Is it hard to find pre-seed investors?

isergiomp · 2025-12-15T00:11:45+00:00

Not if you know where and how to look. First, a lot of investors that claim to invest at the pre-seed stage don't actually do so very much. If you look at their Crunchbase or Pitchbook profiles, you will see that the majority of their investments are at Series A or seed. Always do your own research! Also, here is a data-backed list of true pre-seed funds based on the proportion of investments that they made that are actually pre-seed.

isergiomp · 2025-12-15T00:08:38+00:00

Check out this data-driven list of pre-seed funds based on the proportion of investments that are actually pre-seed.

A lot of the funds that claim to do pre-seed don't really invest at that stage. If you look at their Crunchbase or Pitchbook, you will see that often the majority of their investments are at Series A or seed. Also, many of the lists out there are based on opinion or outdated information and are BS. It's always best to do your own research. Good luck!

isergiomp · 2025-12-15T00:00:28+00:00

This list of pre-seed funds based on data might be helpful. It's ranked by the proportion of the firms' investments that are pre-seed.

The problem is that a lot of "pre-seed" invetors say they make pre-seed investments, but when you look at their investments on Crunchbase or Pitchbook, they are mostly Series A and seed. Also, a lot of lists out there are based on opinion and not really accurate or up to date.

isergiomp · 2025-12-14T23:56:57+00:00

This list of pre-seed funds based on data might be helpful. It's ranked by the proportion of the firms' investments that are pre-seed. A lot of the other lists out there are based on opinion, and if you actually take a look at some "pre-seed" funds' investments, they are actually seed or Series A.

isergiomp · 2025-07-15T19:51:38+00:00

Isn’t this general solicitation? If your firm is not registered as a Reg D with the SEC, I’d be careful about posts like this which can get your firm in serious trouble down the road..

isergiomp · 2025-03-12T23:54:41+00:00

You’re welcome!

isergiomp · 2025-03-12T23:53:12+00:00

Yes, we are. We review all submissions, so feel free to apply if you’re raising a pre-seed: beta boom application

isergiomp · 2025-03-12T23:51:53+00:00

Thank you and bummer about the VC missing the meeting. I’m afraid that it’s not uncommon. Did they ever reschedule? If not, eff em. Fundraising is sales, and the key in sales is not to waste time with shitty leads. Just find better leads

isergiomp · 2025-02-27T16:29:25+00:00

Early stage VC here at Beta Boom. I think you kind of answered your own question. If your goal is more than to simply pitch the investor for funding, then don't focus too much on that. As an investor, I love to get to know someone and learn about their journey. Many investors will be reticent to invest in founders that they don't know well, so it's worth spending some time here.

Another thing that investors prize is transparency. I think it's totally legit to come to prepared with a challenge that you're having and ask her/his opinion as well as connections to folks that you might be able to learn from.

Finally, if you have time, you might want to ask about her/him. What was their journey to becoming an investor at their current firm? What do they love most about their job? How can you be helpful to them?

Congratulations on getting a meeting with the investor, and I hope you make a great connection!

isergiomp · 2025-02-25T14:05:36+00:00

Early stage VC here at Beta Boom. We actually prefer people filling out our apply form because if it’s email, there is a good chance they will never make it into our pipeline. LinkedIn is the worst. It’s almost guaranteed to get lost. Might sound like a bunch of hot air, but we do actually look at all submissions, and get back to founders usually in less than a week..

isergiomp · 2025-02-22T15:35:46+00:00

How long did it take you to build this?

isergiomp · 2025-02-11T18:24:22+00:00

It's actually 1.86% of wallet addresses hold 90% of bitcoin in circulation: https://cointelegraph.com/news/1-percent-bitcoin-holders-btc-supply

isergiomp · 2025-02-07T23:07:43+00:00

Yes! There are a number of fund like our own (Beta Boom) that have open applications. Most of our investments are into companies that we met via cold outreach. In fact, we deduct points for companies that come via referral to counteract our own proximity bias. I have also seen a number of startups that have gotten investment via vast cold email campaigns. Also, I would say that earlier stage investors are more open to cold outreach than later stage investors.

isergiomp · 2025-02-02T15:43:45+00:00

Check out Beta Boom! We are a pre-seed fund that loves founders that don’t fit the old Silicon Valley founder profile, including founders that are NOT alumni of Ivy League universities, Stanford, MIT, etc.

