Thrive, Lerer Hippeau, and First Round have abandoned true seed investing
Nicholas Chirls · 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital · Sep 14, 2015 · at 8:31
Nicholas Chirls is co-founder of Notation Capital. He is arguing that fund inflation in NYC has created a gap at true pre-seed.
“Many of the best VCs in New York have moved up the stack. And what that means is they've raised dramatically larger funds in the last two years. And so, Folks like Thrive Capital, and Lyra Ventures, and First Ground, and folks that you might consider as traditional seed investors here in New York, the reality is that what they're doing, I wouldn't really consider seed anymore. I mean, Thrive is an extreme example, you know, they're growth investors now, but even, you know, even Lyra or First Ground, you know, the reality is that they're writing million dollar checks into two to three million dollar rounds, and I wouldn't really consider that true seed.”
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