raise exactly enough to buy your first liquidity
treat your first round as a cold-start purchase: raise what buys initial liquidity and a couple months of market-maker retainers, then raise again on proof.
what to do
Size your first round around the cold start. Raise enough to seed initial liquidity and pay market-maker retainers for a couple of months. Prove the thing holds, then raise scaling capital on that proof.
for example
A team building a venue that needed liquidity to work on day one asked how big a first round to raise. I told them to raise the amount that buys working liquidity plus two months of market-maker cost. A smaller round against a clear milestone is easier to close, and the proof you buy with it makes the next round cheaper.
the failure it prevents
Raising a large round on a story, spending it on headcount, and still having an empty venue because none of it went to the one thing that makes the product usable.
when this doesn’t apply
If your product works fine at zero liquidity and the only risk is building it, size the round around the build instead.