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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🎯 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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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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πŸ’° Smart Money Keeps Building

Our big Perk Club update stole the spotlight last week, but there's one important story we wanted to come back to today πŸ‘‡

Citadel Securities has invested $400M in Crypto.com at a $20B valuation, marking the exchange's first institutional fundraising round. While the crypto market remains volatile, one of the world's largest market makers is betting on where the industry is heading next.

So, what should Web3 founders take away from this?

The biggest trend isn't another funding round. It's where the money is flowing.

Institutions are investing in the infrastructure behind digital finance: tokenization, trading, custody, settlement, and compliance. Crypto.com is expanding into tokenized securities and derivatives, while Coinbase has already grown beyond crypto by adding stock trading. The race is no longer about building another exchange. It's about building the financial infrastructure of tomorrow.

For startups, this sends a clear message:
πŸš€ Build products that solve real problems, not short-term narratives.
🏦 Think beyond crypto-native users. Banks, asset managers, and enterprises are becoming your future customers.
βš–οΈ Treat compliance as an advantage. Startups that can work within evolving regulations will have a stronger position.
🧩 Focus on infrastructure and efficiency. That's where long-term demand is growing.

Markets go up and down. Strong infrastructure keeps moving forward.

Build what the next generation of finance will need πŸ”₯
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Crypto VC is changing faster than most founders realize.

This week Haseeb (Dragonfly) dropped a pretty fancy blunt take: β€œCrypto VC will be gone by 2030.”

The pure narrative, no-PMF, β€œraise $50-80M on vision alone” era is clearly ending.
Deal volume is at multi-year lows.
Capital is getting more selective and moving toward projects that can actually survive without constant fundraising.

We’re seeing the same shift on the ground:
β€’ Investors ask harder questions earlier
β€’ Spray-and-pray outreach works worse than before
β€’ Real readiness (narrative + numbers + clear fit) matters more than ever

This isn’t bearish..
It’s just the market growing up.

The founders who adapt to this new reality will keep raising.

The ones who keep playing the 2021 playbook will struggle more and more.

Full interview on YT.

We’re watching this closely.
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πŸͺ™ MongoDB Credits to Help Your Startup Build Faster

MongoDB is one of the world's leading database platforms, trusted by developers to build modern, scalable applications. Its technology powers millions of applications across industries, making it a go-to choice for startups and global enterprises alike.

If you're building an early-stage startup, this perk gives you everything you need to strengthen your infrastructure while saving valuable budget.

Here's what you get πŸ‘‡

βœ… MongoDB Atlas credits based on your startup stage
βœ… Voyage AI tokens for RAG and AI search
βœ… Partner credits with selected tools
βœ… 30 days of Developer Support
βœ… One-on-one session with a MongoDB expert.

The program is open to startups that are less than 7 years old, are at Series A or earlier, and meet the eligibility requirements. Both new and existing Atlas users can apply.

This is a great opportunity to reduce infrastructure costs, access powerful AI tools, and receive direct guidance from the team behind one of the world's most widely used databases.

πŸ‘‰ Apply here

And don't stop there. InnMind Perks Club gives you access to dozens of exclusive offers from leading infrastructure providers, AI tools, legal partners, marketing platforms, and many more to help your startup grow faster while spending less.

Build smarter. Save more. Scale with confidence.
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🚨 BitMEX & BitMart Are Shutting Down. Here's Why Web3 Founders Should Pay Attention

Two crypto exchanges, BitMEX and BitMart, recently announced they are winding down operations. While the headlines may look alarming, the bigger story is what these closures reveal about where the crypto industry is heading. πŸ‘‡

BitMEX had been losing relevance for years after regulatory issues, declining trading volumes, and a shrinking market share. BitMart followed with a transparent wind-down plan as competition across the exchange market became increasingly difficult to survive.

The bigger picture? The rules of the game have changed.

A few years ago, launching another exchange or crypto product could be enough to ride the market's growth. Today, founders need much more than that. Investors, users, and regulators expect businesses that can survive in any market cycle, not only during a bull run.

Here are the biggest signals for Web3 startups:

πŸ”Ή Differentiation is becoming everything.
Building "another exchange," wallet, or DEX is no longer enough. Founders need a clear reason why users should choose their product over dozens of existing alternatives.

πŸ”Ή Sustainable business models matter more than hype.
Investors are paying close attention to revenue, retention, product economics, and long-term execution. Strong fundamentals are becoming a competitive advantage.

πŸ”Ή Compliance is now part of the product.
AML, KYC, security, and transparent governance have become core business requirements. Trust has become one of the strongest assets a Web3 company can build.

πŸ”Ή Capital is shifting toward infrastructure.
While smaller exchanges struggle, funding continues to flow into tokenization, stablecoins, institutional infrastructure, custody, payments, and blockchain infrastructure. These sectors are laying the foundation for the next growth cycle.

The takeaway is clear. The crypto market is becoming more competitive, more professional, and more selective.

For Web3 founders, this is actually good news.

Teams solving real problems, building sustainable businesses, and earning user trust have a stronger opportunity to stand out than ever before. πŸš€
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