Unicorn - The Startup Founder's Guide to Raising Venture Capital

<p>My name is Alexander Muse and over the past two decades I have been building startups. My career resembles a roller coaster with unbelievable success combined with abject failures. This is the book I wish I had when I was in my twenties raising venture capital for my first startup. Take everything I share with a grain of salt and always get the advice of a great startup lawyer.</p><p><br></p><p>When I started my first venture-backed startup I hired the world's most famous startup law firm - Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. The firm helped me get started allowed me to bring my lawyer in-house and even invested in our Series A. Eventually I began working with a local startup law firm led by Kevin Vela the managing partner of Vela Wood. I recommend Kevin without reservation. </p><p><br></p><p>When I was launching my first startup I met with almost a hundred venture capitalists and eventually raised millions in venture capital from various investors including George Soros. The national data center company that I built is now part of Equinix EQIX (NASDAQ) and continues to thrive to this day. Since then I have started several other companies including Architel Fancast ShopSavvy and ViewMarket.</p><p><br></p><p>Along the way I have mentored and advised scores of entrepreneurs and regularly write about my experiences in Forbes and on Substack. Throughout my career as an entrepreneur I have made scores of mistakes made and lost millions of dollars and learned quite a lot about building high-growth startups. This book is primarily focused on providing first-time entrepreneurs with the tools they need to succeed.</p><p> </p><p>The parody art featured in this book is part of an NFT project I launched during the pandemic lockdowns. Each piece is available for sale as an NFT on OpenSea. The Bonus advice is from ChatGPT as Elon Musk. I simply asked OpenAI's artificial intelligence chatbot to provide similar advice as if it were Elon Musk and cut and pasted the advice at the end of each chapter.</p>