16 pre-seed funds: what they want, what they read, what to build
From @daleverett's list, 17 Aug 2026. Every application form below was opened and read. Each card carries the exact deck and video specification that fund demands, what the partners publicly argue for, and what to read before writing a word.
Geography: India-based, moving to the US, selling to the US
Checked against every gate. The answer splits three ways, and one fund closes the "we intend to move" door in writing.
Hard no
Right Side Capital. Their disqualifier list names India, then adds two sentences that kill both workarounds: "Even if the corporate entity is domiciled in the US. Even if the company intends to move its operations to a jurisdiction where we do invest." A Delaware entity does not help. Stated intent to relocate does not help. Only being operationally based there counts, and even then you would still need $5K to $30K MRR, and their auto-reject list includes food, beverage, nutrition and beauty goods.
Hard no
LDV Capital. North America and Europe only, and the thesis gate (visual technology) binds before geography does.
Soft, exception invited
Outlander VC. The form throws a screen reading "We only invest in U.S. & Canada-based companies at this time" if you pick anywhere else. It does not block you. It says you may continue, or submit what you have, and "if we believe an exception might be made, we'll reach out." So this is worth doing, with the US move stated plainly in the team paragraph rather than buried. Note the same mechanism gates CPG.
Form says yes, stated focus does not
Hustle Fund. The form lists "Asia - India / Pakistan / Bangladesh" as a valid option for both where you are incorporated and where your customers are. But their FAQ names the US, Canada and Southeast Asia, with Africa and Latin America as selective. India sits in the gap. Lead with US customers on the customer-location question, and answer the Delaware C Corp question honestly.
Verify
2048 Ventures. Fund II was raised specifically for US and Canada investments per BetaKit's coverage. No geographic restriction is stated on their pitch page. Ask before spending time, or submit and let them tell you.
Soft mismatch
Actions Capital. Roughly 80% US and 20% Latin America by their own description. India is not named either way. Since the route is a cold email rather than a form, there is no gate to fail, but geography is not in their pattern.
Yes, no obstacle
PearX. HQ country is a free text field with no gate, and the programme requires relocation to the Bay Area for 12 weeks regardless of where you started. India-based and willing to move is not an exception here, it is the standard path. Afore. "Where are you currently based" is free text. They state any industry, globally located. The FIR programme is eight weeks in their SF office, not a permanent move. Precursor. Country dropdown is US, Canada, Mexico, Other. Other is a valid submission. The legal structure question accepts a planned structure, so "intended Delaware C-Corp" is a complete answer. GoAhead. Their site says all technology sectors and all geographies. Redbud. Global reach from a Missouri base, and their stated policy is they invest in anyone regardless of pedigree or intro path. Boost VC. Location is free text with no geographic gate. The deep tech thesis is what binds, not where you are. Founders Inc. No stated geographic gate. The commitment is two weeks on their SF campus. Charge. NYC fund, no stated geographic restriction, no form to gate you.
Deck and video variants you actually need
Six deck variants and three video assets cover all sixteen. The specs are incompatible in places, so one master file will not work.
Variant
Spec
Who needs it
Deck A Gated link
DocSend link, or a shareable PDF link. Not a data room, not Drive, not any other host.
Precursor. Their form states data rooms will be rejected and other file types and hosting services will not be accepted.
Deck B Ungated link
Public link, anyone-with-link can view. A DocSend with an email wall fails this instruction.
Afore. Their form says "ensure public access is turned on."
Deck C PDF file
An actual .pdf you upload from your machine.
Outlander (required), PearX (drop or browse), GoAhead (optional, PDF preferred), Hustle Fund (optional).
Deck C plus a market slide showing the arithmetic: customers multiplied by revenue per customer, with the workings visible.
PearX asks for the calculation, not the number. Pear's own guidance says bottom-up beats top-down TAM. Redbud wants market analysis, competitive landscape and financial projections.
Deck F No deck, docs
Cap table, monthly P&L, recent balance sheet, customer information.
Right Side. No deck at submission. These come before the call.
Video 1 Founder intro
60 seconds, hard cap. Introduces the founders and the company. Unlisted YouTube link.
PearX (required, states 1 min). 2048 (required, no stated length, so the PearX cut works for both).
Video 2 Product demo
No stated length. Unlisted YouTube link.
PearX (optional field), 2048 (optional field).
