Resource Hub
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24 resources
Free online session on how founders pitch the story investors respond to, not only the business details.
Four free courses, 20+ short classes, roughly three to four hours in total, explaining how venture capital works: where it sits among other investments, how funds and deals are structured, and what the shift toward private markets means. Built by Alumni Ventures, no payment or account required to work through it.
Why I recommend it: free and clearly taught — useful if you are about to raise money and want the vocabulary before the meeting. The catch is who wrote it: Alumni Ventures sells access to its own funds, and the site says outright that the Academy is not personalized advice. Take the mechanics from it, not the conclusion that you should invest.
A free, no-code recipe book of practical AI prompts built for nonprofit teams. Turn existing reports, events, and materials into slide decks, web pages, plain-language translations, social copy, and repeatable workflows. Every recipe includes a privacy badge so you know what stays on your computer, what goes public, and what connects to a vendor account.
Why I recommend it: Free to use. Built by Decoded Futures (a TechNYC program). The recipes are framed for nonprofit work, but the same patterns work for job searches, career content, and small-business tasks.
Free training and sample documents for nonprofit and fundraising work from Candid: recorded courses on proposal writing and project budgets, plus real sample cover letters, letters of inquiry, proposal budgets and full funded proposals you can read end to end.
Why I recommend it: The sample full proposals are the part worth your time — reading three funded proposals teaches more than any course on how to write one. Useful well beyond nonprofits: the structure (need, plan, budget, how you will show it worked) is the same structure a grant or pitch wants from a small business.
Free guides, playbooks and blog posts on alumni relations, fundraising and advancement work from the Almabase team.
From the site: Follow the Almabase blog for best practices in Alumni relations, Fundraising and Advancement Industry.
Why I recommend it: Free to read with no account for most posts. It is published by a software vendor, so the advice is genuine but written to sell their platform — take the practices, ignore the pitch.
The actual 2004 pitch deck Reid Hoffman used to raise LinkedIn's Series B, with his annotations explaining each slide.
From the site: At Greylock, my partners and I are driven by one guiding mission: always help entrepreneurs. It doesn’t matter whether an entrepreneur is in our portfolio, whether we’re considering an investment, or whether we’re casually meeting for the first time.
Why I recommend it: One of the few real pitch decks published with the reasoning attached. Read the annotations more than the slides — they show what a room of investors was actually asking.
The San Francisco venture firm's site and essays on what it funds and why — a free window into how investors actually think about startups.
From the site: Founders Fund is a San Francisco based venture capital firm investing in companies building revolutionary technologies.
Why I recommend it: Read their essays before pitching anyone. It tells you what investors are listening for.
Free English-language coverage of the Israeli technology sector — funding rounds, startup exits, hiring trends and defence-tech developments.
From the site: CTech - Israeli Tech and Start up News
Why I recommend it: Useful if you are tracking startup hiring or fundraising outside the US news cycle.
Free essays on startups, hiring, productivity and ambition from OpenAI's CEO, including the widely read "How to Be Successful" and startup playbook posts.
Why I recommend it: Dated in places but still one of the clearest free reads on early-stage company building.
A free newsletter of operating playbooks for software companies, organised by function — sales, marketing, operations, product and finance.
Why I recommend it: If you are building or joining a startup, the function-by-function playbooks are the practical part most advice skips.
The fifth edition of The Startup Station's Speed Pitch in New York: 36 startup spots, each matched into guaranteed one-to-one meetings with investors instead of the usual keynote-and-mingle format. Confirmed funds include New York Ventures, New York Bay Capital, Hexa-AI, Vamos Ventures, Gaingels, Yan Ventures, Lightscape Partners, Valued Ventures, BuenTrip Ventures, Zavo Ventures and Ensemblex Venture. Wednesday, October 21, 2026, 4:30–8:30 PM; registration is by host approval and closes October 15. Investors apply through a separate link.
