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Fundraising Field Guide: A Startup Founder’s Handbook for Venture Capital

October 14, 2016/in Venture Capital /by

Fundraising Field Guide: A Startup Founder’s Handbook for Venture Capital

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W³ Cubed™

WHO? WHAT? WHEN?

THE COMPLETE STARTUP ACTION PLAN WORKBOOK — FREE

The W³ Cubed™ Startup Action Plan Workbook — From Point A to Ready for Prime Time™ is a complete, continually improving, hands-on startup execution reference. The updated working edition exceeds 240 pages; the active free download may temporarily provide an earlier approved edition while the latest edition is prepared.

It helps founders identify WHO owns each action, WHAT result must be produced, and WHEN the work belongs in the sequence. It connects finance, product, staffing, marketing, operations, fundraising, dependencies and evidence-based decisions.

Do not read it cover to cover. Open the Table of Contents and go directly to the most urgent question facing your company today. A mathematically correct spreadsheet can still conceal catastrophic driving assumptions; the Workbook teaches founders to challenge them before spending more.

The entire Workbook is FREE — not a trial, teaser or reduced edition. There is no paid W³ Cubed™ Pro Workbook, no consulting requirement, and no credit card required for the free Workbook.

GET THE COMPLETE W³ CUBED™ WORKBOOK — FREE

What You Actually Get — FREE

The W³ Cubed™ Startup Action Plan Workbook gives you a working reference rather than a few pages of startup theory. The evolving 240+ page edition organizes action, ownership, decisions and implementation tools.

204 Action ItemsA coordinated execution sequence identifying WHAT needs to be done, accountable WHO, timing, dependencies and expected results.

50 MilestonesDefinitions of Done that measure completed outcomes, not merely activity.

9 Action Plans + Gantt ChartsCoordinated plans connecting founder readiness, markets, economics, product, staffing, finances, operations, marketing and fundraising.

4 Go/No-Go GatesEvidence checkpoints for deciding when to proceed, modify, pause or stop.

WHO Chart™ MethodologyDefine ideal qualifications and compare the people whose decisions and work may determine your startup’s future.

Driving-Assumption Stress TestsExamine who chose a mission-critical input, their relevant experience, the supporting evidence and its downstream consequences.

27 Field Notes + Founder ToolsOverlooked costs, checklists, role guidance, Before You Move On checks and practical decision tools.

Compound Knowledge™Decades of experiences, lessons and second- and third-order consequences organized for founders to use.

My objective is to share what historically required thousands of dollars in one-on-one consulting, while reserving human consulting for decisions that truly justify it.

Explore the Workbook’s full Table of Contents on the homepage, then open the section that addresses your most urgent startup question. You can request the complete Workbook there at no charge.

VIEW THE WORKBOOK & GET IT FREE

SEPARATE OPTIONAL COMPANION — NOT YET RELEASED

AI Arsenal™ Lite

W³ Cubed™ tells you what needs to be accomplished. AI Arsenal™ Lite is being built to help you produce the work. The planned complete Lite package contains 50 guided AI founder workflows, each intended to create a useful, editable output instead of merely another AI conversation.

Each module is being developed and certified using Show → Explain → Interview → Deliver: inspect fictional test inputs and an actual sample work product, understand how the output was created, answer structured questions about your company and develop a personalized deliverable. Important estimates and UNKNOWN assumptions are identified for validation, not mistaken for facts.

Examples of planned Lite work products:

First-pass Business Plan and investor Executive Summary
Integrated financial models, projections and schedules
Startup costs, cash burn, runway and Maximum Cash Hole
Revenue staircase, sales requirements and lead-funnel math
Pricing, willingness-to-pay, CAC and gross-margin analyses
Launch-delay, growth-capacity and scenario stress tests
Go-to-market, sales-process and first-90-days plans
Hiring, contracting and outsourcing decisions
WHO Chart™ expansion and candidate tools under certification
Investor pitch, due diligence and weekly KPI preparation
Startup-wide red-team review of unsupported assumptions

AI Arsenal™ Professional is a separate planned advanced product, including a configurable Excel founder-control and Action Plan system. Neither Lite nor Professional is required to receive the free W³ Cubed™ Workbook, and neither is being represented as an immediately downloadable finished product.

Advance Reservation Price Tiers

First 100 eligible reservations — FREE

Reservations 101–200 — $9.95

Reservations 201+ — $19.95

This is an advance reservation, not an immediate download. Eligibility is based on eligible reservation order, not download order. No deposit, credit card, automatic billing or obligation to purchase. Paid-tier reservations may decide whether to buy when the certified package is released.

RESERVE AI ARSENAL™ LITE — NO PAYMENT

The W³ Cubed™ Founder Path

1 — FREE W³ Cubed™ WorkbookFind the most urgent action in the Table of Contents, determine WHO does WHAT, WHEN, and challenge the evidence behind the plan.Complete methodology — FREE

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2 — AI Arsenal™ LiteOptional 50-workflow production companion, being certified. Advance reservation only, with no purchase obligation.

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3 — Experienced Human JudgmentOptional limited Founder Slots to challenge mission-critical driving assumptions and consequential decisions; qualified specialist advice where appropriate.

Use free tools for work you can do yourself. Pay for experienced judgment when the stakes justify it.

MY PRIMARY SEMI-RETIREMENT FOCUS

Five Year Life™ Publishing

After more than 4½ decades of starting companies, raising capital, operating businesses and working with startup CEOs, my primary focus today is no longer building another consulting practice.

My focus is Good-Man LLC and the Five Year Life™ publishing program — preserving as much of the Compound Knowledge™ I have accumulated as possible while I still have the time and energy to do it.

