Alex Iskold | 2048.vc
@alexiskold
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VC | Lead Pre/Seed 🧬🤖⚙️ @2048vc | Pitch me | Coach @HarvardHBS | Blog | Systems Thinker
New York, NY
Joined March 2007
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In 10 years of venture I helped in over 250 pre-seed, lots of seeds and also Series A, B, and C funding rounds.
Founders that prepared & had a strategy at pre-seed raised A LOT FASTER and WITH BETTER TERMS.
Here are MATERIALS and STRATEGIES of the best founders.
Let's go! 🧵👇
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Personal update: After 5 incredible years, running
@techstars
NYC as a Managing Director I am moving on to new adventures. This has been the most incredible, humbling 5 years of my life & I am forever grateful. Here are my thank you's and my learnings =>
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I consistently see founders get MARKET SIZE wrong in the early stage decks.
At the same VCs often they pass if they feel that the market is TOO SMALL.
Here is everything you ever need to know about MARKET SIZING.
🧵👇
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Thrilled to announce
@2048vc
$27MM Fund 1 and an incredible group of LPs. We are high conviction, first-check, geo-agnostic investors, backing companies differentiated through technology. Read more about us and please re-tweet.
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Show me a pre-seed stage company and I will find 100 reasons why not to invest.
Pre-seed investing is not about what if things go wrong, but what if they go right.
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Personal news:
@paulsethi
and I are launching
@2048vc
- earliest stage venture firm focused on first-time founders.
1/ Hello, first-time founders, we are 2048 ventures! We are an earliest stage venture firm founded by
@alexiskold
and
@paulsethi
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Can we please stop asking for $45K to cover legal fees of a VC firm's counsel on completely standard Seed Deals?
Thank you.
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NEVER OUTSOURCE your engineering as a startup.
Every startup should have a tech co-founder / CTO / engineering lead in house.
OUTSTAFFING is totally fine once you are ready to scale the dev team but engineering lead should always be in house / FT.
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Over the last 10 years I have met with thousands and thousands of founders and backed over 170 startups.
Here are the reasons VCs pass on startups - some are rarely discussed and rather personal and nothing you can do about them.
Here we go
🧵👇
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"Too early" is heard way too often in startups. People pass on the meeting EXCEPTIONAL founders just because they don't yet have traction. The real opportunity in the earliest stage, when there is no data, not much growth, and just EXCEPTIONAL founders tackling exciting problems.
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Tell me your startup in a Tweet and I will reply with what I think VC concerns will be so you can get ahead addressing them👇
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It is SHOCKING to me how many founders have not 2, but 3 or 4 currently active roles on Linkedin, including CEO of several unrelated companies or consultancy or an investment fund.
This is a MASSIVE 🚩for me as a VC.
Curious what other VCs think and if this is new normal?
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Every single portfolio company that hired a Head of Sales too soon has let them go.
Founders, a classic head of sales can’t sell your early product - you are setting them to fail and yourself to be short on revenue.
Founder led sales is the only way these days until at least…
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Some personal news today...
Introducing $67M
@2048vc
Fund II lead by
@alexiskold
@naykhera
@thisiszann
@daniellarcohen
Please read the thread below for all the details and help spread the news. 🙌
🚀 🔥 💰
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Raising pre-seed is really hard in any climate.
That's why founders should prepare / study and AVOID COSTLY MISTAKES when interacting with VCs.
Here is a thread with mistakes that are MASSIVE RED FLAGS 🚩 with VCs that founders can and should avoid.
👇🧵
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Wow, thank you,
@AndrewYang
for highlighting our work at
@1kprojectorg
! You've been the inspiration all along.
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Best non-YC, Non-Techstars, non-500 Startups accelerator ?
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1/ My public stocks portfolio rose 180% in 2020. This is irrational, kind of embarrassing and potentially is a sign of things to come.
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In 10 years I've been in venture, I continue to observe that a lot of founders are
SCARED TO ASK INVESTORS QUESTIONS.
Thats not right.
EVERY SINGLE MEETING Founders should ask investors questions.
Here are the questions to ask and when to ask them.
Let's go! 🧵 👇
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Pro tip for the founders -- Close the loop. Follow up. Say thank you. Tell people what happened. If someone bothered to give you time, bother to get back to them. This is simple, important, and powerful.
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I invested in over 170 startups over the last 10 years.
I remember:
- every single startup.
- every single founder.
- every single round - how it went, who led, the price.
VC isn’t just about picking and checks.
Remembering and staying involved is a big part of the job!
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Potential unpopular opinion:
Instead of all new finance apps teaching people how to invest we need more apps that teach basic financial literacy, ability to save money and get out of debt.
Most Americans have $0 savings & no wealth.
