What are the alternatives to Stripe?
What are the alternatives to Stripe? Paddle → got rejected Reason: hybrid model. At Unicorns Club, we’re not pure SaaS: our subscription includes a range of human services. We work with startups and make personalized intros to relevant investors from our database. Lemon Squeezy → account under verification But already видно: • limited API that doesn’t fit dynamic pricing well • likely the same...
How do investors value an MVP you built in 2 weeks with AI?
There used to be at least some “clear” logic behind startup valuation. You’d take: hours × rate → MVP cost. That gave you a rough valuation floor. Not perfect. But it was an anchor. That anchor is now gone. AI made MVPs almost free. ~$300. Two weeks. One person. And if a product costs almost nothing to build — what is valuation based on now? The answer is uncomfortable: your product itself is...
What do you think actually breaks startup fundraising in 2026? 💸
🔥 Hot take from NFX Venture Fund: fundraising is broken because of... Endless forms. Not because you don't know the right people. Not because you lack warm intros. Just. The. Forms. Here's how they put it themselves: "Fundraising is broken. Endless forms, vague timelines, ghosted follow-ups." (This I got in my mailbox.) Great. So they built the antidote. You can apply if you're a Harvard, MIT,...
🦄 Looking for Interview Participants
Last year in Unicorns Journal we published an interview with Sergey Bakaev, where we unpacked first-time fundraising strategy — expectations vs reality, common mistakes, and what founders often underestimate when raising capital for the first time. It turned into a very honest conversation. This year, I want to continue the series — but shift the focus to something even more sensitive....
SaaS for Hope: Why Most Startup Platforms Sell Visibility, Not Results
The old sequence looks like this: Profile → Paywall → Lost in a Catalog → Investor List → Cold Outreach It’s a storefront, not a strategy. Platforms like Fundable has no personalized matching, no curated dealflow, no learning loop, no shared context between investor and founder. It’s simply SaaS for hope. The uncomfortable truth After working directly with funds and angel investors inside...
“I Got 100 Rejections and Raised $850K”: Sergey Bakaev’s Fundraising Playbook — Unicorns Journal
We just published one of the most honest and practical founder interviews we've ever featured in Unicorns Journal. It’s the story of how Sergey Bakaev, co-founder of LovOn, raised $850K after hearing more than 100 rejections — with no network and no previous fundraising experience. A brutally honest, step-by-step breakdown of what pre-seed fundraising actually looks like behind the scenes — the...
