Pre-Seed Venture Capital Firms

is there a list of pre-seed venture capital firms?

where can i find such a list?

If you personally know of some of these firms (pre-seed stage only), please list them below?


i have an idea for a community platform tech company (similar to AirBnB, but not a competitor) and am looking for a VC fund for pre-seed stage capital.  I have not been able to find any company doing what i plan on doing...but there is a huge market that a platform like AirBnB could fit into and disrupt a pre-existing market with practically no tech alternatves.


I know that Sequoia invested 600k into AirBnB just after YCombinator...and i plan on applying to YC (and maybe 500 startups incubator also)...but in the meantime, i'd also like to explore other pre-seed investors (no guarantee on getting into these incubators)...but i don't know where to find them.

 

honestly...i'm not sure.  here is where i'm at. 

i had a life experience that was a pain point...wished there was an AirBnB type platform (peer to peer) solution for my pain point, searched for it...but it doesn't exist.  There is an institutional alternative (the Marriot / Hilton hotel equiv to AirBnB) but no peer-to-peer marketplace equivalent...and the institutionl equiv sucks....nobody likes it, but there is no AirBnB type alternative.  So i thought, "this would be a great idea for a company"...i did a little market research...put out a few surveys online to see if people would be interested in both the supply and demand side...and got a pretty good response (65% of survey respondents said they would use this platform if it existed...and the population i'm targeting is about 40 million people).

1% of my target population as users would generate ~750mm-1bln annual revenue.  Its  a pretty cool angle on the market that i'm surprised nobody has tapped into.

So, back to where i am now....i'm a programmer, but not a web developer, so i'm learning the web dev tech needed to build this myself (Javascript, etc..).  Just going thru all the work that would be needed....assuming i learn all the tech...it will take me over a year to build this website myself (essentially replicating the AirBnB website with all their functionality...but for a different market that does not compete with AirBnB) and that does not include the mobile app, which would also be necessary (needed for the peer-to-peer messaging to be seamless and convenient).

So, how much would i need to raise to build from scratch the AirBnB website and mobile app?   I'm guessing ~600k - 1.5mm

AirBnB raised 600k from sequoia as their initial seed raise, i'm guessing for about 10%

Since i'm just a guy with an idea, obviously nobody is going to give me that 600k for 10% right now.  Assuming i spend the next 6-12 months building the website to get to MVP stage and have some users, both on the supply and demand side....something akin to the AirBnB hosts (supply) and guests(demand).

Similar to AirBnB, it will take some years before this hits growth stage....but the market is huge, and i can see a number of ways of ceating additional revenue streams from the platform.  anyway, that's getting ahead of myself.

So, how much am i raising?  Just like AirBnB, i'll need to raise a lot of cash over time (a few million to complete the tech stack, and then millions ongoing for admin / customer support).   I'd like to just follow the AirBnB path...both from $$ raise, and from valuation...but i know that all depends on growth and adoption.

So, tldr;  i'd like to raise 600k for 10%

just google it...you're welcome
 

I've worked in early stage VC, and it's very difficult to get a check from an institutional investo without an actualy product or traction unless you have previous successful entrepreneruship exprience or if you have unbelievable domain expertise in the space your company is working in that gives you an unfair advantage over potential entrants/competitors. Without those, it will almost be impossible to get a check from an institutional investor. If you're a student, I'd rec looking into Dorm Room Fund or Contrary Capital who may be more willing to write a check, albeit a smaller one, to a student startup with less traction

 

Sounds like exciting stuff. Are you currently working full-time? Are you willing to either (a) keep this as a side project for the time being or (b) leave your job to do this full-time while living off of savings?

I feel like $600K is a reach for where you're at. Maybe try bootstrapping until you get an MVP, or at most, raising $250K from friends, family and angels. What would you actually need to spend money on in the next 6-12 months?

 

right now i'm going thru github libraries trying to see how much i can copy and repurpose with minimal mods.

for now, this is a side project...i need to work on my dayjob if i don't get funding.

For example, YCombinator would write a 125k check for about 6% of the equity....and that is essentially just paying the founder a salary to just work on this thing for 1 year.  I could try to do that....but realistically, i'm still going to need to hire developers to build out the platform to the point where it is easy to use for customers (and my customers are not the most tech savvy, so the website experience needs to be easy).

I've found a couple very early stage pre-seed vc funds that might be interested, but only a few...tho i've read there are over 100...i cannot find them.

just google it...you're welcome
 
Most Helpful

What’s your background as an entrepreneur/ or building early stage companies / working at early stage companies 

What’s your area of expertise in this specific industry

Who do you know in the target industry / what is your core team to help initially build out the MVP 

PM the idea if I like it enough maybe I will take a bite of the 600k in a few months or the whole thing if I'm blown away

FYI no institutional investor will fund a "side project" even if it's before a MVP or market fit has been established, so be ready to quit your job if you're asking for outside capital (ideally have already done so and grinding 24/7 to make the idea real)

 

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just google it...you're welcome

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