Carina Cunha — Capital, strategy, persuasion
First Principlesof Persuasion
Everything runs on energy.
Every time you ask someone to pay attention, listen, trust you, buy something, invest in your company, change their mind or simply say yes, you are asking them to allocate finite resources.
Attention carries cost. Interpretation carries cost. Choice carries cost.
I have spent years observing the structures beneath human behavior and synthesizing them into a unified theory of energy allocation. Unsurprisingly, it follows the same principles as physics.
I begin with physics.
Capital strategy · Investor positioning · Negotiation
Featured in
Dragons' Den, BBC
TechCrunch
Eco-Business
Maddyness
Clay/Earth
Psychedelic Invest
Crimson Education
Brave New Girl
BestStartup UK
Columbia UniversityDragons' Den, BBCTechCrunchEco-BusinessMaddynessClay/EarthPsychedelic InvestCrimson EducationBrave New GirlBestStartup UKColumbia University“Carina was one of the most confident and prepared pitchers we've seen—she knew her numbers, her market, and her mission.”Dragons' Den, BBC
“Carina's ability to anticipate where industries are heading before they become mainstream is what makes her such a powerful strategist.”Clay/Earth
“Carina's expertise in behavioral economics and psychology allows her to see market shifts before they happen. She combines data, intuition, and strategy to position brands for long-term success.”Eco-Business
Ways to work together
Putting first principles to work
I have spent much of my career in environments where discernment is foundational: capital allocation, strategy, transactions, fundraising and growth. Persuasion is governed by the same discipline of reading value, constraints and allocation accurately.
Today, there are two ways to work with me.
Path A
Raising capital?
Carta Meridian
Carta Meridian works with selected companies raising institutional capital.
We work across capital strategy, investor positioning, fundraising and the relationships required to close the transaction.
If you are preparing for or currently running a raise, tell us about the company, the capital you are seeking and what you are trying to accomplish.
We review prospective engagements before scheduling a consultation.
Path B
Want my perspective?
Work With Me Directly
I work privately with founders, investors and executives on specific strategic problems.
Fundraising. Positioning. Negotiation. Communication. Decision-making. Understanding another person. Or a problem where you want another brain in the room.
Bring me the problem.
A single, focused session. Scheduling and payment happen in one step.
Intellectual proof
Why do we say yes?
Persuasion follows the same laws that govern everything else in the universe.
Energy is conserved, transferred and dissipated. Life developed inside these physical limits. Natural selection favored organisms capable of acquiring and allocating finite resources well enough to survive.
We inherited the results.
Your brain has limited attention. Your time is finite. Thinking requires energy. Uncertainty carries cost. Changing your mind can require you to reconsider beliefs, relationships, status and even identity.
Every decision is an allocation.
Is this worth the energy?
The Energy Equation
Action = perceived value − perceived cost
Cost can include time, attention, cognitive effort, money, risk, uncertainty, identity, status and opportunity cost.
Two people can encounter the same proposition and make opposite decisions because they are solving different equations.
- Most communication answers
- “Why is this valuable to me?”
- Persuasion answers
- “Why is this valuable to you?”
- Physics
- Biology
- Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Behavior
Social proof
What people say after one conversation
Measurable fundraising result
“Carina is one of the most professional and insightful people I've ever met in the startup world. She helped us secure our first $100K check... If you get a chance to work with her, my advice is simple: listen to what she says. It will save you time and get you real results.”
Exceptional overall experience
“Carina was by far the best meeting I've had. Her advice was not generic or surface level. She took the time to deeply understand my company and provided thoughtful, customized insights based on my specific situation. She was incredibly honest, practical, and offered business advice that was both relevant and immediately actionable.”
World-class strategic advice
“My call with Carina was nothing short of exceptional... Carina has the unique ability to provide highly personalized tactical, operational, and strategic advice at a world class level.”
Speed of comprehension / finding the moat
“Carina quickly understood that the value proposition for my product was hiding in a function I was treating as a secondary feature... she immediately recognized that it was the moat. She further helped clarify product positioning and investor narrative.”
Clarity / cutting through noise
“Within just a few minutes she understood the essence of what I'm building and helped me reframe the problem in a much clearer way... The conversation was focused, thoughtful, and efficient — no wasted time or energy.”
Fundraising + strategic capital
“A call with Carina is a must if you want to take your fundraising process to the next level... she doesn't just provide access to capital — she connects you with strategic investors who can also become partners and, in some cases, bring new clients and revenue opportunities into the business.”
Complex business / direct advice
“My questions on investment round strategies had the potential to be answered in a super fluffy way, but Carina really knew her stuff and was able to identify the right strategy for me... It was clear she grasped the nature of what we do, which is quite complicated, very quickly.”
Repeat booking / practical value
“Carina was so helpful the first time that I booked a second session... She's very direct and clear, which made it easy to move quickly through the review and actually improve things in real time. No fluff, just thoughtful, practical guidance.”
Intellectual differentiation
“Carina has an exceptional ability to turn complex ideas into clear, compelling stories. Her crystallisation method moves mountains, transforming how you see and communicate your vision. She combines sharp strategic insight with genuine empathy.”
About
About Carina
Carina Cunha has spent most of her life observing the patterns underneath reality and learning how to make them legible to other people.
Her life has been unusually broad by design. She has lived across five continents and rarely stays in one country for more than a few months. As the only non-English speaker, she received a scholarship to attend a science and technology school in San Francisco. She was later scouted by Elite as a teenager, graduated early from Columbia University, became an investment banker, worked across blue-chip institutions, helped launch unicorns, built companies of her own, and has advised more than 300 businesses, from bootstrapped startups to FT 100 and FT 500 companies.
The thread throughout it is a desire to make the world a better place.
She works in capital because it allows her to direct resources toward the founders, technologies and ideas capable of changing it. The work also gives her something she values almost as much: the excuse to keep learning.
Her favorite subjects are the Four Ps: physics, philosophy, psychology and psychedelics.
So naturally, she ended up trying to build a unifying theory of human behavior.
She is the author of the forthcoming First Principles of Persuasion: How to see, map and influence any system.
300+
Businesses advised
5
Continents lived on
FT 100 / 500
Institutional clients
Columbia
Graduated early
Investment banking
Capital markets background
Unicorns
Helped launch
What are you working on?
Raising institutional capital?
Want my perspective on a specific problem?