πŸ¦„ Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)
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Fundraising tips, investor insights & startup growth tactics for Web3, AI & SaaS founders. Deck reviews, VC databases, startup deals & perks, tokenomics tools & more β†’ https://innmind.com/
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Investor in San-Francisco: 3 zooms, $200k wired by Friday.

Everyone else: 11 meetings, 2 partner dinners, 5 "expert" calls, 2 board seats + your blood samples… all for a $50k check.

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the hardest part of early stage isn't the building, it's finding the speed of belief & tolerance to risk.
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πŸŽͺ $557M in a day, for shares that don't exist

While founders grind for months to close a $2M seed round, Binance Wallet just ran a subscription for SPCXx, a token that mirrors SpaceX's IPO price.

Read that carefully:
β–ͺ️ Not SpaceX equity. Zero shareholder rights.
β–ͺ️ Allocation not even guaranteed: you wire money first, then maybe get tokens. Full, partial… or none 🀑
β–ͺ️ Result: $557M from 27,689 wallets in ~28 hours

Who brought the money?
β–ͺ️ Wallets betting $20k–$100k: just 17% of participants, but 58% of all funds
β–ͺ️ 114 addresses dropped $500k+ each
β–ͺ️ The punchline: even the exchanges reportedly got fewer real SpaceX shares than they expected. The hype outran the asset itself.

Now zoom out.

A pre-existence product with zero rights attached pulled half a billion dollars in a day, while teams with working products & real revenue keep hearing "the market is dry" for two quarters straight.

The market has plenty of money. It just pays for 2 things: instant liquidity & lottery-grade upside. That token is what your pitch is really up against now.

Now guess: would your round close faster if investors had an exit date instead of a roadmap? πŸ€”πŸ‘‡
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πŸ’Έ Every week I meet a founder paying full price for AWS, Notion or some AI tool that is free for startups. They just never claimed it.

So we wrote the honest 2026 guide to startup credits & perks, with the fine print most "claim $500K!" lists skip:

β–ͺ️ What you can really claim bootstrapped: $100K+ in year one, no VC needed
β–ͺ️ Which perk fits which startup, & who quietly gets rejected (NVIDIA excludes crypto)
β–ͺ️ The Notion trick: 6 months free through a partner vs 3 going direct
β–ͺ️ The trap that turns "free credits" into wasted runway

If you are still paying sticker price, read this before your next invoice πŸ‘ˆπŸ‘ˆπŸ‘ˆ
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«…Let's keep in touch..Β»
«…Great progress, let's revisit next round…»
«…Not the right fit for us right now…»

Investors almost NEVER give you a flat no.

They give you one of these, & then you burn two weeks guessing whether it was a polite rejection or a real maybe.

So we built something to kill the guessing: the Investor Reply Decoder πŸ”

Paste the exact reply you got back. It tells you:
βœ… The verdict: soft no, hard no, or still alive
βœ… The real objection hiding behind the politeness
βœ… Your next move (the one reply that can reopen the door)
βœ… A ready-to-send draft response

Real example: "Let's stay close and revisit next round" β†’ decoded as a soft no, real objection = they do not believe your traction carries the round yet, next move = reply with the one metric that moved.

Try it for free. No signup, no registration. Just paste & see what your investor actually meant..

And yes, it’s all the part of PitchPop fundraising co-pilot.

PS: Still in beta, feedback highly appreciated!
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πŸ“Š Market-Maker Insider #6: High Volume. Low Liquidity. Big Problem

πŸ’‘ Back after the weekend with another edition of #MarketMakerInsider from our partner EasyMM.

This time we're tackling one of the most misunderstood metrics in crypto: trading volume.

Many founders focus on trading volume when evaluating their token's market performance. But volume alone rarely tells the full story.

In today's edition, we explore why liquidity depth matters just as much as volume, and what founders should look at before drawing conclusions.

πŸ‘‡ Read on, learn, and apply these insights to your own project.

Market Maker Insider #6

Volume gets attention, but depth keeps traders.