Video 3 Live pitch
Cannot be prepared as a file. Recorded live on their platform, one question, elevator length. There is a practice question first.
GoAhead. All three managing partners watch it.
Numbers and prose to lock before you open anything
Exact figures
Amount raising this round, exact USD.Hustle Fund wants a number, not a band. Boost wants the number plus a valuation target or range. Precursor only asks under or over $10M.
Post-money valuation target, exact USD.Hustle Fund wants a number. Precursor asks under or over $30M. Outlander gates on their 10% ownership minimum against a $500K to $2.5M entry check.
Funding raised to date, format "$xx Investor 1, $yy Investor 2". If nothing, "0".PearX specifies this format.
Current realised monthly revenue, plain number. Zero is acceptable.Afore asks for a decimal and states traction is not required. Hustle Fund asks for a band.
Equity split, format [Founder 1: xx%, Founder 2: yy%].PearX specifies this format.
Customer interview count, and whether the product is live.PearX asks both in one field.
Founding team diversity for members over 15% equity: gender identities and racial or ethnic identities represented.Outlander asks both as required. Nobody else does.
Prose to draft once, then trim
One-line description.PearX, Boost, Hustle Fund.
Problem in one to two sentences. Solution in one to two sentences.Hustle Fund.
Target customer and how you acquire them.Hustle Fund, Boost.
What you are building and why, 2 to 3 sentences.Outlander, PearX.
Your unique insight into this problem.PearX, required and standalone.
Why you are the right person to lead this.Boost, Outlander.
Competitors and how you differ.PearX.
What the company looks like in 10 years.Boost.
"What makes you an outlier?"PearX, verbatim, required.
A time you tackled a problem in a novel way and achieved something impressive.PearX, required.
Pick one: proudest accomplishment before 21, craziest situation you have been in, or a hobby unrelated to the startup.Boost, required.
Five sentences: what ideas excite you, how you landed on this one, why you like this problem space.Afore specifies all three parts.
A paragraph on the team.Outlander.
How you heard about them.Every single form asks. Have a real answer.
The cards
01Precursor Ventures 5 min
precursorvc.com · SF and NY · Generalist including digital health · India submittable
Deck A. DocSend link or a shareable PDF link, nothing else. Verbatim: "Pitch decks only. Data rooms will be rejected. Other file types and hosting services will not be accepted."
No video field. No revenue field. No essay field.
The deck is the entire pitch. This form gives you no writing space at all, so everything you would say has to be on the slides.
Website field: they explicitly reject LinkedIn, YouTube and Drive URLs here. Leave blank rather than substituting.
Other fields
Name, email, relationship to company. Company name, what it does, industry from a fixed list that includes Digital Health.
Founder LinkedIn, CEO only if several. Country (US / Canada / Mexico / Other). Legal structure, current or intended.
Round, round size (under or over $10M), pre-money (under $30M / over $30M / unavailable).
Who decides
Charles Hudson, Founder and Managing Partner. No investment committee, so one person's judgment is the whole process.
What he actually argues, and what to read
He writes weekly on Substack and appears as a live investor on The Pitch, so you can hear him react to real pitches before you submit.
Seed funds must pick a lane now that multi-stage firms are permanent at seed. His sketch of the split: seed specialists back founders without track records aiming at $1B outcomes, while big funds take repeat founders. Three Future States of the Early-Stage VC Ecosystem
He publicly airs discomfort about AI displacing white collar work faster than predicted, and asks who takes responsibility. Uncomfortable and Unanswered Questions
hustlefund.vc · Generalist · $100K to $150K at pre-seed · Days to a decision
Apply
Typeform, fully open, their estimate is 5 minutes, rolling review.
Deck spec, published by the fund
Deck D, five slides: Team, Problem, Solution, Market, Traction. Eric Bahn wrote this as their explicit standard. Team comes first, and his reasoning is that "investors are not just investing in your idea; they are investing in you and your co-founders."
Deck field accepts either a link or a file upload. Both optional, so a strong form answer can carry it alone.
No video field.
Two exact dollar figures required: amount raising in USD and post-money valuation target in USD. Not bands. Decide both before opening the form.
The written questions, in their order
Problem in one to two sentences. Solution in one to two sentences. Target customer and how you acquire them.
Product status, active users yes or no, how many users, revenue yes or no, monthly revenue band, expected main revenue source.
