The Fundraising Playbook: What Founders Need to Know to Raise, Build, and Win in 2026

{
  "id": "PP1149073",
  "track": "Startups",
  "focus_area": null,
  "category": "Presentation",
  "event_id": "PP1149073",
  "event_type": "panel",
  "format": "Presentation",
  "genre": null,
  "subgenre": null,
  "name": "The Fundraising Playbook: What Founders Need to Know to Raise, Build, and Win in 2026",
  "presented_by": null,
  "publish_at": "2026-02-05T21:05:00.000-06:00",
  "reservable": true,
  "reservable_id": "PP1149073",
  "reserved": false,
  "date": "2026-03-14",
  "end_time": "2026-03-14T15:30:00.000-05:00",
  "start_time": "2026-03-14T14:30:00.000-05:00",
  "message": null,
  "image": null,
  "credentials": [
    {
      "name": "Platinum Badge",
      "type": "platinum"
    },
    {
      "name": "Innovation Badge",
      "type": "innovation"
    }
  ],
  "contributors": [
    {
      "id": 31732,
      "company": "Mercury Fund",
      "credential_types": [
        "innovation"
      ],
      "entity_id": 2054803,
      "name": "Heath Butler",
      "speaker_types": [
        "Speaker"
      ],
      "title": "Partner",
      "image": {
        "alt_text": "Heath Butler",
        "credit": "",
        "url": "https://images.sxsw.com/QY1yEJ-OOvkpGIm4_Bxd55bQvYk=/225x8:1535x1318/600x600/images.sxsw.com/48/3b76d2b4-5caf-48b3-81dd-1875481e54c0/pcid-1107730"
      },
      "speaker_type": "Speaker",
      "details": "Heath Butler is a venture investor, serial entrepreneur, and seasoned executive with over 25 years of experience as a transformational leader and board member, possessing a proven ability to help companies define vision, execute strategy, and deliver accelerated business impact.  Heath is a partner at Mercury Fund, an early-stage VC firm focused on disruptive tech startups outside of Silicon Valley, and Houston’s most prominent VC firm with over $800M AUM.  As an operationally focused VC firm, Mercury Fund partners with first-time and seasoned entrepreneurs who seek the support, assets, and talent of its extensive network. At Mercury Fund, Heath invests in B2B software companies utilizing AI/ML and blockchain technologies.  \n\nOutside of Mercury, Heath is an active angel investor, mentors in innovation communities throughout Middle-America, hosts a quarterly “How to Start a Startup” session at The Ion, and blogs @StartupHeat. He is passionate about educating, empowering, and enabling entrepreneurs, and co-founded two organizations focused on closing the innovation, job, and wealth gaps in urban communities across the country – the Innovation Center for Urban Entrepreneurship (iCUE), a non-profit, designed to diversify the capital stack within the innovation ecosystem and Urban Capital Network (UCN), an investment platform designed to reduce the racial wealth gap. Heath also supports numerous non-profits through board service, including as a Board Director for The Collectiv Sports Foundation and as a Board Director for Lemonade Day. \n",
      "links": {},
      "type": "person"
    },
    {
      "id": 31897,
      "company": "PitchBook",
      "credential_types": [
        "innovation"
      ],
      "entity_id": 2055058,
      "name": "Nizar Tarhuni",
      "speaker_types": [
        "Speaker"
      ],
      "title": "Executive Vice President, Research & Market Intelligence",
      "image": {
        "alt_text": "Nizar Tarhuni",
        "credit": "PitchBook",
        "url": "https://images.sxsw.com/whakfKeYhxOJxJsBbsbwyfLHlEg=/600x600/images.sxsw.com/48/06c772fd-5316-ad15-70d3-7102b2dfbdbc/pcid-1112062"
      },
      "speaker_type": "Speaker",
      "details": "Nizar Tarhuni is Executive Vice President of Research and Market Intelligence at PitchBook Data, where he leads the firm’s global Institutional Research and News organizations. He oversees a team of more than 140 analysts and journalists worldwide delivering on investment strategy, fund performance, industry, and credit research, alongside a daily news product tailored to private market investors and advisors.\r\rUnder Tarhuni’s leadership, the department has built a comprehensive quantitative research function responsible for developing a robust suite of performance measurement, risk, and predictive analytics tools. These capabilities include a broad portfolio of investable indexes and fund benchmarks, portfolio forecasting models, liquidity and risk assessments, and performance forecasting tools that support institutional decision-making across private markets.