Who you gonna call?

Author

Jorian Hoover
November 10, 2025

Hey friends, it’s Jorian—welcome to Into the Ring. I’m a startup fundraising coach and have worked with 50+ founders who’ve raised over $190M.

Every week, I share what elite VCs (a16z / Sequoia / USV / Founders Fund / etc.) invested in, and the strategies for how top founders are raising from them. Plus, I’ll share my two cents on the VC landscape and my favorite VC essays/podcasts for you to check out.

And thank you for being part of this Into the Ring tribe—I’m immensely grateful for this community of 1.7K+ startup founders and operators/investors from OpenAI, Anthropic, a16z, Lightspeed, etc.

If you think someone else might like this newsletter, they can signup here. And if you have any feedback on today’s edition, please do reply to this email. I read and respond to every message that comes through.

Now onto today’s newsletter!

p.s. I thought this was a joke, but Benchmark literally led a $17M Series A into a crypto company called fomo this past week

In today’s issue:

  1. Jorian’s 1min take on the latest in VC: “Are we seeing a resurgence in consumer deals?”

  2. What funding rounds did a16z, Sequoia, USV, and other Tier 1 VCs lead last week? (Oct 25-31, 2025)?

  3. This week’s recommended VC essays & podcast episodes

  4. Today’s deep dive on how to fundraise like a pro: Get a strong startup lawyer

1. Jorian’s 1min take on the latest in VC: “Are we seeing a resurgence in consumer deals?”

A couple years ago, I yawned at how often VCs would tell me “we used to invest in consumer, but now we only invest in B2B SaaS.”

Many of these VCs stopped investing in consumer the past 5-10 years because their B2B portfolio had made some returns, but their consumer portfolio was littered with 0s. And as more VCs started shifting away from consumer, the herd followed.

But I yawned because B2B SaaS was safe. And the truth is, many of the best VCs were still betting big on consumer—the difference was, they were okay with 9 out of 10 of their portfolio companies not working out, and then 1 out of 10 becoming a home run.

Now with AI, we’re starting to see the herd dip their toes back into consumer. It’s becoming clear, even to the herd, that AI represents a chance for the big tech companies to get disrupted—yes, the same tech companies that made building in consumer so hard the past 5-10 years.

And I can start to see the tide shifting amongst founders, too. More and more founders I’m speaking with are building in consumer and not just B2B SaaS.

What do you think? Are you seeing more consumer appetite amongst VCs & founders? Email me by replying to this newsletter and let’s start a conversation.

3. This week’s recommended VC essays & podcast episodes

  • Podcast: Sourcery with Molly O’Shea - “Inside Coatue: $70B Hedge Fund’s AI & Retail Strategy” (Spotify link; Apple Podcasts link; YouTube link)

    • Coatue is a mega fund that often plays ball in the venture game. I enjoyed this chat learning more about how they invest at the intersection of public and private tech, and where they think value will accrue across the AI stack.

  • Newsletter: “Why most AI-enabled roll-ups will fail (and the 4 rules of those that will win)” (link) by Rick Zullo, Managing Partner at Equal Ventures

    • There’s been so much hype on how AI will transform rollups, so I liked this take from Equal Ventures on how just plugging in AI for short-term margin growth is bound to fail.

  • X Post: “A new generation of Sequoia stewards” (link) posted by Sequoia Capital

    • Sequoia announced new leadership in Alfred Lin and Pat Grady, who will take over the ship from Roelof Botha.

  • Podcast: Sharp Tech with Ben Thompson - “OpenAI Wants Help from the Government…” (Spotify link - subscription required)

    • I couldn’t not share a podcast episode about the OpenAI backstop brouhaha that occurred this past week. As usual, my go-to is Ben Thompson.

  • Podcast: a16z - “ElevenLabs CEO: Why Voice is the Next AI Interface” (Spotify link; Apple Podcasts link; YouTube link)

    • It’s fascinating what ElevenLabs is building in the voice space and I loved this sit down with a16z on what they’re building next.

4. Today's Deep Dive on How to Fundraise Like a Pro: Get a strong startup lawyer

The title of today’s newsletter is “Who you gonna call?” and specifically, “Who you gonna call during your term sheet negotiations?”

Far too often, I come across founders who have their ducks-in-a-row with fundraising materials—pitch deck, data room, q&a, fundraise ask, etc.—but then I find out they’re working with “Uncle Bob’s family lawyer” as their startup lawyer.

The problems begin well before term sheet negotiations…

When founders have Uncle Bob’s family lawyer, or sometimes no lawyer, by their side, I can spot the problems a mile away.

(fyi - I’m not a lawyer and I don’t play one. But these topics often come up as I try to assess readiness for a VC raise)

Some of these problems include:

  1. Setting up your company as an LLC (most VCs strongly prefer to invest in C Corps)

  2. Incorporating outside of Delaware (again, most VCs prefer Delaware…)

  3. Not having a founder agreement signed between the cofounders

  4. Incorrectly issuing the shares to initial employees

  5. Not having signed IP assignment agreements with people who’ve worked for you

  6. …and so on

If VCs think you’re building the next Stripe, then they’ll be patient with you and help you figure out these issues.

But if they don’t see you as a surefire rockstar (and really, who is?) then they’ll likely think you don’t know what you’re doing or just think your startup fundraise isn’t worth their time.

When it comes to setting up the legal side of your startup, it really helps to have a strong startup lawyer by your side.

Enter: term sheet negotiations … the problems multiply

Not having a strong startup lawyer becomes even more of an issue during term sheet negotiations.

When I speak with founders of Series C+ startups, and ask them to think back to their Seed fundraise, guess what they complain about?

If you said valuation, you’d be wrong. Most later-stage founders aren’t worried about an extra point or two of dilution they gave up during Seed.

What really gets their blood boiling are term sheet control + economic provisions that they gave away to their VC at the Seed (or Series A) stage. For example, veto provisions, additional board seats, higher than standard liquidity preference, and so on.

These provisions matter so much to later-stage founders because they can completely change the economic exit scenarios for the founders/employees, as well as what amount of control the founders have over the business. You do not want to take these terms lightly.

But when you go into a term sheet negotiation with a VC, you are negotiating with a side that has done this dozens if not hundreds of times — and they are bringing in experienced lawyers to add firepower. Sure, VCs want to be “founder friendly,” but if you come into these negotiations without a strong startup lawyer, you’re likely going to get screwed.

Don’t skip out on a strong startup lawyer

So if I ever come across a founder who’s considering raising from VCs but is winging it on the legal side or going with Uncle Bob’s family lawyer, then I immediately suggest connecting them with a strong startup lawyer.

Not only do you want the basics (company formation, founder agreements, share issuances, IP assignments, etc.) taken care of properly, but you also want to avoid the mishaps in the term sheet negotiation phase that later-stage founders fret about.

What do you think about getting a strong startup lawyer if you’re looking for VC funding? Feel free to reply to this email—I’d love to hear from you.

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I’ve helped 50+ founders run high-quality fundraises and raise over $190M. Check out jorianhoover.com to read founder testimonials and learn more about my approach.