unicorn - the startup founder’s guide to raising venture capital

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.