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@MrBeast
I will donate all of it to Ukrainian 🇺🇦- families and children.
I have started - we raised $12M and helped 12,000 families and 40,000 children.
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Putin is a modern day Hitler and he will be remembered and will end his days accordingly.
Aggression and war never win.
I know Ukraine, the country where I was born, will defend its freedom and in the end will prevail. 🇺🇦
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Raising pre-seed at inflated valuations is terrible.
Day 0 companies should not be valued at $20M. There has been $0 value created.
Founders feel like heroes now, but it takes long time to build & find product market fit and 99% of these will need more capital.
Bad idea!
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I am now an investor in over 200 founders. Some said I changed their lives. The truth is they changed mine. Investing in many diverse founders does to mind what traveling to many countries does - it expands, makes it make conscious and more self-aware. So grateful for this!
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📢 Going to take pre-seed startup pitches tonight.
✏️ Describe your startup in a few sentences below.
⁉️ I will tell you the biggest concern / question VCs will have for you when you go raise money.
Let's go! 👇
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The absolute best thing you can do as a founder when preparing to raise capital is to create an FAQ with EVERY SINGLE POSSIBLE QUESTION that investors may ask you. Especially the ones you are afraid they will ask. Write it out. Be prepared. Be a nerd.
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Getting pre-seed / seed funding has gotten increasingly harder.
A lot of capital is waiting on the side lines and valuations have significantly come down.
We see 5 general types of founders that are still able to raise now.
Let’s unpack exactly who they are
🧵👇
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A $3M seed out of the gate or even after pre-seed with some traction is going to be very far and between in this market for some time.
The new reality is $500K - $750K pre-seed followed by $1.5M - $2M seed.
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Running a pre-seed stage firm is incredibly exciting, humbling and exceptionally difficult.
It’s the hardest job I’ve ever had because it is many jobs in 1.
Here is what it’s like 🧵👇
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I made 10 investments through
@2048vc
in 2019.
As of now, 6 of 10 raised Series A led by
@BessemerVP
,
@FirstMarkCap
,
@usv
,
@Lux_Capital
,
@a16z
and one I cant' share yet.
The other 4 are doing great!
Feeling lucky and grateful for these incredible founders.
🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
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I will write a blog post about this, but TL;DR - it is NOT reasonable to take 7 meetings with a startup and then pass for a reason that would be obvious in the first or second meeting. Investors need to be more respectful of founders time and also give actual reason for a pass.
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Great piece!
@AndrewYang
's foundation donates $1M to effort providing families in need $3k over 3 months via
@GeekWire
@HumanityForward
@1kprojectorg
@MindaBrusse
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Many founders unfortunately don’t understand the downstream impact of SAFE or convertible note that’s doesn’t convert and therefore doesn’t dilute.
Put it simply - it is going to cost you more equity down the line!
Let’s unpack this to understand what’s going on
👇🧵
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Over the last 10 years in pre-seed venture I’ve read 10,000+ decks.
Most of them are really bad!
💡 Here are things that make your deck stand out in a good way !
🧵👇
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I am working on a book for startups! It is a collection of best posts from my blog . Pls RT if you want early access.
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Not a fan of student loan forgiveness.
- First, this feels like paying for votes
- Secondly, people need to pay back for what they've borrowed, I feel that it is sending a wrong message of how things work.
What am I missing here?
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Over the decade in venture I have met some truly incredible founders.
I also met and worked with founders who had BAD TRAITS traits that led to FAILURE.
Here are the worst ones I observed.
👇🧵
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Excited to share that
@techstars
NYC program continues our commitment to fund diverse founders. Next week we are launching our Winter 2018 session with founders from Thailand, Canada, Austria, Romania, and UK. 9/13 companies have female co-founder, and 6/13 CEOs are women.
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Raising Capital or Getting Grants IS NOT traction.
PR coverage IS NOT traction.
Traction is one thing and one thing only -- CUSTOMERS AND REVENUE.
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I started investing in startups in 2014 through
@techstars
. 7 years later the two funds I deployed so far are both in carry. The first one is marked up at 12x and the second one at 5x. Feeling grateful and lucky. The portfolio is just ramping up with lots of upside to come.
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What market is going to be huge in 5 years that’s starting now ? 💡
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Every pre-seed investment is a struggle and ultimately a leap of faith.
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Can we please have less or ideally no advisors in pre-seed decks?
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Thank you
@POTUS
and United States government for making the right call.
Today you decided for startups, for innovation and for the future.
The tech community is grateful.
Going forward we will be more diversified, more vigilant and continue to grind to create better world.
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1/ Thrilled to share this morning
@AndrewYang
@HumanityForward
teamed up with
@1kprojectorg
to bring pandemic relief to American Families. Here is in words of
@AndrewYang
.
