How to Fundraise in a Bear Market

A few weeks ago, Wonny Lee set out to raise a seed round for his Korea-inspired e-commerce fragrance brand, Elorea, which he founded with his wife Su min Park, in 2021.

A veteran of the direct-to-consumer space — he was the head of marketing at sneaker brand Greats, which sold to Steve Madden in 2019 — Lee anticipated the process to be fairly straightforward: Having already raised an initial round and demonstrated Elorea’s proof of…