What is a party round?

A party round is an early financing made of many small checks with no lead — a crowd of angels and funds each with too little at stake to diligence deeply or support the company hard later. The name is mildly pejorative.

The risk shows up in the next raise or the first crisis: nobody owns the outcome, nobody's reserves are earmarked, and no one makes the intro calls a committed lead makes. A hybrid — modest lead plus a broad angel list for networks — captures most of the upside without the orphaned-round problem.