Details: Guaranteed meetings are rare — come with a two-minute version of your pitch and a clear ask, because 1:1 slots here are short.
A nine-week, no-equity incubator run by the College of Staten Island Innovation Hub (CUNY) for early-stage tech startups preparing to raise a Seed or Series A. Includes a business development and digital strategy curriculum, one-to-one work with mentors, investors and subject matter experts, access to office space and CUNY facilities, plus events and discounted resources — applications for the Fall 2026 cohort are open on F6S.
Why I recommend it: No equity taken and it is CUNY-backed, so this is about as low-risk as incubators get — worth applying even if your fundraise is a year out.
Free ebook on building, maintaining, and leveraging a nonprofit donor database, covering needs assessment, cloud versus installed software, switching systems, and running a good vendor demo.
Why I recommend it: If you run or volunteer for a small nonprofit, the demo checklist alone will save you from a bad software decision.
Created by Bloomerang
Video channel with founder interviews, fundraising breakdowns, and venture capital explainers from the Harlem Capital team.
Why I recommend it: A free education in how funding decisions actually get made. Watch a few founder interviews before you write your first pitch deck.
Early-stage venture firm investing in diverse founders, with public portfolio information, programs, and fellowship opportunities.
Why I recommend it: Read their portfolio and thesis before pitching anyone. Knowing what a firm actually funds saves you months of mismatched conversations.
Free Entrepreneur webinar on current fundraising conditions, investor expectations, and preparing to raise.
Why I recommend it: Register even if you cannot attend live. These sessions usually send a replay, and the investor Q&A is the useful part.
A comprehensive nonprofit education platform offering live and on-demand webinars on fundraising, grant writing, marketing, board development, and nonprofit management.
Why I recommend it: If you are launching or leading a nonprofit, CharityHowTo fills a practical skills gap without the overhead of a degree program. Their grant-writing webinars are especially useful.
Flexible online training for nonprofit staff, boards, and volunteers, covering fundraising, leadership, governance, and management.
Why I recommend it: A solid self-paced alternative for founders and staff who need nonprofit fundamentals without a big training budget.
16-page guide covering peer-to-peer fundraiser timelines, event budgets, multi-channel marketing, recruiting and empowering participants, and retention best practices.
Why I recommend it: Built for nonprofits, but the participant recruitment and retention sections work for any community-driven launch — including your own program or side business.
Created by Bonterra
Venture firm investing in diverse founders, with public resources and an internship pipeline.
Why I recommend it: Read their published portfolio thesis before pitching anyone — it is a clear model of what a focused investor thesis looks like.
What investors expect at each stage, how terms and valuations work, and how to prepare a raise in the current funding climate.
From the site: Great ideas from dedicated teams can find solutions, yet breakthroughs can fail due to the one resource needed to propel growth: money.
Why I recommend it: Read this before you assume you need VC. Most of the businesses I mentor are better off with revenue, grants, or an SBA loan.
Lectures, founder interviews, and fundraising guidance from a leading startup accelerator. Hosted by Y Combinator.
In plain terms: This YouTube channel offers free lectures and founder interviews about starting a company. You can watch videos to learn practical guidance on launching a business and raising funds.
Why I recommend it: Their startup school talks are a free business education.
Global community of startups and founders, covering fundraising, product development, and market research.
Why I recommend it: Useful for seeing how other founders describe the same problems you have.
Two pitch decks compared side by side: Airbnb's 10-slide deck that raised $600K, and Fyre Festival's deck, whose company later faced fraud charges, plus sample GitHub work to use as a model for your own portfolio.
In plain terms: This guide compares successful and failed pitch decks from Airbnb and Fyre Festival alongside real GitHub profiles. You can use these examples to learn how to present business ideas clearly and structure your own technical portfolio.
Why I recommend it: One idea per slide. Problem, solution, evidence. Decoration never closed a round.
Created by Justin Smith — Launchpad Library