Where incorporated (India listed), Delaware C Corp yes or no, where customers are based, where the founding team is, full time 40+ hours and for how long.
If reapplying: what has changed since last time.
Who decides
Elizabeth Yin, Eric Bahn, Shiyan Koh, co-founders and GPs. Each can approve alone. 1,000+ deals reviewed a month.
What they actually argue, and what to read
The highest-volume, most tactical writers on this whole list. Elizabeth Yin in particular publishes her own rejection criteria.
Her rejection checklist: vague ICP, "we have no competition," can't speak the customer's language, in love with the solution not the problem, no learning velocity, magical unit economics. Her line: "The best founders are problem-obsessed. Their solution is just their current best hypothesis."10 reasons VCs are not investing
She argues current AI valuations are a temporary demand bubble, and states plainly that "raising too much money is a major cause for startup decline."The wide path
Eric Bahn's thesis is literally hustle: exceptional productivity with few resources, rapid adaptation when the hypothesis breaks, relentless metric focus. He also rewards founders who build in public and send honest investor updates. His thesis · His own fundraise pitch, published
Shiyan Koh: "At pre-seed, depth is the product." Not polish. Deeper understanding of customer and history than anyone else in the room. Depth Is the Thing You're Selling
Early deadline 16 August, passed. Regular deadline 4 October, 11:59pm PST, decisions by early November. Cohort starts January 2027, 12 weeks, Demo Day first week of April 2027. R1 interview is 10 minutes on Zoom. R2 is 20 minutes in person at Pear Studio SF with two or more partners.
Deck and video spec, the heaviest on the list
Video 1, required:"Please record a 1-min video introducing yourselves and the company." Sixty seconds, and it must cover both you and the company. Submitted as an unlisted YouTube link.
Video 2, optional: product demo, unlisted YouTube link, no stated length.
Deck C, PDF upload. Drop or browse, from your machine.
Deck E addition: they ask for market size with "a bottoms-up calculation of how you estimated the market size." A top-down TAM slide does not answer this. Pear's own guidance is customers multiplied by revenue per customer.
The six written answers
What are you building, and why.
What unique insight do you have into this problem.
How far along are you, including customer interview count and whether the product is live.
Competitors and differentiation.
"An example of a time you tackled a problem in a novel way and achieved something truly impressive."
"We are looking for outlier founders. What makes you an outlier?"
Plus: HQ country and city, funding raised in their format, industry, one-liner, founder count, time on the company, equity split, CEO details, full time or part time, student yes or no, prior PearX applications, how you first heard about them.
Who decides
Pejman Nozad and Mar Hershenson, Founding Managing Partners, plus ten-odd partners. Under 1% acceptance, roughly 20 teams a batch.
What they actually argue, and what to read
Read this before writing anything: their published evaluation frame is three axes, execution, market and customer knowledge, and character defined as integrity, obsession and self-awareness. It also states bottom-up sizing beats top-down TAM, which is why the form asks for the arithmetic. What early-stage VCs actually look for
Mar Hershenson calls their stage "zero stage," not pre-seed, and says "most investors in our firm have been founders and we know how hard and intense it is to go through the search of PMF." She adds they are "not very valuation sensitive."Interview
Pivots are expected, not penalised. Pejman publishes batch numbers including seven pivots supported in one cohort, three from zero, with median revenue moving from $4K to $115K ARR across twelve weeks. Useful signal if your thesis is still moving.
Their AI services thesis: "If you sell the AI tool, you're in a race against the model. If you sell the outcome, every model improvement makes your service faster, cheaper, and harder to compete with."Sell the outcome, not the AI tool
Female Founders Circles, Persian Founders Circles, Dorm. Lower friction than the application.
04Afore Capital 10 min
afore.vc · Any industry, globally located · Pre-traction fine · Reapplication invited
Apply
Airtable form, covering Pre-Seed Checks and Founders-In-Residence. No referral needed. Reply within a week or two. Questions: jack@afore.vc
Deck spec, and it conflicts with Precursor's
Deck B, ungated public link. Their instruction: "Ensure public access is turned on, anyone with link can view." A DocSend behind an email wall does not satisfy this. You need a second, open link.
Optional for FIR, strongly suggested for pre-seed checks.
No video field.
Revenue as a plain number, zero accepted. They state they do not require traction or even a product.
