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>I see myself and my work as being an “early venture investor.” I work to carefully and selectively build a concentrated portfolio of companies that are clearly

>I see myself and my work as being an “early venture investor.” I work to carefully and selectively build a concentrated portfolio of companies that are clearly “pre A” in terms of stage, but where I believe the likelihood of “getting to A” is high and where I will intend to work hard with each one of them in order to get there. Why should one take investments from an investor with a portfolio that is limited to 'pre A'? Doesn't investor selection come down to finding a network that can give you access to early customers and industry experts? Where is that access when they hand over the successful companies to others?

onion2k 6y ago
Doesn't investor selection come down to finding a network that can give you access to early customers and industry experts? For some companies it does, but if you're pre-series A there's probably work to do before you have anything to put in front of a customer or an expert. If that work needs money then this is the sort of investor you approach. Back when I was doing startup stuff (about 10 years ago) we called this a seed round. You could raise with literally just an idea on paper - you might have had no prototypes or traction or customers at all. These days you need all those things just to get on to an accelerator. It's a bit sad. There were more fun and crazy ideas being worked on when it was easier to get initial funding.