A lot of teams still judge their market by one number: daily volume.

And of course, volume matters. It is the first thing people see on CMC, CoinGecko, exchange pages, investor updates, and pitch decks.

But volume by itself does not tell the full story.

A token can show decent daily volume and still feel almost impossible to trade properly.

Why❓

Because if the orderbook is thin, even a normal buy or sell can move the price too much. The chart may look active, but the actual execution feels weak.

That is where traders start to hesitate.

They understand that entering the position is only half of the problem. The real question is whether they can exit later without getting punished by slippage.

❗️This is also where many artificial MM setups fall apart.

They can print trades. They can create movement on the chart. They can make the volume number look acceptable for a while.

But once real traders come in, the weakness becomes obvious.

The spread starts breaking. The price jumps too easily. The orderbook has no real support. One decent seller can damage the chart more than they should.

☝️ That is why good market making is not just about generating volume. It is about building a market where volume, liquidity depth, spread, and price action all make sense together.

Because traders do not stay in markets where they only see activity.

They stay in markets where they can actually trade.

This is what turns volume from a vanity metric into something useful.

So, before buying any token, do not stop at the volume number alone.

βœ”οΈ Check the orderbook.
βœ”οΈ Check the depth.
βœ”οΈ Check how much the price moves if you buy or sell a meaningful amount.

High volume may catch your attention. But low depth and heavy slippage usually reveal the market's true condition.


This is the 6th edition of #MarketMakerInsider (c) Contributed by @KadirovIbragim from EasyMM, a market-maker, trusted by many founders on InnMind.
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πŸš€ 680+ Free AI Voice Hours and Up to $100K in GPU Credits for Startups

Building a startup is hard enough. Paying for every tool from day one makes it even harder.

That's why we're constantly adding new perks to help founders save money, move faster, and scale smarter. Here are two fresh opportunities worth checking outπŸ‘‡

πŸŽ™ ElevenLabs Startup Grants
Get 680+ hours of free AI voice generation and 12 months of platform access.

You'll also receive:
πŸ”Ή Text-to-speech, voice cloning, dubbing & conversational AI APIs
πŸ”Ή Support to help you ship voice features faster

Perfect for startups building AI voice agents, audio products, localization and dubbing solutions, accessibility tools, or conversational AI applications.

⚑️ NVIDIA Inception
It is a free program that gives eligible startups access to:

πŸ’» Up to $100,000 in GPU cloud credits
πŸŽ“ Free AI training and discounted workshops
🀝 Investor and ecosystem introductions
πŸ“’ Co-marketing opportunities
πŸ’Έ Preferred pricing on NVIDIA hardware

For AI founders, GPU costs are often one of the biggest expenses during product development. This program can dramatically reduce that burden.

πŸ‘‰ Explore all available startup perks

Save more. Build faster. Keep shipping πŸš€
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🎯 113 Accelerator Programs in One Smart Sheet

Fundraising is not just about pitching. It is about knowing where to apply.

We created a resource to make that easier.

Introducing the Web3 Startup Accelerators Database 2026.

What you get:
πŸ”Ή 113 curated Web3 accelerators, incubators and venture studios
πŸ”Ή Clear breakdown of support: funding, mentorship, GTM, grants, investor access
πŸ”Ή Filters by region, ecosystem and vertical
πŸ”Ή Programs across Solana, Ethereum, Base, Sui, TON, Avalanche, ICP and more
πŸ”Ή Direct application links for fast action

Instead of spending weeks figuring out where to apply, you can now focus on building and pitching.

πŸ’‘ Designed for pre-seed and seed Web3 founders who want clarity and speed.

πŸ‘‰ Download here

πŸ“š If you are building seriously, don’t forget to explore our Knowledge Base. It includes more curated lists, fundraising guides and growth tools for Web3 founders.
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πŸš€ Stop Chasing Viral Posts. Build a Growth System Instead.

Every founder wants more visibility on X.

The mistake? Looking for a secret hack that will magically bring thousands of followers.

