$50M raised across 4 jurisdictions, fastest deal in two weeks

The situation

In startups, cash burns fast, and every round runs at “close it this week” speed. Investors wire only after signing. Drag it out and the company stalls. The rounds were pre-seed and Series A across Russia, the US, Europe, and the UAE.

What I did

• Learned the standards cold: interviews, podcasts, talks from top Silicon Valley lawyers, public statistics, standard documentation.
• Separated the boilerplate that isn't worth arguing from the unusual terms that were genuinely dangerous for the founders, and focused only on the second.
• Studied YCombinator's approach to raising.
• Pulled in local counsel only on the hard, jurisdiction-specific clauses.