The one written answer
Roughly five sentences covering three things: what ideas you are excited by, how you landed on this idea, why you like this problem space. A demo or URL can go in the same field. Everything else is a dropdown or a single line.
Check
Form states $50K to $2M for pre-seed checks, $50K to $750K+ for FIR. A dozen or so pre-seed checks a year. FIR is eight weeks in their SF office, money wired on acceptance, start date of your choosing.
Who decides
Gaurav Jain and Anamitra Banerji, co-founders and Managing Partners. Banerji built the first ads product at Twitter.
What they actually argue, and what to read
Gaurav Jain published his scoring rubric. Three rules. First, judge whether the team can get to first base, not to a billion. Second, "at the pre-traction stage, a thoughtful product strategy trumps an elaborate distribution plan." Third, he wants founders who understand the use case better than people who spent years in it, hold a contrarian view against incumbents, and have already identified their first five hires from their own network. His tell: "Growth keeps them up at night, not scale."The Pre-Seed Framework
He argues momentum is the only moat at pre-seed, that AI-native startups reach $1M ARR roughly twice as fast, and that pivoting every six to eight weeks is healthy rather than a failure signal. Tank Talks interview
Anamitra Banerji on selection: "We look for obsession and resilience, the ability to get up when you fall down." And on outcomes: 64% of their companies skipped seed and went straight to Series A. The Peel with Turner Novak
Lowest friction serious form here, and they invite reapplication. One application showing a specific 90-day plan, then a second showing you hit it, is a path they designed for.
052048 Ventures 10 min
2048.vc · Vertical AI, deep tech, health, bio · $500K to $3M · 10 to 15 business days
Apply
2048.vc/pitch. They state they review 100% of cold pitches and reach out quickly if there is a fit. No reply is a pass.
Deck and video spec
Pitch deck link, required.
Founder video link, required. No stated length, so the 60-second PearX cut serves both.
Product video link, optional.
Founding team LinkedIn profiles, plus company description and your vision as text.
Their own reasoning for the video requirement: a standard form beats inconsistent emails, and having these assets ready serves every other investor conversation too. How to pitch 2048 without an introduction
Who decides
Alex Iskold, Founder and Partner, previously MD of Techstars NYC. Zann Ali and Julie Wolf, Partners.
What he actually argues, and what to read
Alex Iskold is the most explicit person on this list about what makes him pass. Read him before you write a single word to any of the sixteen.
His hard nos, published: anyone but the CEO doing the outreach ("fundraising is the job of a CEO, period, full stop"), "we have no competition," discussing CAC and LTV at pre-seed, absurd TAM, needing funding to hire a technical co-founder, raising "to extend runway," discussing exit strategy. And: "When founders say their customers are everyone, VCs hear that the founder doesn't truly understand the customers or the market."18 Mistakes Founders Make When Pitching Pre-Seed
His favourite archetype is the "Unfinished Business Founder": someone returning to the same problem space they already know, with what he calls "at least 2x unfair advantage, Mission plus Domain Knowledge." He explicitly disfavours founders hopping to whatever sector is trending. The Unfinished Business Founders
goaheadvc.com · Menlo Park · All sectors, all geographies · $500K to $1M · ~6 days
Apply
Video pitch portal or pitch@goaheadvc.com. Note goaheadventures.com is a parked domain, not theirs.
Video spec, and this one cannot be prepared as a file
Video 3. A single live-recorded elevator pitch, on their platform, in the browser. You cannot upload a polished cut.
There is a practice question first. Use it.
All three managing partners watch it. They review 3,000+ a year.
Optional deck upload, PDF preferred, Deck C works.
Text fields before the recording: name, email, company name, company website, founder LinkedIn, how you found them.
Their process
Reply within 3 days. If invited, extra diligence questions plus a Zoom partner pitch. The day after that pitch at 5pm Pacific, a final decision released as a signable SAFE or a pass. They require your decision on an offer within 3 days, and wire within 24 hours of an accepted term sheet.
Who decides
Clancey Stahr, Phil Brady, Takeshi "TK" Mori. Non-consensus, any one can greenlight.
What they value
"We invest in people not business scripts." They say openly they dislike that VC became cold-email screening, which is exactly why the door is a video of you talking. Rehearse out loud before opening the link.