After helping grow 20 founder and company accounts from 0 to 20K followers, the team at NotPeople found something much more valuable: a repeatable playbook that actually works.

Here's a previewπŸ‘‡

βœ… Why founders with under 3K followers should spend more time in replies than writing posts

βœ… How to discover the ONE content format your audience consistently engages with

βœ… Why the formula News + Trends = Hype can dramatically increase your reach

βœ… The weekly HADI framework that removes guesswork from content creation

No hype. No fake shortcuts. Just a practical roadmap you can start applying today.

πŸ“– Read the full article here

πŸ”— Learn more about NotPeople on their website and their startup profile on InnMind.
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πŸ’° Keep More Runway. Spend Less

Every dollar you don't spend on software is another dollar you can invest in building your startup. πŸš€

Many founders focus on fundraising while overlooking something much easier to control: startup credits and perks that can save $100K+ in operating costs.

Inside this guide you'll learn:
βœ… Which startup credits are actually available in 2026
βœ… Where bootstrapped founders can qualify without VC backing
βœ… Which perks are worth claiming first to reduce your biggest expenses
βœ… How to avoid wasting time on offers you'll never use

Instead of searching dozens of provider websites, start with one practical guide and claim the perks that match your startup today.

πŸ“– Read the guide here

πŸ’‘ Small savings today can give your startup months of extra runway tomorrow.
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🎯 If your 60-second pitch fails these VC tests, they’ve already tuned out

Every investor runs the same mental checklist in the first minute:
πŸ”Ή Can customers pay now?
πŸ”Ή Can you actually deliver?
πŸ”Ή Why can’t others copy you?

If you don’t answer this, nothing else matters.

1️⃣ Market means one thing only: are people paying right now? Not users, not TVL, not β€œcommunity”. Real money, clear acquisition, and some understanding of churn.

2️⃣ Execution is simple. Have you built something, shipped it, tried to sell it. Investors look for proof you can actually deliver, not just talk.

3️⃣ Defensibility is where most founders fail. β€œWe are early” or β€œwe have a token” means nothing. What matters is whether your product gets stronger as it scales β€” data, liquidity, integrations, distribution.

In addition, there are the real numbers that help you understand investors' thinking.

β–ͺ️ 78% of investors never get past slide 6.
β–ͺ️ 63% of their time goes to slides 1–3.
β–ͺ️ Only 11% ever see your ask.

πŸ’‘ Your pitch is not being read. It’s being filtered.

Final takeaway.
If your pitch sounds like β€œthis might work" β€” it’s a gamble.

If it sounds like β€œthis already works” β€” it’s an opportunity.

Investors don’t guess. They look for proof.

We broke down how investors actually scan decks and what gets you ignored vs. booked in our article:
πŸ‘‰ https://blog.innmind.com/fundraising-pitch-deck-web3-ai-2026/
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Crypto VC headlines this week: Β«web3 funding down 59% QoQΒ». Founders paaanicking..

We pulled the raw Q2 2026 web3 funding data from PitchPop before the big quarterly reports drop.

The picture looks different up close:

β–ͺ️ Strip ONE outlier ($2B MGX x Binance in Q1) & the drop is ~29%, not 59%
β–ͺ️ Pre-seed deals: +55% QoQ (11 β†’ 17). Median pre-seed check: $1.5M β†’ $2.5M, +67%
β–ͺ️ Real seed median: $5.2M. Of 36 seed rounds, 34 sit between $2M & $15M. The $30M+ rounds shaping your anchor are 2 deals
β–ͺ️ Active crypto investors: ~651 in Q2, lowest since 2020. Fewer funds, & the ones left moved earlier stage

Pre-seed is eating seed. For anyone raising a first round, that's the friendliest shift this market made in a year.

We’ll publish the full Q2 breakdown here next week: the verified deal table, who actually leads rounds now, what paper they sign & the vertical heatmap.

Ensure your channel notifications are on, so u don’t miss it. And share πŸ”₯ if you love to see more raw data & market numbers in this channel.
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πŸ“Š The First Real Q2 2026 Web3 Funding Benchmarks Are Here

Most fundraising reports tell you how much money entered crypto.

