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Understand seed round dynamics in Silicon Valley

thevalley.substack.com

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Re: Understand seed round dynamics in Silicon Valley

#11

Post by Swizec »

bcantrill wrote: post #10
Swizec wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in early stage product startups. What R&D do you need? CRUD is solved, hosting is solved, UX is solved, scaling is solved, marketing is solved ... Everything to do with web and mobile is very solved at this point. Most problems come from tripping over ourselves and cobbling things together to fit new domains. All real hard R&D happens inside faang these days. At least for web/mobile consumer stuff.

Okay, so that's not all startups, as it turns out. Some of us are actually solving hard technical problems -- the FAANGs aren't actually solving all problems. Yes, it's different to raise a hard-tech seed, but let us please not pretend that just because you yourself don't do it, that those of us who do don't exist...

You exist and you’re hard to find among a sea of “Take existing tech, apply to new business domain” product startups.

Ergo what GP said

> The concern is that there is zero real R&D or product development spending.

PS if your R&D is in AI that does not fall under my original comment on “web/mobile stuff”

Re: Understand seed round dynamics in Silicon Valley

#12

Post by idlewords »

Almost all these guides are written from the viewpoint of investors. Here's a brief one from the viewpoint of the person seeking funding.

You are selling a product to a single customer (or small group of them). That product is an investor story that can sell for hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars if you tell it ably enough, so it's worth putting in the time in to tell it well.

If necessary, you can even write a little toy website, and entice people to sign up for it, in the service of that story. If you can get yourself to believe in the story, you will be all the more persuasive in convincing that key customer.

But never forget that your primary focus is that customer—your investor. Learn their interests, learn to speak their language (perhaps by reading posts like the parent), learn how to flatter their sense of self until they feel like a genius visionary for finding you.

Startup investing is a luxury lifestyle product for the very rich. The art of selling that product well is pretending that the transaction is something different than what it is.

Re: Understand seed round dynamics in Silicon Valley

#13

Post by bcantrill »

Swizec wrote: post #11
bcantrill wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, so that's not all startups, as it turns out. Some of us are actually solving hard technical problems -- the FAANGs aren't actually solving all problems. Yes, it's different to raise a hard-tech seed, but let us please not pretend that just because you yourself don't do it, that those of us who do don't exist...

You exist and you’re hard to find among a sea of “Take existing tech, apply to new business domain” product startups. Ergo what GP said > The concern is that there is zero real R&D or product development spending. PS if your R&D is in AI that does not fall under my original comment on “web/mobile stuff”

Fair enough -- I'm probably still a bit prickly from raising a hard-tech seed! (For which, if it needs to be said, most of the dynamics described in the article do not apply...)

Re: Understand seed round dynamics in Silicon Valley

#14

Post by einarvollset »

“Ten years ago, the Seed round was a single event, and companies ended up raising a few hundred thousand dollars from angel investors”

Well.. 10 years ago there was no “seed” rounds. Airbnb raised a $600k series A right before demo day in ‘09. That round got rebranded as a seed round later.

Re: Understand seed round dynamics in Silicon Valley

#15

Post by realtalk_sp »

jariel wrote: post #8
Swizec wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in early stage product startups. What R&D do you need? CRUD is solved, hosting is solved, UX is solved, scaling is solved, marketing is solved ... Everything to do with web and mobile is very solved at this point. Most problems come from tripping over ourselves and cobbling things together to fit new domains. All real hard R&D happens inside faang these days. At least for web/mobile consumer stuff.

"Everything to do with web and mobile is very solved at this point." "640K ought to be enough for anybody." - Bill Gates 1981 (or supposedly. So there is a long way to go in all of these areas, and there is even a longer way to go in adjacent areas, and we're not even touching all the other things startups can do - you know - the other 95% of the economy? Healthcare, biotech, materials, energy, construction, auto, fo…

Hair loss is on the precipice of being effectively solved (infinite transplants via stem cells) and the price will likely go down over the next 5 to 10 years as the technology to produce hair follicles and perform robotic transplantations matures.

