Cerebral & Visceral
For the love of pre-seed and seed deals :)
Last Wednesday I was on a call with Enzo, one of our portfolio founders. As we were going through his pitch, I couldn’t stop thinking about the intentionality of their execution, a perfect dichotomy between patience and velocity. It was irresistible. Later this week, I was on another call with an investor who was praising long term capital for a handful of very ambitious, brilliant founders. I think this is what we’re trying to do with Xavier, to provide patient capital to as many founders as possible and from time to time we double down on those who shine through.
Pre-seed is a really challenging stage because you bet on founders who haven’t started their journey yet. Even though it’s easier when it’s a second time founders, and even more when it’s in a clear continuity of their previous company.
Seed, on the other hand, is a really interesting stage, it doesn’t come with a full feedback loop and the level of uncertainty remains incredibly high, but at least you can assess a couple of things, visceral and cerebral.
The cerebral aspect :
What did the founders learn, how fast and precisely. How did they act upon their learnings. I was with two founders on Tuesday and was really impressed by their progress compared to six months ago, they had learned so much, it made me reconsider whether I should invest in their company :)
How do they surround themselves. Founders sometimes make two opposite mistakes, they either don’t surround themselves with the right people, both internally and externally, or they surround themselves by people who make them feel comfortable. Great founders surround themselves with people who are competent internally and with people who can challenge them externally. They don’t get use to them and make that pool evolve overtime.
The visceral aspect :
What drive them to work, to compete, to go for the win. We don’t get to show up in the morning with the same grit, inner motivation, will to succeed. There is something anchored in founders who really thrive to win and it’s not something you learn, it’s something you bring with you.
Speed & clarity. It’s in their system. The best founders have this amazing ability to see clear throughout all situation, often by asking a lot of questions, gathering information, filtering and properly synthesising them at the speed of light. From there on, they move faster than others and bring that discipline within their organisation.
In the mix :
How intentional are they, about pretty much everything. People tend to go in automatic mode, they lack intentionality and in their decision and action. It’s hard to face reality, don’t get me wrong, but it’s also irresistible when you meet founders with strong awareness and intentionality.
Can they make sense of all the facts and data without getting lost. I like to say that a good pitch is when the genius meets the obvious. It feels really special when you meet founders who can make sense of the world in a very intelligible way, and back their inspiring narrative with data. it’s both something you’ve got and learn to master better and better overtime.
I really like the playfield of pre-seed deals, it’s a fruitful exploration of the unknown. It’s fast, exciting and also forgiving. That’s also when we backed for the first time most of our founders. I also see really clear into the type of founders I thrive to back at Seed stage, not just because I feel good about them but because it shows in their story.
Pre-seed is my visceral, Seed is my cerebral :)
