After a week of fifty-million-dollar seeds, today Carta would like to remind us what pre-seed actually means. This is Startup Fundraising. On the board: two Carta explainers — one on what an early check looks like, and one on how to launch your own fund. Adam's thrilled. Thrilled. Three days of megarounds, and we land on a how-to PDF. Let's see how the guide holds up against the tape. Carta's pre-seed guide — published February twelfth. Four months old, and it reads like dispatches from a calmer planet. The sharp part is that Carta runs the cap-table software. They can see the actual round structures — and they're still publishing the textbook version while the textbook's on fire. Right, and they're not neutral. More founders forming entities, more rounds run on their platform — the guide's a funnel dressed as a favor. Then there's the other piece — starting a VC firm, raising your first fund, Rita Astoor, December. Whole section on building an investment thesis. It teaches you to fish in a pond the balance sheets already drained. That's the whole week in one PDF, honestly. The guide describes a market. The week we just lived through was a different animal. Carta writes:
At one time, the seed round was the first fundraising round for most startups. But over the last decade, as the startup ecosystem grew and seed rounds became larger, the pre-seed round became more common. What exactly defines a pre-seed round, though, is still up for debate.
Top of the rundown: a Carta founder's guide to pre-seed funding. Published February 12, 2026 — so, four months old. It opens by admitting nobody actually agrees on what pre-seed means. Fun thing to read after a week where “seed” meant fifty-million-dollar checks with banking partners on the cap table. Right, who is this for? The guide says friends, family, angels, small checks. The tape this week said sovereign balance sheets writing pre-seed like it's a Series C. And let's name the obvious — Carta administers cap tables. They benefit when more founders spin up entities and run rounds on their software. “Founder's guide” is also a funnel. That definition gap basically explains the week. Carta says pre-seed is the earliest, smallest money. The market said pre-seed is whatever a strategic wants to call it. Carta, with Rita Astoor:
If you’re considering starting and raising your own venture capital fund, you might already work at a venture capital firm or be an angel investor. Or maybe you work at a tech company, or a nonprofit organization completely outside the startup network. Regardless of where you’re starting, it’s crucial to understand the ecosystem you’re stepping into.
Eighteen minutes on how to build an investment thesis and structure a fund. Rita Astoor, Carta, published December third. Fine. But after the week we just had — coalition cap tables, balance-sheet money setting the price — I want to know if a fund you launch off this guide could even get into those deals. That's the tension, right? The guide teaches you to develop a thesis and write checks. The tape this week says the people setting prices weren't pure financial investors at all. It's teaching you to fish in a pond the bulge-bracket guys already drained. Develop your thesis, raise your first fund, and then watch a strategic arm price the round before you've finished your second cup of coffee. And here's what nobody really flags — Carta administers cap tables. So the firm publishing the founder's guide to starting a fund also sees exactly how these rounds get structured. The educator has a very good seat. If Startup Fundraising helps you start the week a little sharper, please subscribe and leave a quick review wherever you’re listening. It takes a moment, and it helps other founders and operators find the show.
You’ll find links to every story we covered today in the show notes, so if one caught your ear, you can dig in there. Thanks for spending part of your Monday with us. That’s Startup Fundraising for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.