07Redbud VC 10 min
redbud.vc · Columbia, Missouri · Generalist, no industry bias · Global · Decisions in 3 weeks or less
Apply
redbud.vc/pitch, an embedded Tally form. Stated policy: "We invest in anyone, regardless of pedigree or intro path."
Deck spec
Deck E. They want the deck to state the problem, the solution, and the founding team's unique insight, plus market analysis, competitive landscape and financial projections.
No video requirement.
Their process: intro chat, diligence requests, diligence chat, partners chat, in-depth diligence, offer. Roughly one investment a month.
Who decides
GPs Willy Schlacks, Jabbok Schlacks and Brett Calhoun. The Schlacks brothers built EquipmentShare. Operator advisors include Jim McKelvey (Block), Wade Foster (Zapier), Lori Coulter (Summersalt).
What they value
One sentence thesis: "Investing in people strengthened by struggle." They argue resilience is the greatest driver of venture returns. Published portfolio composition: 61% first-time founders, 45% immigrants, 48% with Midwest roots. First institutional believer in over 60% of the portfolio. The adversity narrative is the underwriting here, not decoration. Of the sixteen, this is where a personal origin story does the most work.
08Outlander VC 15 min
outlander.vc · Atlanta and SF · US and Canada with exceptions · 10% ownership minimum on $500K to $2.5M
Deck C, file upload, required. A file, not a link. This is the only fund on the list that hard-requires an upload with no link alternative.
No video.
Diversity fields, required: gender identities and racial or ethnic identities represented on the founding team among members holding over 15% equity. Unique to this fund.
Written answers
What you are building and why, 2 to 3 sentences.
A paragraph on the team, plus who is building your technology.
Stage, previously raised, raising now, business address, primary industry.
Three soft gates fire as interruption screens rather than blocks: anywhere outside US and Canada, CPG companies, and rounds that break their ownership model. Each says you may continue, and "if we believe an exception might be made, we'll reach out."
Who decides
Paige Craig, Founder and Managing Partner. Former Marine, bootstrapped a private military company past $300M revenue, then seed-invested in Lyft, Wish, Gusto, Postmates, Twitter, Opendoor, ClassPass, Scale and Andela. Leura Craig, Managing Partner, founded Laurel & Wolf and raised $30M+ from CRV and Benchmark. Jeremy Johnson, Operating Partner, co-founded 2U and Andela.
What they value
Paige Craig's 38-point Founder Framework, scoring character, vision, intelligence and execution. They invest "even before revenue or product." The framework is published. Reading it and answering its four axes directly in the form is the highest-leverage prep available anywhere on this list.
09Boost VC 30 min
boost.vc · San Mateo · $500K · 70+ startups a year · Reply in 1 to 2 weeks
Apply
Fillout form. Add notifications@fillout.com to accepted senders. A separate $50K Fellowship Check application exists for earlier teams.
No deck, no video, six essays
There is no deck field and no video field. This form is pure writing, so nothing you have prepared elsewhere transfers except the content.
Their instruction on length: "Be brief, be thorough, be you. There's no right or wrong length of answer for any of these questions."
The six: progress across tech, traction and funding. Who your customers are and what problem you solve. Why you started this and why you are the right person. What the startup looks like in 10 years. How much you are raising plus valuation target. And one personal question, pick from: proudest accomplishment before 21, the craziest situation you have been in, or a hobby unrelated to the startup.
Reapplying: a field for milestones hit since last time.
Who decides
Adam Draper, Managing Director and founder, fourth-generation VC, angel in Coinbase and Amplitude. Brayton Williams, Co-Founder and Partner. Maddie Callander and Gus Domel PhD, Partners.
What he actually argues, and what to read
Three criteria, published: Team (genuine passion and energy), Timing (social, technical or regulatory pressure forcing change), Vision (explicitly "ambitious goals that other investors won't fund"). The bar is that the company must "make 1 billion lives better."
Health is currently his stated number one frontier, and he wants it consumer-direct."Health is priority #1, and it's about time we empower the individual with their health." He is looking for startups going direct to the consumer, with a bias toward persistent monitoring and preventative over reactive medicine. His framing question: "What are THE most important things that the average human should have access to in order to live well?"Sci-Fi Health
The stated frame is deep tech and "sci-fi a reality," with named portfolio K2 Space, Deepgram, Radiant Nuclear, Colossal Biosciences, New Limit. The Sci-Fi Health post is the one opening in an otherwise hard-tech thesis.
