30-days sprint: Fundraising when ‘AI’ is no longer enough
AI used to be the cheat code.
In 2023-2024, “AI-first” could get you investor meetings. In 2026, it’s just the baseline. Most VCs have seen hundreds of AI decks, most of them sound the same - and January is basically the month of “No.”
If building an AI business & fundraising feels harder than it should…you’re not imagining it.
This webinar is a reality check + practical fundraising/growth playbook for AI founders right now. We’ve looked at 60+ successful (and unsuccessful) rounds in 2025 to distill the best insights around growth, pitch decks, investor outreach, and more for AI startups in the pre-seed to Series A stage.
We’ll break down what’s actually working today:
How to fundraise as an AI business: wording/positioning to avoid, and how to move from “cool tech” to a must-have business outcome. Why “AI-first” is the new “mobile-first” - and what VCs care about instead.
How to rewrite your deck for exhausted VCs - so they instantly get what you sell, why you win, and why now.
Direct feedback from VCs investing in AI: what wins deals (and what kills them) in 2026.
Defensibility in AI: what actually makes you fundable - specific examples from real raises & decks + what “moats” investors actually believe in.
Trojan Horse GTM: 10 entry strategies that win traction in noisy markets.
Bonus: what investors expect to see in an AI company’s financials (and the common red flags).
🎙️ Hosted by Olena Petrosyuk, Partner at Waveup (ex–J.P. Morgan, ex–Oliver Wyman). Olena exited an AI startup to PE last year and now helps startups raise & scale ($630M+ raised by startups in 2025).