For startups, Christmas comes in November. Partners come back from vacation in September and deals start closing a few months later ; since the credit crisis deferred fund-raising for most of the past year, November 2009 will probably end up being especially busy. Redfin is one of the companies that just closed a round . Already the process has resulted in a huge shift in our mindset: from just surviving to building a juggernaut . That shift is one every startup can try on for size, whether it needs capital or not, by asking itself the same basic questions that VCs asked us.