10Charge Ventures Email
charge.vc · New York · AI, SaaS, marketplaces, future of work, health · ~$500K, will lead
Apply
No public form. Email, LinkedIn or X. Team: charge.vc/team
No form, so the email is the application
Deck attached as PDF or linked, no stated preference. Deck C plus a link both work.
Subject line, three sentences, deck link. That is the whole surface area.
They are numbers people. Brett Martin still ships SaaS products himself, teaches at Columbia Business School, and the firm built and maintains statsforstartups.com. Benchmark-framed metrics land better here than narrative.
Who decides
Brett Martin, Co-Founder and General Partner. Chris Habachy, General Partner. Venture Partners Thanos Papadimitriou and Antonis Papantoniou. Alessandro Piazza, Quantitative Researcher.
What they value
"When others wait, we Charge." Instead of a platform team they run The Collective, a decentralized network of founders and operators giving on-demand expertise. Writing at medium.com/chargevc.
11Actions Capital (formerly K50) Email
actions.capital · New York · Healthcare, financial services, industrials · $500K to $2M
Apply
hello@actions.capital. Their line: introductions help but "cold emails work too if they're thoughtful."
No form, the email carries everything
Deck attached or linked, no stated spec.
The thesis line to write against is theirs: founders with "a rare edge, a deep connection to the problem they are solving, an uncommon skill set, or a lived experience that gives them unfair advantage."
Of the sixteen, this is the most explicit written invitation to lead with founder-problem fit rather than metrics.
Who decides
Ryan Bloomer, Founder and Managing Partner. Daniel Vásquez, Managing Partner. Adriel Bercow, General Partner. Three-person investment committee. Each partner makes only 2 to 3 new investments a year, so the per-partner bar is high.
Check
$500K to $2M initial, $1M average, roughly 10% target ownership with reserves through Series A. 75% pre-seed at idea or prototype stage. Healthcare focus covers personalized care, AI infrastructure, diagnostics and therapeutics.
12Founders Inc (f.inc) Email gate
f.inc · Fort Mason, San Francisco · $100K to $250K first checks · Rolling
Multi-step. The first screen asks only for your email, then unlocks the rest, so you cannot preview the questions or budget time for them.
What you are applying to, in their words: "an application to join our campus for two weeks, where we'll get to know you and consider you for investment." An in-person commitment, not a wire request.
Who decides
Furqan Rydhan, Founder. Hubert Thieblot, General Partner, founded Curse and sold it to Twitch. Mike Shin, COO.
What they value
Resilience and community over polish. "It's about having the space and the support to fail, get back up, and keep going." The 42,000 sq ft campus is the product as much as the money.
Sector lean: AI, AR/VR, hardware, robotics. Consumer software is not the house style.
13Forum Ventures 15 min, resumable
forumvc.com · New York and Toronto · 430+ companies funded
Apply
forumvc.com/pitch-us. One form covers the Venture Studio, Accelerator and Pre-Seed Fund.
Form structure
Their own estimate: "about 15 minutes to complete, but you can pause and return to finish your submission if needed."
Multi-step behind a Start button, so questions are not previewable. The resume feature means you can open it, read the questions, and come back without committing.
Who decides
Michael Cardamone, CEO and Managing Partner, previously BD at Box. James Murphy and Jonah Midanik, Managing Partners. Midanik went through Forum's own accelerator ten years ago.
Hard gate: B2B software only, increasingly AI-native B2B. Their intro describes them as "the leading early-stage fund, accelerator and venture studio for B2B startups."
14Boldstart Ventures Contact form
boldstart.vc · New York · Inception stage, pre-product
Apply
No public pitch form. Only boldstart.vc/contact-us, name, email, message. A warm-intro fund in practice.
Who decides
Ed Sim, Founder and General Partner. Eliot Durbin, GP. Ellen Chisa, Partner, co-founded Dark.
Worth reading even though the fund is a no
Ed Sim's newsletter is one of the better reads on how enterprise investors currently judge defensibility, and his founder-evaluation criteria generalise.