@HumanityForward
is now teaming up with
@1kprojectorg
to distribute cash relief to individuals! This way we can increase the impact and help donors see the people they are helping 🙏
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Starting a startup is fundamentally irrational.
So why do so many immigrants do it?
Because they come from not much and have NOTHING TO LOOSE.
They are HUNGRY and DRIVEN TO WIN.
Immigration is a test for RESILIENCE.
All together creates powerful founder archetype.
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In 10 years in Ventures I see that many Founders miss the point of MVP (Minimum Viable Product).
They focus on Minimum.
The key is to focus on VIABLE.
The VIABILITY of the early product is absolute 🔑
Without it the CUSTOMERS WILL LEAVE!
Lets unpack MVPs details
👇🧵
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Startups are REALLY HARD.
First time founders make MANY MISTAKES.
Here is a LONG LIST of these mistakes organized by category.
The list comes from a compilation from this Twitter question I posted
Ready?
Here we go 👇🧵
What is one mistake you made as the first time founder that you think you think others can avoid?
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What is one mistake you made as the first time founder that you think you think others can avoid?
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3 MASSIVE RED FLAGS 🚩 when pitching investors:
🚩 An advisor firm reaching out on your behalf to a VC
🚩 Non-CEO is reaching out to a VC
🚩 You bring a current investor on prospective VC call with you
These are AUTOMATIC NO -- don't do it!
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My daughter made this and I thought I would share
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Incredible to see
@beniaminmincu
and
@ElrondNetwork
team execute. Unrelented, clear vision since day one. Over $1B in capitalization and they are just getting started - new customers and use cases announced daily! 🚀🦄🇷🇴
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This podcast with
@NAval
is like a beautifully flowing song of incredible insights and wisdom. The clarity, the elegance and the precision of his thinking and delivery are inspiring.
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It is great to start Monday with the email in your inbox from a new LP that says:
"We've reviewed hundreds of up-and-coming VC funds and your track record, the way you present, and the way you hold yourself in the world are perhaps the best we've seen to date."
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Just saw a term sheet with 3x participating preferred. Shameful and unnecessary.
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If you are an pre-seed or seed stage startup that has a real traction, for goodness sake, please, put the traction slide EARLY in the deck.
Many investors will stop reading after a few slides and may not even get to it!
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There will always be a special relationship between the first check investor and the founders.
That person who was first to believe, the take the leap of faith with them.
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Many founders don't bother preparing for investor meetings or researching investors.
This is a BIG MISTAKE that puts them at a
BIG DISADVANTAGE.
Here is a Complete Guide for Founders on WHY and HOW to PREPARE FOR INVESTOR MEETINGS
👇🧵
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Always make a great deck.
Always.
Even more so true in a tough market like this one.
Sloppy deck => likely an immediate pass.
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There are 2 Strategies that Founders can use to raise pre-seed / seed rounds using SAFE.
Strategy 1: Progressive Caps
Strategy 2: Soft Commits
It is really important to understand both strategies and PICK ONE that makes sense FOR YOU.
Lets unpack this in great details
🧵👇
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Stripe, Twilio prove that API first companies can create exceptionally large outcomes. Many more to come in the future. APIs are the future.
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Investor meetings are notoriously hard especially THE 1ST MEETING.
Here is how Founders can prepare for and run an AWESOME 1ST INVESTOR MEETING
🧵👇
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1/ Ghosting people absolutely puzzles me.
In our highly connected, highly non-linear, and highly unpredictable world it makes NO SENSE.
The Venture industry, especially old school venture, both on VC side and LP side is known for it.
So lets unpack what it is ...
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We
@2048vc
strongly believe that it important for founders and investors to meet in person before teaming up.
We either fly to see them or fully pay for their flight, hotel, etc. to come see us in NYC.
IRL meetings are still the king.
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Humbled to share that
@1kprojectorg
@HumanityForward
@AndrewYang
have helped over 600 families by raising over $2M from sponsors.
Incredibly grateful for the opportunity to help families impacted by the pandemic.
💙In the past three weeks we've hit a new milestone. Over 600 families have now received help via . That's over $2 Million in funds committed to getting through this pandemic together.
see on how you can help your community
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Just got a good reminder from a friend that sending emails on the weekend may create unnecessary stress for others. I have a lot of work (like most of us!) and have to do stuff on the weekend, but will make a point of using Boomerang / send later feature unless mission critical.
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Over $770,000 was donated in the last 36 to
@1kprojectorg
!
More than 1,500 families will get help.
A little > 12 hours to donate & 2x your impact.
Match ends Sat May 14 at 11:30AM ET.
Thank you
@jennifer
and
@stewart
for your incredible generosity!
