Funded with Alex Wittenberg
Claim This Podcastby airCFO
Podcast Overview
<p>Funded is a show taking you behind the scenes of the startup fundraising process.</p><p></p><p>I'm Alex Wittenberg, CEO of airCFO, and every episode I talk to people who've been through the fundraising gauntlet: founders who just closed rounds and VCs writing checks right now.</p><p></p><p>We get into the gory details that don’t make it into the press release. Founders share how they hustled their way onto VCs’ radars, how they refined their pitches, and what terms they negotiated. VCs explain what makes them take a meeting, how their firm evaluates deals, and why they say yes or pass.</p><p></p><p>If you're raising money or thinking about it, this show is for you.</p><p></p><p><b>New episodes every week.</b></p>
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
1/20/2026
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Recent Episodes
June 4, 2026
The VC Who Invests in Cancer Care From the Inside | Ben Freeberg, Oncology Ventures
<p>In this episode of Funded, Alex sits down with Ben Freeberg, Founder and Managing Partner of Oncology Ventures, a seed-stage fund investing in data and infrastructure startups transforming cancer care.</p><p></p><p>Ben breaks down why more than half of the 1,700 cancer deaths in the US every day are preventable with technology that already exists, how he built a venture fund where his LPs are also his most important customers, and why commercialization clarity is the number one thing that kills deals in his pipeline.</p><p></p><p>More about Oncology Ventures: <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://oncology.ventures" target="_blank">https://oncology.ventures</a></p><p></p><p>We also have a newsletter! In The AI CFO, Alex explores the tools, wins, and hard lessons shaping the future of startup finance. Every two weeks. Subscribe here: <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.aircfo.com/the-ai-cfo" target="_blank">https://www.aircfo.com/the-ai-cfo</a></p>
April 28, 2026
Community, AI, and Knowing When Not to Raise | Aileen Allen, Mercury Fund
<p>In this episode of Funded, Alex sits down with Aileen Allen, Partner at Mercury Fund, a 20-year-old Texas-based VC investing at seed and Series A in vertical AI, developer tooling, and agentic commerce. Aileen spent 15+ years as a go-to-market operator at companies like Atlassian before making the jump to venture.</p><p>She shares why she thinks some founders shouldn't take venture capital at all, why the skills that matter in go-to-market are shifting toward editorial instincts and community building, and how Mercury evaluates founders when AI has made it easier than ever to ship a V1.</p><p></p><p>More about Mercury Fund: <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.mercuryfund.com" target="_blank">https://www.mercuryfund.com</a><br /></p><p>We also have a newsletter! In The AI CFO, Alex explores the tools, wins, and hard lessons shaping the future of startup finance. Every two weeks. Subscribe here: <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.aircfo.com/the-ai-cfo?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast" target="_blank">https://www.aircfo.com/the-ai-cfo?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast</a></p>
March 3, 2026
The AI-Native Playbook for Raising a $3.7M Seed Round | Andy Keil, DreamBase
<p>Andy Keil is the co-founder of DreamBase, an analytics platform that lets AI-native teams understand their business without a data team or a single line of SQL. He sits down with Alex to discuss how DreamBase went from whiteboard to working prototype in five days, why making onboarding too frictionless killed user trust, and how he closed a $3.7M seed round with a Notion memo instead of a pitch deck.</p><p></p><p>Subscribe to Funded for more conversations with founders on the real story behind startup fundraising. <br /></p><p>More about Dreambase: <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://dreambase.ai/" target="_blank">https://dreambase.ai/</a></p>
19 total episodes available
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Frequently asked questions
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- What is Funded with Alex Wittenberg?
<p>Funded is a show taking you behind the scenes of the startup fundraising process.</p><p></p><p>I'm Alex Wittenberg, CEO of airCFO, and every episode I talk to people who've been through the fundraising gauntlet: founders who just closed rounds and VCs writing checks right now.</p><p></p><p>We get into the gory details that don’t make it into the press release. Founders share how they hustled their way onto VCs’ radars, how they refined their pitches, and what terms they negotiated. VCs explain what makes them take a meeting, how their firm evaluates deals, and why they say yes or pass.</p><p></p><p>If you're raising money or thinking about it, this show is for you.</p><p></p><p><b>New episodes every week.</b></p> - How often does this podcast release new episodes?
This podcast updates daily.
- Where can I listen to this podcast?
This podcast is available on 4 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
- Does this podcast accept guests?
Yes, this podcast regularly features guests.
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