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Seed rounds are larger because baseline of seed has changed. Investors expect you to derisk lot of things when you try to raise capital during seed as compared

Seed rounds are larger because baseline of seed has changed. Investors expect you to derisk lot of things when you try to raise capital during seed as compared to what it used to be back in the day simply because today barrier to create SaaS product is low. You do not need ton money to create something to validate whether your product works or not. Yes there are many SaaS products than before but there are many successful SaaS products than before too. You really have to standout and innovate now more than ever. That means, when you launch in Hacker News or Product Hunt, your product cannot be premature. My opinion is that if you are a serious company you should delay launching on HN or PH as much as you can. Once you are out, the destiny of the product is not your control. Imagine if the campaign fails, you are going to have hard time explaining to investors why the campaign failed. Instead, I think one can control all the odds around the product, de-risk by making sure there is a pre-existing group of dedicated users already and then launch.

skrebbel 5y ago
I strongly disagree. HN/PH launches are short lived media events with (usually) little lasting impact. If you blame a failed HN launch campaign for a failing company then I don't believe your company was ever going to make it in the first place. Your product should be easy to find as early as possible. You need the customer feedback to build the right thing and you need the compounding effects of an early internet presence (eg SEO). Don't hold back launching, launch while you're still at least somewhat embarrassed of your product.
- debarshri 5y ago
  I understand what you are saying. But your argument is true when you are bootstrapping a product. When you have already raised a pre-seed, whichbis what many companies are doing today. What have told a narrative to the investors to raise capital. When campaigns fail, it implies your narrative was incorrect and your understanding about the domain and market was wrong. Which might not be on entrepreneurs favour. When you are building a high growth startup these little lasting events can make or break. I have seen it happening with many companies.

skrebbel 5y ago

I strongly disagree. HN/PH launches are short lived media events with (usually) little lasting impact. If you blame a failed HN launch campaign for a failing company then I don't believe your company was ever going to make it in the first place. Your product should be easy to find as early as possible. You need the customer feedback to build the right thing and you need the compounding effects of an early internet presence (eg SEO). Don't hold back launching, launch while you're still at least somewhat embarrassed of your product.

debarshri 5y ago
I understand what you are saying. But your argument is true when you are bootstrapping a product. When you have already raised a pre-seed, whichbis what many companies are doing today. What have told a narrative to the investors to raise capital. When campaigns fail, it implies your narrative was incorrect and your understanding about the domain and market was wrong. Which might not be on entrepreneurs favour. When you are building a high growth startup these little lasting events can make or break. I have seen it happening with many companies.