🧭 Raise enough to fail

Hey {{first_name|default:there}}, it’s Vadim 👋

This week I was on a call with my good friend, Carolyn Yarina.

Carolyn is someone I respect a lot. Fresh out of the University of Michigan, she co-founded Sisu Global Health, the company behind an innovative autologous blood transfusion device that doesn't require electricity and operates in resource-limited settings.

Over a decade later, the device is in hospitals across several African countries and was deployed for emergency use in Ukraine. Carolyn raised over $4M from investors including Steve Case and Camden Partners, was named Forbes 30 Under 30, and has now been on both sides of the table - as a founder and as an investor.

So naturally, when Carolyn has an opinion on fundraising, I pay attention :)

We were giving feedback to a founder who was asking if they should do a “lean raise” - raising just enough to meet their milestones.

Then Carolyn said something that I’ve been thinking about ever since:

“Raise enough to fail at least once. Because you will fail.”

I told her that we should print this as a mantra, and the more I think about it, the more I think it should hang above the entrance to any fundraising workshop.

This is especially pertinent, because it cuts against what most first-time founders assume about raising their round in 2026.

That a smaller raise is an easier raise. That investors will say yes faster if you ask for less. That you'll preserve more equity by being scrappy.

All of that sounds perfectly reasonable. But it’s also far from a given - especially in life sciences.

What I see most often is founders aiming to raise just enough to hit their milestones if everything goes right.

The problem with that? Nothing ever goes just right - especially in start-up land.

So today, I want to unpack what “enough” actually means, and how to figure out the right number for your company.

🧭 HERE’S WHAT WE’LL COVER:

Let’s dive in!