I leveraged personal connections to get introductions to investors, which was crucial in raising my first million before Y Combinator.

I raised 1.6 million and obsessively built the company for three years, achieving 8.4X growth in one year, which led to a position where I didn't need the money when I went to raise again.

Raising our first half a million dollars was more challenging than raising our first $200 million, as investors were skeptical about mobile voice technology at the time.

The easiest way to fundraise is to have a good metric that's growing; when I ran a startup that wasn't growing, I spoke to 140 investors and only got two angel checks, but now that I'm working on a growing startup, it took us one week to raise our seed round.

Achieving a million dollars in crowdfunding was crucial for us to break into Silicon Valley and prove our success to investors.

One friend can become your network; during fundraising, I knew only a few people, but they helped me build my network and raise funds.

Successful fundraising often relies on the founder's existing relationships and networks, especially for second-time entrepreneurs.

I learned that raising money is easier without a prototype than with one, and that investors need you more than you need them.

I prepared for fundraising by knowing our numbers inside and out, which allowed me to confidently answer any questions investors had during meetings.