We wanted to answer a different question: what does fundraising actually look like for an early-stage Web3 founder today? πŸš€

That's why our research team analyzed raw data, verified every deal with primary sources, and calculated the first-ever Q2 2026 pre-seed and seed medians before any market-wide report was published.

Here are just a few insights you'll find inside:

πŸ’° Median Seed round in Q2 2026: $5.2M

πŸ“ˆ Median Pre-Seed jumped 67% QoQ, reaching $2.5M

🀝 We verified 23 real early-stage funding rounds and mapped the investors actively writing checks today

πŸ“‰ The active crypto VC pool has narrowed to around 650 investors, making targeted outreach more important than ever

If you're raising capital in 2026, these aren't opinions or recycled headlines. They're practical benchmarks built from verified data to help founders make smarter fundraising decisions.

πŸ‘‰ Read the full report and see what the numbers really say
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πŸ¦„ Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)
πŸ“Š The First Real Q2 2026 Web3 Funding Benchmarks Are Here Most fundraising reports tell you how much money entered crypto. We wanted to answer a different question: what does fundraising actually look like for an early-stage Web3 founder today? πŸš€ That's…
πŸ“₯ Bonus for Founders: Get the Full Q2 2026 Funding Dataset

The article gives you the key insights πŸ‘†. This free report gives you the raw benchmarks behind them. πŸ‘‡
Inside the PDF you'll find:

πŸ“Š All 23 verified pre-seed and seed rounds from Q2 2026 with startup names, funding amounts, lead investors, verticals, funding instruments, and source links.

🎯 A curated list of 12 active crypto VC funds, including their investment thesis, lead vs follow behavior, and direct links to help you build a smarter outreach list.

πŸ’‘ Practical fundraising benchmarks based on real market data:
β€’ Median Seed: $5.2M
β€’ Median Pre-Seed: $2.5M
β€’ Pre-seed deals grew 55% QoQ
β€’ Around 651 active crypto investors wrote checks in Q2

The report is based on a recomputed DeFiLlama Raises dataset, with every deal verified against primary sources by the InnMind research team.

🎁 Download the report for free with a quick registration and use real market data to benchmark your fundraising strategy.
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Crypto's smart money is betting on something other than crypto⁉️

Paradigm, the fanciest VC fund in the space, just closed a new $1.2B fund on July 8. Not for crypto. For AI & robotics.

Zoom out to see a big pic:
β–ͺ️ Global VC hit $510B in H1 2026, more than all of 2025 combined
β–ͺ️ AI took 70-80% of it. OpenAI & Anthropic alone ate 43% of every startup dollar
β–ͺ️ Even inside crypto: 40 cents of every crypto VC dollar in 2025 went to AI-x-crypto, up from 18 cents a year earlier


Guess what this means if you're fundraising rn:

A "pure crypto" pitch is fighting for a shrinking slice. Investors’ cheques are going to teams sitting on the AI-crypto seam with real usage behind them, not just hot narratives of fancy deck slides.

Paradigm's Matt Huang calls it "not a zero-sum competition."

Read it as: show why your thing genuinely needs crypto AND rides the AI wave, or you're pitching into last cycle.

The capital is rotating - be where it's landing.
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A CEO just gave up his salary (indefinitely) to save a $2B raise. It worked.

Meet MiniMax: the Chinese AI lab behind Hailuo (the video generator that keeps going viral on your feed) & one of the biggest AI IPOs in Hong Kong's history (stock doubled on debut day this January).

6 months after epic IPO, the same stock is down 80% from its peak.

Most CEOs in this position hide behind "market conditions" and quietly reprice the story.

Yan Junjie, 36, sent a memo to the entire company instead:

"Effective today, and until the day we achieve AGI, I will no longer accept any salary from the company."


He went even further:
- 4% of his personal equity goes to long-term employees over the next 4 years
β€’ Another 1% will be allocated to fund the open-source AI community
- All his "time, energy and resources" - committed to the mission..