I have already completed three books and have two additional books roughly 80% complete. My hope is to finish those and write several more while I still can.

That shift is also one reason W³ Cubed™ exists. I cannot personally mentor every founder who may benefit from the lessons I accumulated, but I can capture those lessons in books, methodologies, tools and AI-assisted systems that can continue helping people without requiring my direct involvement.

Five Year Life™ is therefore not a side project attached to my old consulting business. It is a major part of what I have chosen to spend this stage of my life doing.

Explore Five Year Life™

Join an Advance Reader Team

FEATURED BOOK BY ROBERT LEE GOODMAN

Your Last Paycheck™

Navigating Job Loss and Layoffs in the Age of AI

Your Last Paycheck — Navigating Job Loss and Layoffs in the Age of AI — Robert Lee Goodman, MBA

First, Financial Triage After the Layoff.

Second, Mapping Your New Personalized Career Path in the Age of AI.

Job loss is never just a financial event. It can destabilize your income, savings, family, confidence and sense of professional identity, often at the very moment when you need to make some of the most consequential decisions of your life. Your Last Paycheck™ was written to help readers confront those realities with practical guidance rather than panic, while recognizing that artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the employment opportunities and career paths available to them.

Part One — Financial Triage After Job Loss

The financial-stabilization and career-repositioning layer of the Five Year Life™ system begins with the immediate challenges of losing a paycheck. The first half helps readers stabilize money, benefits, housing, credit and the urgent priorities that cannot wait while the job search unfolds.

Readers are guided through the difficult decisions surrounding financial runway, household spending, unemployment benefits, emergency resources, debt pressures, professional relationships and the practical steps needed to protect what matters most. The objective is to establish a more stable foundation before a temporary income disruption becomes a much larger personal and financial crisis.

Part Two — Your Career Path in the Age of AI

The second half maps a personalized career path for the Age of AI — including 100 emerging AI-related job and career titles spanning immediate-income opportunities through senior executive positions. The focus is not merely on finding another version of the job you just lost, but on understanding how your existing experience can become the foundation for work that may be more resilient and valuable as technology changes the labor market.

Readers explore AI literacy, career repositioning, transferable capabilities, new professional roles, and ways to evaluate training opportunities without wasting scarce time or money. The goal is to help you identify where your existing knowledge and experience intersect with emerging opportunities, then build a realistic path forward.

Who Should Read Your Last Paycheck™?

This book is for people who have recently lost a job, fear that a layoff may be coming, or recognize that their profession is changing beneath their feet. It is also intended for spouses and families affected by employment disruption, career counselors, outplacement professionals and corporate leaders who want to help people make better decisions during difficult transitions.

You are not starting over.
You are leveling up.

Learn More About Your Last Paycheck™

Join This Book’s Advance Reader Team

Why Am I Giving the Complete Workbook Away?

I am Robert Lee Goodman, MBA, CEO and Chief ImpleMentor™ of CEO RESOURCE LLC. More than four and a half decades of founding, financing and running businesses have included 49 companies and partnerships, 44 outside-capital raises, approximately $120.1 million in today’s dollars and 1,342 investors, plus experience mentoring thousands of founders and CEOs.

What matters most now is the Compound Knowledge™ accumulated along the way: patterns, practical experience, mistakes and lessons that become more useful when connected across many companies and industries. I am shifting from direct consulting toward the Five Year Life™ publishing program and want to preserve that knowledge rather than leave it in consulting files.

The entire W³ Cubed™ Startup Action Plan Workbook is my FREE parting gift to the startup community.

If it helps a founder question one dangerous assumption, avoid one premature hire or uncover one overlooked cash requirement, the gift has served its purpose. There is no consulting purchase requirement.

A LIMITED OPTION FOR INDEPENDENT EXECUTIVE JUDGMENT

Founder Slots — Up to 100 Entrepreneurs

As I transition toward retirement from consulting, I may accept Founder Slots for up to a maximum of 100 entrepreneurs across all service levels. This is a ceiling, not a promise to accept 100. I may close the opportunity much earlier, perhaps after 30–40 founders or fewer, depending on my availability and publishing commitments.

A Founder Slot counts an accepted entrepreneur, not a ten-hour retainer block. Accepted founders can request additional blocks later, subject to separate approval, agreement and availability; additional blocks do not create additional Founder Slots.

The purpose is to examine decisions and mission-critical driving assumptions that can determine the fate of a startup. A financial model may be 100% correct mathematically and still lead to catastrophic decisions if its revenue ramp, hiring plan, launch date, market assumptions or cash needs are unrealistic.

Standard Founder Retainer

only $250 per hour

only $2,500 for ten hours

Prepaid ten-hour retainer, generally usable over 12 months subject to the signed Statement of Work.

Optional Priority ($3,750) and Top Priority ($5,000) ten-hour retainer levels provide scheduling precedence, not better professional judgment. Only one Top Priority client may be active at a time. See the Queue / Priority Service rules for the complete FIFO and interruption policy.

Founder Slot acceptance and a signed Statement of Work are required before payment and work. Please confirm availability before paying. Neither the free Workbook nor Lite reservations require consulting.

Prices and terms can change at any time without notice.

REVIEW FOUNDER SLOTS & PRICING

CONFIRM FOUNDER SLOT AVAILABILITY

Not Sure Where to Start?

Start with the complete FREE W³ Cubed™ Startup Action Plan Workbook. Open the Table of Contents, find your most urgent decision, and begin there. There is no obligation to buy AI software or consulting.

START WITH THE COMPLETE FREE WORKBOOK

Fundraising Field Guide: A Startup Founder’s Handbook for Venture Capital

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