Three velocities as his early signal:"Product velocity: how quickly can you get something out of the door, iterate on it, and test it. Hiring velocity. And learning velocity." Plus: "why you start a company is just as important as what you're building."Issue #307
His current position on moats: "A company's private evals may ultimately become its most valuable IP," and he pushes ROI per workflow as the metric that matters. He is also candid that the bar rose: "software companies that would have been funded 12 months ago are having a hard time raising capital."Issue #502
Newsletter moved and rebranded: now whatshot.vc, and the Substack reads "What's Hot in AI/Infra/VC" rather than Enterprise IT. Do not cite the old name as current. X: @edsim
Hard gate: AI-native enterprise infrastructure, security, dev tools and models. Nothing consumer.
15LDV Capital No form
ldv.co · New York · $500K to $1.5M · North America and Europe
Apply
No public form. Their words: "The best way to reach out is via mutual friends, associates." The real front door is the LDV Vision Summit and its startup competition.
Who decides
Evan Nisselson, General Partner, founded the fund in 2012.
Two gates, either one fatal: visual technology only, and North America and Europe only. Their thesis verbatim: "A majority of the data our brains analyze is visual. Therefore, the majority of the data AI will analyze will also be visual."
16Right Side Capital Management Do not apply
rightsidecapital.com · San Francisco · $150K to $300K · Quantitative, high volume
India is named in their automatic-no list, and they closed both workarounds in writing. Verbatim: companies based in India and a list of other regions are an automatic no, "Even if the corporate entity is domiciled in the US. Even if the company intends to move its operations to a jurisdiction where we do invest."
Three further automatic nos that would independently apply: idea, mockup, prototype or pre-revenue MVP stage. Food, beverage, nutrition, beauty or similar goods. And valuation or cap over $6M, soft limit $3M.
Kept for reference, because their published rubric is useful reading
80%+ of the decision rests on five variables: business model, traction, unit economics and growth path, capital efficiency, valuation.
Target market preference order: Large Enterprise, B2B high price point, B2B low price point, B2C.
Revenue model preference order: subscription, high recurring transactional, two-sided marketplace, low recurring transactional, affiliate and advertising. Low recurring transactional is worth about half of subscription. Affiliate and advertising about a quarter.
Traction means revenue or firm contracts starting within 60 days. They do not count LOIs, verbal commitments, or Kickstarter pre-sales unless the product shipped.
90% of investments at $1.5M to $4M valuation, $5K to $30K+ MRR.
This is the clearest public statement anywhere on this list of how a quantitative investor ranks business models. Worth reading once, then closing.
Deck C (PDF file), then Deck A (DocSend) and Deck B (ungated link) from it. Then the 60-second founder video. Those four assets unlock nine of the sixteen.
Submit first
Afore (10 min, reapplication invited, no traction required, geography clean) and Hustle Fund (5 min, days to a decision). Filling these forces you to lock the two exact dollar figures every other form wants.
Then
Precursor and 2048, once the deck links and founder video exist. Both are short forms leaning entirely on those assets. Then Redbud and GoAhead, both geography-clean and generalist.
Block an afternoon
PearX, deadline 4 October. Six long-form answers plus the bottoms-up market calculation. It produces reusable prose for everything else, so consider doing it early despite the length.
Apply with a note
Outlander. The geography screen fires, you continue anyway, and you state the US move in the team paragraph rather than hoping they miss it.
Skip
Right Side (India named, relocation intent explicitly does not count), LDV (visual tech plus North America and Europe only), Boldstart and Forum (enterprise and B2B gates), Founders Inc (hardware and robotics lean).
Patterns
No committee
Precursor, Hustle Fund and GoAhead all let one person say yes. Write for one reader, not a room.
Founder-first
Precursor, Redbud, Outlander, Actions and GoAhead underwrite the person rather than the metrics, and say so in writing. All five reward the same core material.
Published rubrics
Six funds publish their marking scheme: Gaurav Jain's Pre-Seed Framework, Paige Craig's 38-point Founder Framework, Alex Iskold's 18 mistakes, Elizabeth Yin's 10 red flags, Pear's three-axis frame, Right Side's five variables. Rare and worth exploiting.
Reapplication invited
Afore, Boost and Hustle Fund all have a "what has changed since last time" field. A no is a first data point, not a close.
Bottom-up beats TAM
Pear asks for the arithmetic explicitly. Iskold lists absurd TAM as an automatic pass. Redbud wants market analysis with projections. Build the customers-times-revenue slide once and use it everywhere.