Days later, MiniMax raised $2 billion through a share placement and convertible bonds. With the chart still deep red.

The lesson travels down to any stage:

Capital doesn't just follow momentum - it follows conviction with skin in the game. When your metrics dip, investors stop reading the chart & start reading YOU.
What did the founder personally put on the table?
Zero salary is a gesture. 5% of personal equity is a signal. Together they turned a crash story into an alignment story… and $2B followed.

Would you give up your salary to close your startup’s round? Honestly πŸ‘‡
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πŸš€ Building a Gen-AI startup? Here's a perk worth claiming.

Rabata provides enterprise-grade S3-compatible cloud storage built for demanding AI workloads.

Through the InnMind Perks Club, eligible startups can apply for a $100,000 Rabata Grant in the form of free storage credits.

If you're building products powered by generative AI, large datasets, AI-generated video or audio, or training pipelines, this grant can significantly reduce your infrastructure costs and free up resources to focus on product development.

Here's who can apply:
β€’ You're building a Generative AI product
β€’ Your startup has a registered legal entity
β€’ You're ready to complete a simple KYC verification
β€’ Your founders have public profiles

The grant includes $100,000 in storage credits, valid for 2 years, with no hidden fees, giving your team access to secure enterprise-grade storage without upfront infrastructure costs.

πŸ‘‰ Want to learn how to apply and secure your grant? Start here

More founder perks are waiting for you. We’ve recently added new offers to the InnMind Perks Club that we haven’t shared yet. Explore the club, choose what fits your startup, and start using the perks to grow faster. πŸš€
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Hmmm… seems something is missing here πŸ€”
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πŸš€ Claim Claude API Credits from Anthropic and Unlock More Startup Benefits

A few days ago, we mentioned that we've added a bunch of new perks to the InnMind Perks Club. Today, we're giving you a closer look πŸ”Ž

We've partnered with some of the best startup programs to help founders save money, build faster, and scale smarter:

πŸ’Ž Anthropic: Apply for Claude for Startups and get free API credits, priority rate limits, and access to exclusive founder events.

πŸ’Ž MongoDB: Receive Atlas credits, Voyage AI tokens, partner credits, and expert support to build and scale your product.

πŸ’Ž Auth0: Get the B2B Professional plan free for one year, including enterprise authentication, SSO, and MFA.

πŸ’Ž Sleek: Save 15% on company incorporation and business services in Singapore.

πŸ’Ž Miro: Claim up to $1,000 in credits for the AI-powered innovation workspace built for fast-moving startups.

These offers can save your startup thousands of dollars while giving you access to tools trusted by leading tech companies.

πŸ‘‰ Explore all available startup perks and claim the ones that fit your business.
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πŸš€ 546 active Web3 investors. One spreadsheet. Zero guesswork.

Still spending hours searching for investors who stopped writing checks months ago? Or sending cold messages that never get a reply? πŸ˜…

Our new Web3 VC & Investor Database 2026 helps you skip the research and start conversations with investors who are actively deploying capital today.

Inside you'll find:

🎯 546 verified Web3 investors, including 204 priority outreach targets with the exact decision-maker, verified contact routes, recent deals, investment focus, and a ready-to-use "Why Write Now" angle.

Every investor in the database has backed at least one confirmed deal in the last 12 months. Every priority contact is manually verified. LinkedIn, X, Telegram, public email, application forms... all checked and ready to use.

Want to reach a16z Crypto? You'll know who to contact, why now is the right time, at what stage they invest, who they co-invest with, and which recent deals show they're active.

πŸ’‘ Plus, the database includes:
β€’ 296 confirmed funding rounds with sources
β€’ 351 verified investor profiles
β€’ 28 "under the radar" funds without public websites
β€’ A built-in outreach CRM and a practical cold outreach playbook

Fundraising gets much easier when you're talking to the right people with the right message.

πŸ‘‰ Explore the database and start building your investor pipeline today

Good fundraising starts with better targeting πŸ”Ž
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