Skin is also a largely solved problem: use moisturizer/sunscreen/Vitamin C/Retin A, avoid the sun as much as possible, wear sunglasses, drink lots of water, eat healthy + high antioxidants, sleep well, get minor amounts of Botox occasionally for some parts of the face, microneedling occasionally, maybe a face lift (these days a more or less perfected procedure with low risk) somewhere in your 40s/50s. That plan will basically take you into your 60s looking really good. Even if you can't stick to that plan, the various restorative dermatological options will still give you a fantastic result. But most people are some combination of too apathetic, too lazy, too financially-constrained, or too afraid of more invasive techniques.

Re: Understand seed round dynamics in Silicon Valley

#16

Post by jariel »

realtalk_sp wrote: post #15
jariel wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Everything to do with web and mobile is very solved at this point." "640K ought to be enough for anybody." - Bill Gates 1981 (or supposedly. So there is a long way to go in all of these areas, and there is even a longer way to go in adjacent areas, and we're not even touching all the other things startups can do - you know - the other 95% of the economy? Healthcare, biotech, materials, energy, construction, auto, fo…

Hair loss is on the precipice of being effectively solved (infinite transplants via stem cells) and the price will likely go down over the next 5 to 10 years as the technology to produce hair follicles and perform robotic transplantations matures. Skin is also a largely solved problem: use moisturizer/sunscreen/Vitamin C/Retin A, avoid the sun as much as possible, wear sunglasses, drink lots of water, eat healthy + h…

"Hair loss is on the precipice of being effectively solved "

They have been saying this for 50 years. Even the technology we use today is sketchy.

"Skin is also a largely solved problem: "

This is ridiculously false.

>70% of women do many or most of those things, and they still mostly look their age. Those things help, but very mildly. There are no 55 year old women who look 30 without airbrushing + tons of makeup + facelifts.

And 80 year old women mostly look 80.

The amount of money and effort, especially women spend on this is breathtaking, considering that most of it doesn't work better than the cheaper products.

If there was something that would make 50 year olds actually look 30 it would be would have 'infinity' market value.

Re: Understand seed round dynamics in Silicon Valley

#18

Post by RhodesianHunter »

Hnrobert42 wrote: post #17

I stopped reading at the first use of emojis. It may be harsh, but I am not a 3-year-old. I don’t need a picture book, so I am clearly not the target audience.

Why do you feel that characters that together compose words are adult, while characters that form an image conveying human emotion are not?

Is a laughing emoji not the most efficient way to convey that you're joking or think something is funny?

Re: Understand seed round dynamics in Silicon Valley

#19

Post by notforever »

RhodesianHunter wrote: post #18
Hnrobert42 wrote: post #17

I stopped reading at the first use of emojis. It may be harsh, but I am not a 3-year-old. I don’t need a picture book, so I am clearly not the target audience.

Why do you feel that characters that together compose words are adult, while characters that form an image conveying human emotion are not? Is a laughing emoji not the most efficient way to convey that you're joking or think something is funny?

For me personally there is something about letting words conjure an image in my head instead of relying on pictures. A good joke is funnier without a laughing emoji. And what's the point of emoji's in "but this journey is a marathon ️, not a sprint ️" sentence for example. For one, marathons are still run just slower.

Re: Understand seed round dynamics in Silicon Valley

#20

Post by jbay808 »

Swizec wrote: post #5
jariel wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For example? Having massive customer traction and 'blow up growth' is a valid form of customer interest, what matters is the post-blow up economices. Uber, WeWork etc. will all make money for investors in the long run. The concern is that there is zero real R&D or product development spending.

I work in early stage product startups. What R&D do you need? CRUD is solved, hosting is solved, UX is solved, scaling is solved, marketing is solved ... Everything to do with web and mobile is very solved at this point. Most problems come from tripping over ourselves and cobbling things together to fit new domains. All real hard R&D happens inside faang these days. At least for web/mobile consumer stuff.

This is why I don't consider most CRUD/mobile/web app companies to be "tech companies". If there's no R&D, you're not producing technology.
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