Disclosure certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Resolute Ventures prefers investing before startups show early traction

Mike Hirschland · 20VC: The Acceptable vs Unacceptable Risks To Take When Seed Investing, Why Loss Ratio Is Not A Consideration & Why Series A Is The Right Time To Establish A Board with Mike Hirshland, Co-Founder @ Resolute Ventures · Mar 18, 2019 · at 7:00

Mike Hirshland is the co-founder of Resolute Ventures. Speaking on 20VC with Harry Stebbings, he defines Resolute's 'old seed' thesis of evaluating founders and ideas prior to market traction.

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“Our MO, what we really like to do is to be backing teams we fall in love with ideas that we fall in love with, and just that, and so we really do not necessarily look for traction at all. Now, in some instances, when companies approach us, they happen to have had traction, but our model is And really our preference is to go before traction and really be thinking about the team and the idea.”

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More from Mike Hirschland

Insight
Seed-stage investor boards are an unnecessary drag on founder time
“And I think too often having a formalized board, an investor led board during the seed stage brings a lot of the trappings of From the post-series A board dynamic into the seed stage, where there's some degree of formality, there's a fair amount of preparation…”
Mike Hirschland Mar 18, 2019 ▶ 16:54 20VC: The Acceptable vs Unacceptable Risks To Take When Seed Investing, Why Loss Ratio Is Not A Consideration & Why Series A Is The Right Time To Establish A Board with Mike Hirshland, Co-Founder @ Resolute Ventures
Opinion
Early seed investing is challenging out of a billion-dollar fund
“The challenge of doing really early stage seed investing out of a billion dollar fund. And a very large platform.”
Mike Hirschland Mar 18, 2019 ▶ 5:43 20VC: The Acceptable vs Unacceptable Risks To Take When Seed Investing, Why Loss Ratio Is Not A Consideration & Why Series A Is The Right Time To Establish A Board with Mike Hirshland, Co-Founder @ Resolute Ventures
Insight
Early startup traction does not predict long-term product-market fit
“But our view is that, that those early signs of traction really are not very telling about whether they're ultimately going to have meaningful traction and product market fit.”
Mike Hirschland Mar 18, 2019 ▶ 8:07 20VC: The Acceptable vs Unacceptable Risks To Take When Seed Investing, Why Loss Ratio Is Not A Consideration & Why Series A Is The Right Time To Establish A Board with Mike Hirshland, Co-Founder @ Resolute Ventures
Disclosure
Resolute Ventures does not consider loss ratio in seed investing
“Quite honestly, we don't think about loss ratio, which I suppose is in some that might be the answer that it's less important to us and is likely going to be higher. Honestly, when those conversations come up with LPs, I tend to be very direct in that we reall…”
Mike Hirschland Mar 18, 2019 ▶ 9:14 20VC: The Acceptable vs Unacceptable Risks To Take When Seed Investing, Why Loss Ratio Is Not A Consideration & Why Series A Is The Right Time To Establish A Board with Mike Hirshland, Co-Founder @ Resolute Ventures
Insight
Sub-$100M seed funds need 4-7 big wins with 10% ownership
“You can only lose one times your money, so, you know, losses are limited, and really, for a seed fund, for a sub-hundred-million-dollar seed fund, if you end up having a handful of companies, four, five, six, seven, that truly are venture-scale returns in the …”
Mike Hirschland Mar 18, 2019 ▶ 9:43 20VC: The Acceptable vs Unacceptable Risks To Take When Seed Investing, Why Loss Ratio Is Not A Consideration & Why Series A Is The Right Time To Establish A Board with Mike Hirshland, Co-Founder @ Resolute Ventures
Insight
True VC support requires direct feedback, not superficial founder-friendliness
“There's a difference between, you know, the phrase that's become tossed about a lot being quote founder friendly on the one hand, which means that you're always going to be yielding to the founder and supporting what they want and want to do versus having, you…”
Mike Hirschland Mar 18, 2019 ▶ 14:48 20VC: The Acceptable vs Unacceptable Risks To Take When Seed Investing, Why Loss Ratio Is Not A Consideration & Why Series A Is The Right Time To Establish A Board with Mike Hirshland, Co-Founder @ Resolute Ventures
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