What's Next After Raising $200M?

Hey y’all — what do you do next if you co-founded your last startup with Tom Brady and raised $200M for it?

That sounds like a crazy hypothetical but, for Josh Payne, it was reality.

And what he’s come up with is already off to the races, with a $9M seed round for Coframe co-led by Khosla Ventures and Nat Friedman.

This week I’ve got TWO great stories for you:

• The podcast interview with James Evans, who just sold his Y Combinator-backed startup Command AI

• A case study on why Josh decided to go the VC route again and his fundraising strategy

Enjoy both below!

On the Pod: James Evans

James’s Y Combinator-backed startup JUST got acquired.

He had raised $23 million and grown it to over 20 million users.

You might remember the piece I wrote after first interviewing him last year. I was pumped he came back for the pod — he has some great, contrarian insights on things like:

• How to get the most out of YC

• How to recognize when to pivot

• How to secure big logo partnerships early on

• Why you don’t need to create a new category

• Why “do things that don’t scale” should be updated

• Whether anyone can and/or should become a founder

Check it out below on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.

What’s Next After Raising $200M?

Please briefly introduce yourself and your startup.

My name is Josh Payne and I am the founder of Coframe. 

The thesis for Coframe is self-improving, living digital assets or user interfaces.

Every piece of copy out there and every piece of UI should have a KPI that is actively optimizing itself for that specific person who is on it.

I am a serial entrepreneur with some of my other startups being Autograph — raising over $200M — and AccessBell which was acquired by Tata Group.

Please share what you can about the fundraising journey for the company so far.

We most recently raised a seed round of $9M. From demo day to first term sheet was a couple of days. We reviewed our offers and decided within a week.

Fundraising Strategy

How did you determine when to raise, how much to raise, and at what valuation?

Get Lifetime Access as a Founding Journey Member