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My best advice for founders - never change ANYTHING for investors.
You build financial model for YOU.
You make an awesome deck for YOU.
You do customer discovery for YOU.
Raising capital isn’t the goal.
It is a side effect of YOU being fluent and doing all the right things!
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Seeing so many rounds where founders are:
- A very unclear on the product / pre-product
- Very little or 0 done
- Target customers
- Vision
Asking for $2M - $5M on really high valuations
This is basically shifting all the risk onto the investors.
How long can this last?
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Can we please stop using the term tech elites?
This is an aggressive & unjust label.
People working in tech are grinding like crazy, sacrificing their lives to build a greater future for everyone.
You enjoy your iPhone, Twitter, Tesla and Cancer meds ?
Tech created it all!
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My Current Ranking of Top Traits of the Best Founders
1. Ultra Competitive
2. Super Creative
3. Exceptionally Resilient
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After 10 years in venture I have come to a clear conclusion that founding teams without a technical co-founder are at a MASSIVE disadvantage.
The obvious reasons include
- lack of intellectual equal focused on technology and product 100%
- it is much harder to build a…
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One of the underrated super powers of the best founders and investors is ability to laugh 😂 at themselves and together.
Startup and VC journeys are so absurdly hard that if you don’t know how to laugh you will end up crying 😢 most of the time.
Laugh out loud and often !!!
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Here is why
@techstars
network is SO awesome. 2 hours ago a company reached out for help with scaling engineering teams. Two CTO alums responded immediately and agreed to mentor. This is UNREAL level support. So fantastic and humbling.
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Apple Confidential - Steve Jobs on "Think Different" - Internal Meeting ...: <===
#amazing
#incredible
#mustwatch
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1/ this actually doesn’t feel okay to me at all. Why is
@docsend
going inside decks to analyze startup funding data ? .
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Tips for best VC Cold Email 🧵
1. Simple subject line:
Company name or
Company name round
2. Short, 2 paragraphs or less, clearly spaced and nicely formatted email.
👇
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When a startup founder has his assistant reaching out to me to schedule a call with me they instantly fail the scrappiness test.
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I don't get opportunistic founders. I really don't.
If you are set on creating a startup and feel that entrepreneurship is your true calling, why would you keep running after "hot" spaces like Crypto or AI?
It doesn't make sense to me.
Thats not entrepreneurship, thats just…
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28 years ago my family and I immigrated to USA. Grateful for all the incredible opportunity this country had put in front on me. Truly a special land where dreams come true and anything is possible. My wish is simple - let it be like this for decades and people to come.
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The founders who have strong true north, a market opportunity and never give up get to an outcome.
Even if they don't catch fire / have wrong timing they still get to a meaningful outcome.
True North + Resilience + Market = $$$
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Startup Hacks is a collection of more that 60 posts that I wrote for Startup Founders covering Fundraising, KPIs, Productivity and more
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Every single great VC I’ve met is a nerd, has a strong theory on venture math, portfolio construction, thesis areas, and a general framework for thinking about the world.
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⚡️ Founder Pro Tip:
1. Don't put LLC in the end of your company name
2. Don't incorporate as an LLC
These are red flags to VCs - it is a signal you maybe building a life style / not a venture scale business.
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The best part of being an investor is when founder texts, and says they need your help. You get on the call and then in the end of the call they feel like you helped. That is the absolute best feeling as an investor.
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The only thing better than having your first fund in carry is having 2 of your first funds in carry the same month!
Great feeling sending money back to investors before the end of this strange year.
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If you are grinding on this Friday night on your startup - what are you building?
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Such a treat and honor to meet Bill Gates. What he has done for 🌍 is truly incredible. We are lucky to benefit from his incredible intellect and talent.
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Two big mistakes I see over and over in pre-seed and seed stage decks.
Both signal weakness.
1. Vision is not clear / front and center on the first slide.
2. Team slide is in the end of the deck.
Pre-seed and Seed is all about YOU and YOUR VISION.
Lead with what matters!
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That time when you make an introduction to a fellow VC firm and they try to push you out of the round you committed to.
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Most l founders don’t understand what VCs actually do.
When VC says - I am busy - founders think it’s b.s. - but likely it is not.
Here is why
👇🧵
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Excited and humbled to start my 6th program as Managing Director
@techstars
in NYC. Looking forward to fun and intense summer 2017!
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Excellent coverage from
@KING5Seattle
:
@AndrewYang
@humanityforward
back
@1kprojectorg
project to offer pandemic relief.
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Our family immigrated to 🇺🇸 30 years ago. We landed in JFK on April 10, 1991. We grateful and lucky beyond words. This was life’s gift and the ultimate opportunity. We truly have been living the American Dream 💗 🇺🇸 since.
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