\r\rTarhuni is credited with developing PitchBook’s first institutional-grade research product and has played a key role in expanding the firm’s research and news capabilities, including leading the acquisition of Leveraged Commentary & Data (LCD) from S&P. He is also responsible for managing PitchBook’s portfolio management software business, Lumonic, which the firm acquired in 2025.\r\rAs a member of PitchBook’s executive leadership team, Tarhuni leads the company’s market intelligence efforts, monitoring the competitive landscape, identifying strategic growth opportunities, and partnering across the leadership team on investment initiatives.\r\rTarhuni received a bachelor’s degree in economics and finance from Linfield University",
      "links": {},
      "type": "person"
    }
  ],
  "venue": {
    "accessible": false,
    "age_policy": null,
    "floor": "3",
    "id": "V0453",
    "indoor_outdoor": "INDOOR",
    "mixhalo_url": "https://translate.mixhalo.rocks/430?venue_id=430&partner=true",
    "name": "Salon C",
    "parent_id": "V0403",
    "parent_venue_name": "JW Marriott",
    "venue_entry_info": null,
    "formats": null,
    "location": {
      "address": "110 E 2nd St.",
      "lat_lon": [
        30.2645713,
        -97.743198
      ],
      "city": "Austin",
      "postal_code": "78701",
      "state": "TX",
      "name": "JW Marriott"
    },
    "root": {
      "id": "V0403",
      "name": "JW Marriott",
      "mixhalo_url": null
    },
    "events": "[omitted 5 venue events]"
  },
  "description": "In today’s market, the challenge isn’t finding opportunities, it’s finding signal in the noise. Join Nizar Tarhuni, EVP of Research & Market Intelligence at PitchBook, and Heath Butler, Partner at Mercury Fund, for a data-driven conversation on where capital is flowing in 2026, the signals investors care about most, how AI is reshaping sourcing and diligence, and what current dynamics mean for fundraising and valuation strategy. Founders will gain a clear view into how investors are making decisions—and how to position their companies to stand out and get funded.",
  "experience_level": "Intermediate",
  "audio_url": null,
  "accessibility": [
    "Closed captioned"
  ],
  "accessible_venue": false,
  "add_bcl_url": false,
  "add_slido": false,
  "after_midnight": null,
  "age_policy": null,
  "american_sign_language": false,
  "apple_url": null,
  "audio_description": false,
  "caption_url": null,
  "captioned_qa": false,
  "closed_captioned": true,
  "cpe_credit": false,
  "event_status": "none",
  "has_subtitles": false,
  "hash_tags": [],
  "high_sensory_experience": false,
  "live": false,
  "long_description": "In today’s market, the challenge isn’t finding opportunities, it’s finding signal in the noise. Join Nizar Tarhuni, EVP of Research & Market Intelligence at PitchBook, and Heath Butler, Partner at Mercury Fund, for a data-driven conversation on where capital is flowing in 2026, the signals investors care about most, how AI is reshaping sourcing and diligence, and what current dynamics mean for fundraising and valuation strategy. Founders will gain a clear view into how investors are making decisions—and how to position their companies to stand out and get funded.",
  "meeting_url": null,
  "meeting_url_live": false,
  "mentorly_url": null,
  "mobile_audio_url": null,
  "open_captioned": false,
  "playlist_tag": null,
  "rebroadcast": false,
  "recommended_ids": [],
  "search_conversions": null,
  "short_program": false,
  "slido_url": null,
  "sort": "FUNDRAISING PLAYBOOK: WHAT FOUNDERS NEED TO KNOW TO RAISE, BUILD, AND WIN IN 2026",
  "source": "Official",
  "squad_up_url": null,
  "stream_embed": null,
  "stream_id": null,
  "stream_url": null,
  "strobe_warning": false,
  "subdiscipline": null,
  "summit": null,
  "summit_display_name": null,
  "tags": [
    {
      "id": 954,
      "name": "Entrepreneurship",
      "created_at": "2016-11-04T11:44:27.960-05:00",
      "updated_at": "2025-01-21T12:10:03.602-06:00",
      "sort": "ENTREPRENEURSHIP",
      "alpha": "E"
    },
    {
      "id": 2422,
      "name": "Trends",
      "created_at": "2023-03-05T18:53:22.637-06:00",
      "updated_at": "2023-03-05T18:53:22.637-06:00",
      "sort": "TRENDS",
      "alpha": "T"
    }
  ],
  "talent_attending": null,
  "title_only": false,
  "track_display_name": "Startups",
  "trailer_id": null,
  "trailer_url": null,
  "video_on_demand": null,
  "vimeo_id": null,
  "vod": false,
  "xr_project_type": null,
  "youtube_id": null,
  "related_events": [],
  "related_sales_client": null
}