS Activate
A smaller founders package if you are self-funded. A larger portfolio package, published up to $200,000, if an accelerator or investor is an Activate provider.
- Google for Startups Cloud
Early teams can start with a small credit. Funded startups are published up to $200,000 over two years, and up to $350,000 for AI startups. You need a Google Cloud billing ID.
- Microsoft for Startups
Apply on the Microsoft for Startups site. Approved teams can unlock Azure credits over time, published up to $150,000, with more available through their investor network.
- NVIDIA Inception
Free. No equity and no application fee. You need to be incorporated, under 10 years old, with a working site and at least one developer.
- Cloudflare for Startups
Credits for the developer platform and network, published up to $350,000 for eligible teams. Founded within 10 years, funded through Series B, with a live site.
- DigitalOcean Startups
Credits over 12 months. The amount is set with their partners. They prioritize AI-native product companies that have raised $10 million or less.
- Vercel for Startups
Published up to $30,000 for eligible teams, plus enterprise access. You generally need an approved accelerator or investor partner.
- Oracle for Startups
Oracle's startup cloud page, including the always-free tier. Confirm which credits are actually open before you plan a migration around them.
Programs worth knowing
Not a directory of every accelerator. These are the public doors founders ask about when they are preparing a company, not only a deck.
- SBIR
America's Seed Fund. Non-dilutive federal R&D awards. Slow, real, and worth it if the work is technical.
- NSF I-Corps
A customer-discovery program for research teams. It will not write your pitch. It will force you to talk to buyers.
- Stripe Atlas
A paid way to incorporate a US company and open a bank account. Useful if you are not already set up. It is not free cloud.
- a16z Speedrun
Andreessen Horowitz's program for early technical teams. Competitive, and not a credit form.
- First Round Review
Long, practical essays from operators. Use it when you need a specific answer, not a slogan.
- NFX library
Network effects, marketplaces, and fundraising notes. Read the ones that match your model and skip the rest.
Want this applied to your pitch?
The articles are the principles. A session is Roger reacting to your actual pitch, then a written report on what to fix first.
Get started