Two investors discuss how early-stage founders can raise in a tightening market. They emphasize founder quality and a clear "why now" backed by macro tailwinds. Climate tech and inflation-driven sectors show real momentum, while crowded categories like sales software still attract capital if adoption is strong.
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as like right now, kind of what we're seeing, I think with the, you know, all the macro environment and whatnot, I think how that's kind of impacting fundraising, because we have a lot of early-stage marketplace founders here, you know, raising like pre-seed and seed rounds. So, you know, how are you kind of seeing it impact, I would say, from the investing side and at those stages? Yeah, I think that would be great if you can share a little bit more on that with us.
Every investor is going to look for or have different criteria of what's important to them. So I'll start with kind of the 2 things that are most important for us. I think the first thing is obviously the founders themselves, like the kind of like the mission-driven piece. And the way we think about this is you experiencing the problem firsthand. It actually doesn't even matter like what the mission is as long as you are extremely passionate about it, right? So it goes back to the— to the crazy eyes, the intensity comment that I made earlier. And I think the second thing, especially now, and especially as it pertains to marketplaces, is being able to answer why now, right? And Mike, you alluded to the macro trends that are happening. Like, we're seeing so many headwinds that I think it's important to talk about tailwinds that push your business forward, or what I like to call market pull. And it's funny because I think that the answer, you know, I think that, you know, we've talked to a lot of founders and they say things like, oh, this hasn't been digitized yet. But my— but it's, it's, it's one of these things. Well, but why 2022 and why not 2020 or why not 2018? Like, the world has been on the internet now in theory for like, you know, 30 years, mobile 15 years, right? So I think there's certain, there's certain things that we say that probably are not as relevant anymore in terms of why now. And so we really have to think about why now, because it's so, as you know, it's so hard to build a company and it's really hard to build a marketplace. So I think for investors to really jump on board, they want to know that there are some tailwinds, macro tailwinds that are pushing you forward.
That's a really great point. So, you know, to expand on that a little bit more, do you have a recent example of, you know, like the why now, and maybe from a recent investment or pitch that you've seen that was super compelling?
Yeah, I mean, I think that I think the climate and whether it's NCX or Patch, those are good examples of tailwinds, whether it's the inflation, the IRA just being passed. There's just so much, there might be too much money and too much hype, but at least you feel like there's that energy there, no pun intended, that there's this pull, there's this support for this type of innovation, right? So that's really one good example. But, you know, and listen, this is not to say that you can't build a huge company if there is an— if it's not clear what the why now is, right? But it's just kind of the lens that we look through. The— we actually— this is not a marketplace per se, but it was actually funny. I'm now looking through the lens, and I could be wrong about this, where I actually like crowded spaces. Because crowded spaces like sales as an example, right? Like how many sales, enterprise sales, SaaS companies have you seen? Probably hundreds. And you guys probably get pitched this, right?
Yeah.
yourselves as customers. And I, and I tell myself, like, actually, this is probably one category that, that I would invest in if I had a strong thesis versus ones that are like, oh, this is, this is an antiquated industry that hasn't jumped digitally. Because I think, well, so many people have already spent money on sales tools, they'll continue to spend money on sales tools. And they're, and they're excited about adopting new tools because everyone wants to be at the edge versus on the other end, like everyone's kind of slow, no one feels the real pull, the need, etc. So again, not, not so much a marketplace thing, but just, just an example of like why now, and, and more importantly, making sure that there's lots of— that's kind of like lots of support behind you.
