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The lifecycle of capital from angel to IPO and the pipes that move it.
Negotiate Series A with the same fluency as the lead investor — because you've drawn the same diagram they have.
Sources — friends-and-family, accelerators, angels, micro-VC, growth equity, mezzanine, private credit, sovereign wealth, pension allocators. Vehicles — SAFE, convertible note, priced round, secondary, tender, SPV, fund-of-funds. Diligence loops. Stage-appropriate metrics. Term-sheet anatomy, line by line. Anti-dilution math. Liquidation waterfalls. Drag-along enforcement. The post-money SAFE math that breaks founders who didn't model it.
CITATION-GRADE AUTHORS
Brad Feld · Jason Mendelson · Carolynn Levy (YC)
First lesson is free. Lessons 2–6 + pop quizzes ship with Cohort 1.
IN DRAFT — SHIPS BY 2026-07-29
This pillar's six lessons are being written from the citation-grade authors named above.
Pillars 4 (Human Behavior) and 5 (W-9 or Licensing) are ready. The remaining five pillars ship before Cohort 1's start date. Take the intake now to lock in your path; the lessons unlock as they release.
Public-filing case studies whose structural pattern lives inside this pillar.
The Borrower
Founder equity used as collateral, not cashed out. Stock pledged against margin loans funds his lifestyle and acquisitions. He is borrowing tax-free against unrealized gains.
The Privatizer
Took Dell private in 2013 ($24.4B LBO with Silver Lake), restructured away from public-market quarterly pressure, took it public again in 2018 at a higher valuation. The take-private is a tax-and-control reset.
The Monopolist
Founder-CEO compounding inside a structurally monopolistic position. CUDA software lock-in is the moat — every AI workload writes against it, switching cost is a rewrite. Hardware revenue rides on top of an effective software monopoly.
The Allocator
Other people's money. Manage other capital, charge 2% management fee plus 20% carry on profits. The fee stack on $1T AUM is a wealth machine.
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