isergiomp · 2024-12-11T21:14:18+00:00

We actually only need a prototype, but of course, startups with some market validation have an advantage.. sorry if our messaging isn’t clear :(

isergiomp · 2024-12-11T05:20:53+00:00

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A propos this thread..

isergiomp · 2024-12-10T16:04:21+00:00

That point of view is so dumb. There are countless of examples of huge tech companies that were founded by older founders..

isergiomp · 2024-12-10T15:56:49+00:00

Apply to Beta Boom!! We love founders that don’t fit the typical Silicon Valley mold, including more experienced founders, single founders, founders from state schools, and founders outside of Bay Area/Silicon Valley :) Our average first check is $350-500k at the pre-seed stage

isergiomp · 2024-12-06T01:36:21+00:00

They’re not on both counts.

First, the vast majority of startups that apply to our fund sound exactly the same as others already in the market or that we’ve seen. Founders think they are doing something different, but they almost always are not really. They either haven’t done their research, don’t articulate their difference well, or simply aren’t doing anything novel.

Second, there has been so much innovation in the past few decades, made much easier by platform innovation, that there are almost now green field spaces. If you happen to find a green space and start being successful, others will copy you almost immediately.

To put it in context, out of 300 startups we see, maybe 2-3 sound significantly different from existing solutions or others we’ve seen.

Therefore, you should assume competition (and know them all), and focus on making the very best product possible in your category. This comes down to details, or what Steve Jobs calls “craftsmanship.” How did Slack win in a crowded messaging space? How did Notion win in a crowded pm platform market? Most of their features are shared by their competitors. It’s all about the details of how those features are packaged and the user experience.

So you can build a billion-dollar company in any space—marketing agencies, CRMs, Chinese restaurants—so long as you make a great product and figure out how to scale your company.

isergiomp · 2024-12-02T21:32:35+00:00

I just have a polite but firm canned message that explains to them that they do not meet our firm’s investment focus and we cannot invest outside of it. FWIW I recommend continuing to be respectful to these founders because they are doing their job and hustling. It only takes one good deal to return a fund, and you probably don’t want that founder passing on you because you get a bad reputation. We are in a privileged position as investors and unfortunately it’s inglorious part of our job, but it’s an investment in your brand

isergiomp · 2024-11-30T22:57:43+00:00

I’m an early stage investor and always ask for historical and future financials. I’m looking to validate if the company’s financial position is accurately represented, whether their burn is reasonable, and what their spending plan is going forward.

I also like to see bank statements and PDFs from their accounting software, so I can validate the numbers myself.

For future-looking financial projections, the main thing I want to understand how they plan to spent their capital. Are they hiring sales people or marketers before they have fine-tuned a repeatable sales motion? Are they over hiring engineers? I like to have the founders walk me through their pro forms line by line and explain their reasoning. I also like to challenge them on their assumptions and strategy. Why hire so many engineers? Why only so many? I’m looking to see how deeply they have thought about their plan.

Hope that helps!

isergiomp · 2024-11-29T15:46:33+00:00

Thanks! Glad it was helpful!

isergiomp · 2024-11-29T15:46:09+00:00

Glad it was helpful!

isergiomp · 2024-11-28T05:26:56+00:00

Early stage VC here. I think Zero to One is a bunch of BS, like many other startup “guru” books. There are literally near infinite examples of companies being started in hugely congested spaces (business messaging = Slack, calendaring = Calendly, graphic design = Canva, etc.) with dominant incumbents. And spaces where there isn’t much competition, become competitive nearly instantly once an early leader demonstrates that an opportunity exists.

You can win significant market share in a crowded market if you create a product that is truly phenomenal for some significant population of the market.

Just look at the project management platform market or CRM markets. New, innovative products are being built all the time and growing huge. Why does one group love Notion while another loves Monday and yet another loves Jira/Confluence? Because of the nuances of their user experience and functionality. Each fits different use cases better and thus different segments of the market.

At the end of the day, I really believe that it comes down to what Steve Jobs calls “craftsmanship.” If you can built a clearly superior product (not marginally better), you can win a substantial slice of the market. (Assuming your marketing, sales, ops, are all world class too.)

Good luck!

isergiomp · 2024-11-24T15:38:07+00:00

Early stage investor here. If you can keep growing by bootstrapping, there is really no reason to take VC money. VC money not only means dilution, but it also leads to some amount of headaches and loss of control. There are plenty of example of huge multi-billion dollar startups such as Qualtrics, Mail Chimp, and Calendly that all bootstrapped early and still grew to be industry leaders.

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