#100: Hard Raise & VC Series A Playbook
October 5, 2025 – DevTools Brew #100
I’m Morgan Perry, co-founder of Qovery. Every week, I share the raw, often uncomfortable lessons from building and scaling a tech startup from 0 to 1 and beyond.
In today's edition:
Hard Raise $$
→ What it really takes to raise our $13M Series A (when you’re not riding the AI wave).
VC Series A Playbook
→ The 5 things VCs actually look for in DevTools & Infra startups.
Let’s dive in.
This marks my 100th edition. Writing has become more than a habit. It’s how I step back, process the chaos, and turn struggles into learnings. My best tool to make sense of the journey and sometimes, to make the big leaps possible.
The Hard Raise
What it really takes to raise a $13M Series A
We’ve just announced our $13 million Series A.
It feels good to finally say it. But the truth is simple: raising it was brutal.
We’re building in devtools and infrastructure, not the hottest space right now.
No AI hype. No explosive metrics to headline a TechCrunch post.
And yet, we got it done.
Market shift
Fundraising today has nothing to do with what it was in the 2020s.
Rounds stretch longer. Expectations rise.
VCs ask tougher questions and care less about a shiny vision deck.
They want clarity and revenue growth: a clear ICP, proof of repeatability, and depth of traction.
Capital still exists, but it’s careful money.
And in Dev/Devops tooling or infra, you’re not pitching dreams anymore but showing execution.
Our own path
Almost 3 years passed between our Seed and this round.
Not because we slowed down, but because we wanted strong foundations:
→ solid retention, deep usage, and a product ready to scale.
Still, it’s a tricky balance.
Raise too late, you lose momentum.
Raise too early, you lose focus.
We’ve lived both sides of that equation.
There were endless “almost there,” “just one more meeting,” “maybe next quarter.”
It’s draining.
The real shift came when we stopped treating fundraising as a one-off sprint.
We turned it into a continuous process, sharing updates, shipping, showing motion even when conversations were quiet.
That consistency built trust. Investors stopped looking for signals of potential and started seeing momentum that couldn’t be ignored.
If I had to sum up the real difference between Seed and Series A, it’s this:
Seed is about potential, ie the team, the market, the spark. Series A is about proof, ie clarity of ICP, repeatability, and the system behind growth.
For founders in DevTools or infra today, here’s what matters:
→ Depth of usage, not volume:
VCs now care more about how much users rely on you than how many logos you have.
→ Retention before growth:
You can buy growth; you can’t fake retention.
→ ICP clarity:
If you can’t explain who buys and why in one line, the story isn’t ready.
→ A repeatable GTM:
Founder-led works for the first few million ARR, but scale needs structure.
→ Timing and market sense:
The “why now” matters as much as the product itself.
What moved the needle for us
→ A vision grounded in reality, ie autonomous infrastructure, not AI buzzwords.
→ Expansion that spoke for itself, ie customers staying and growing.
→ Constant movement, ie building, shipping, closing, even while fundraising.
→ The right partners, ie people who understood infra’s long-term game instead of chasing hype.
That alignment changed everything!
For founders raising in 2025
→ Don’t try to convince everyone. You’re looking for alignment, not validation.
→ Start earlier than you think. If you want to close in June, start building the story in February.
→ Keep showing movement. Momentum is more persuasive than any pitch.
→ Own your niche. You don’t need a “hot” category but just a clear one.
→ Stay grounded. Metrics help, but clarity and conviction close rounds.
Looking back, this raise wasn’t about validation but truly marked the moment where all the groundwork finally clicked.
I’m deeply thankful to our investors and partners, Iris.vc, Crane.vc, Athletico.vc, the founders of Datadog, and all our early backers who kept believing and reinvesting.
Now the real work begins 🏗️
And truthfully, most of the heavy lifting came from my co-founder, Romaric.
He carried the process with the same precision he brings to product: drive, energy, relentless, and clear-headed when things got tough.
He’s probably the best person I know to run a fundraise like this, especially in a market this brutal 💜
VC Series A Playbook
What investors actually look for in DevTools and Infra startups.
Now that I’ve shared our own story, I want to give a more objective view.
Most investors I met during the process — even the ones who passed — had a clear playbook.
Patterns you start recognizing after enough conversations.
After speaking with dozens of them, here’s what consistently came up as the five core things Series A investors look for — especially in DevTools and infrastructure.
These weren’t always the metrics that defined our round, but they’ll help anyone preparing for theirs.
1. Usage depth over user growth
Investors don’t just want to see new signups. They want to see usage expand inside existing accounts.
The same teams using you more often, across more projects, with higher frequency.
In open source, that can mean pull requests, downloads, or active contributors but what matters most is proof that people rely on you.
2. Quality of revenue over volume
The absolute ARR number matters less than how you got it.
Short-term, transactional, or one-off deals hurt more than they help.
High-quality revenue, recurring, usage-based, and tied to real product value tells a much stronger story.
3. Production usage
Running in hobby projects or side environments might get you a Seed.
Series A requires proof you’re being used in production, by real companies, for critical workloads.
That’s the difference between adoption and dependency.
4. Community pull
This one looks still critical for VC..
A vibrant community, whether Slack, Discord, GitHub, or even X, shows energy around your product.
Nothing related to vanity metrics like stars but about engagement, advocacy, and how often users speak for you when you’re not in the room.
5. Market clarity
Every investor now looks for focus and leverage.
You can expand your TAM in three ways:
→ Reach new personas (devs → platform teams).
→ Increase ACV per user through enterprise features.
→ Ride a macrotrend that lifts your category (security, cost optimization, compliance, etc.).
Pick one, go deep, and make it measurable.
At the end of the day, what matters most is clarity (not perfection).
When your numbers, usage, and story align, investors don’t see potential anymore.
But they see inevitability.
That’s it for me today! :)
Thanks for reading and Happy Sunday!
— Morgan
///
Do you like personal lessons like this? More insights/stories from other devtool founders? Let me know, I’m always open to feedback.
You can reach out to me on LinkedIn.