Should venture firms, including large multi-stage platforms, remain active investors at pre-seed and seed stage to stay competitive?

Jason Lemkin · Aug 9, 2023

Late-stage funds staying active in seed to remain in market is rational, but not if it distracts from putting $100M into the eventual winners

To deploy and triple $2B in two years you need double-digit ownership in four or five $5B+ outcomes a year, so anything that distracts from concentrating capital in winners isn't worth it

16:53 Staying active in seed is rational unless it distracts from concentrating capital in eventual winners

Bucky Moore · May 5, 2025

Having a large capital base is uniquely beneficial for venture platforms right now, but it only matters if the firm also maintains strong dedication to early-stage investing

Founders like Sam Altman or Dario deciding whether to take billions from a firm care what its brand stands for, and these companies still think of themselves as startups, so they want partners who share that entrepreneurial DNA — which a firm only sustains by working with raw early-stage companies

5:19 Large capital base helps only with continued early stage dedication

Harry Stebbings · May 5, 2025

You cannot win at venture today unless you invest at pre-seed; a strategy of Series B and beyond alone is close to impossible

Every mega platform is now also doing pre-seed — Green Oaks led the Windsurf seed and DST, a huge growth firm of old, is a prolific seed investor

41:52 Cannot win at venture without investing at pre seed

Bucky Moore · May 5, 2025

Firms building durable mega platforms must stay actively in pre-seed and seed, because stopping causes you to lose the instinct for how fast early companies can change and to start demanding perfection

Time with early-stage companies keeps you calibrated on how quickly products and stories improve, so you take a fluid rather than fixed view of what a company can become

42:35 Staying active in pre seed preserves calibration on how fast companies change

Harry Stebbings · May 5, 2025

The real reason you must be at pre-seed or seed is access, not empathy or craft — the cost of getting a first meeting at later stages has gone through the roof

Series B and later firms now do 50 customer calls or 28-page market analyses just to earn a first meeting, and route through earlier investors for introductions

43:53 Early stage presence buys access not empathy or craft