What qualities do the best founders have?

At seed, I believe being able to identify outstanding founders is more important than being able to identify outstanding market opportunities.

Sharing 10 things I’ve learned to look for below👇 1/ Can clearly articulate what success looks like

Founders who have a vision for where we want to be in 5 years.

They have a pointed view of the future & how their company will fit into it.

Sharing some of the most common reasons we've passed on B2B companies at seed/pre-seed 🌱

👇👇👇 1/ Depth of understanding of the problem space isn't clear

Why are you the best founders to build in this space? What's your unique insight? Why are you willing to spend the next 5-10 years focused on this problem?

At 🤠, we spend a lot of time with our seed companies on their Series A pitches. While most founders have a good sense of what needs to be in it (comp matrix, P&L, etc.) many miss the narrative top Series A firms look for.

Sharing views on a strong Series A pitch below✍️ 1/ Proof of the billion+ opportunity

By Series A, you should have early data points that support a massive market opportunity (deal sizes, volume of deals, etc.). The picture may not be 100% clear, but there should be market feedback driving you to raise more venture capital.

After ~1 year at Cowboy focused entirely on seed, my frameworks for investing at this stage have changed.

Still (and forever) learning, but sharing my current thoughts on seed investing ✍️ 1/ Founder > market

Investing at seed often means investing when the market opportunity/size isn’t clear. I believe it’s more important to invest in amazing founders than amazing market opportunities*.

*network effects businesses excluded

The past few years I've sat in a number of board rooms and watched some founders thrive and others struggle

Sharing some tips, particularly for first-time founders, on how to best run board meetings

Oh - and it's a THREAD 😉🧵 1/ Focus on a few strategic topics - leave general updates to a pre-read, board members can ask questions on those if they have them

Founders often ask about the value early-stage VCs can add

Reflecting on 4 years in venture, I’ve found it generally falls into the below categories

THREAD👇 1/ strategic advice

VCs work with multiple companies and have seen them through different stages of growth; they can share learnings to augment your strategy and prevent you from making the same mistakes as others (we advise a lot on GTM)