20VC: The Three Types of Seed Round Today, Why Seed Has Never Been More Competitive, Why Pricing Has Never Been Higher, Why Boards at Pre-Seed Can Be Helpful & How Too Much Cash Too Soon Can Harm Comp

Twenty Minute VC Key Takeaways  The best talent wants to join a company not at the highest price, but at the best price with the right amount of capital for the right risk There are three types of seed rounds: Discovery (sub $2m), Classic ($3m to $5m), and Megatron Jumbo ($5m+)To win in today’s venture climate, you must get “ball control” in any round that is presented to youBe as disciplined as possible concerning your entry price “I think AI is the most transformational thing that we are ever going to see in a long time. However, I still think it’s f***ing hard to make money there.” – Ed Sim  While some people encourage investors to perpetually lean into their investments, sometimes it is best to lean out and strategically sell in increments over time Ownership matters, but it must also be balanced out with valuations The hardest problems to solve often take longer to solve; businesses working on addressing these problems may appear “slow”, but they might be massive winners in the long run Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org Ed Sim is one of the best seed round investors in venture as the Founder and Managing Partner @ Boldstart, Ed focuses specifically on developer, infra and SaaS at pre-seed and seed round. Over the last decade, Ed has backed some of the best including Snyk, BigID, Kustomer, Front and Superhuman. In Today's Episode on Seed Rounds We Discuss: The Three Types of Seed Round: What are the three different types of seed round today? Has seed ever been this competitive? Will seed be unimpacted by the macro decline we are seeing? Why are growth and multi-stage funds being more active than ever in seed? 2. Too Much Cash Will Kill You! Why does Ed believe that too much capital can kill companies at the seed round? Why does Ed believe that the best founders are not always optimising for the highest price? What are the single biggest negatives of taking a high price at the seed round? What advice does Ed have for founders who have large offers from multi-stage funds at seed? 3. Is Growth Dead? Why does Ed disagree and suggest that growth is not dead? What do multi-stage and growth funds now what to see that they did not before? How will the growth market evolve over the next 12-18 months? 4. IPOs, AI and M&A: What will cause the IPO windows to crack open again? Why does Ed believe that many investing in AI are simply giving money to Nvidia? Does Ed agree that 95% of the cash going into AI from venture today will go to zero? Will we see more or less M&A in the next 12 months? How did Ed evaluate the Loom acquisition by Atlassian?