Sydney Thomas of Impressionism Capital learned at Precursor that the best approach is backing fewer pre-seed companies while keeping enough capital to lead their next rounds. This lets him build decade-long partnerships with founders instead of chasing quick exits.
Chapters
How did working at Precursor affect like how you think about fund construction now? So I am so grateful I got to see so many different founders come through and learn from them while I was at Precursor. And I also realized that I think there's a way to do pre-seed investing by investing in fewer companies and do it— have that a long-term view around investing in those fewer companies in a way that you can double down and support them, not just from pre-seed, but on and on and on. And so the fund construction of Impressionism Capital is that we have a small enough pre-seed portfolio that we have enough reserves capital to double down and lead those next rounds that they're raising. And that's because that's the type of relationship that I want with the founder. I want to work with them for 10-some-odd years. I think that when I invest in them at their pre-seed, I see it. I see the lights shining, you know,