VC Jenny Fielding (pictured above); X, the co-founder of Everywhere Ventures and managing director of Techstars, was basically a scam When you post“Do you have strong opinions about pre-seed founders who have EA to schedule to help them? Just checking.”
Fielding told TechCrunch that she knew the post was “a little silly,” but it sparked a huge conversation. Some people have suggested that early-stage founders could simply use AI executive assistants. Others Faced. A VC has indicated that they shouldn't hire a person to help with their company even at its earliest stages.
Fielding's point is; Founders still have misconceptions from the surplus fund days of 2020-2021 about proper cash management when revenue is scarce. At that point, companies should work on the basics of building a product that people want to buy.
“I am the founder. I started two companies,” he said. “After that I spent seven and a half years at Techstars, really helping very established companies. So she said, “To give founders the real information they need; It's not something to be vague about,” he laughed.
While most seed investors, including Fielding, believe that founders should spend their savings “as they please,” early-stage VCs still evaluate founders' cash management, even though the VC is essentially a silent partner.
“We invest at the earliest stage. We don't take seats. We entrust this money to the founders. So we have quarterly calls with them looking at the operating budget,” Fielding said.
These judgments come in handy when a startup needs to raise its next round and wants its seed/pre-seed VCs to provide warm introductions and humorous suggestions to investors. will be implemented.
Therefore, In established companies, executive assistants are invaluable, but they're in top operational positions, not people building and supporting early products.
In addition to the EA for the CEO; There are other titles in an early-stage startup that can be a “red flag” for VCs: COO and CFO.
“Occasionally it's the third co-founder who doesn't really know where they fit in,” she says. The third-wheel co-founders added that both stock and salaries were “very expensive.” “We need to develop a product and get customers. It's not really necessary to have an organizational structure of CFO and COO.”
They pay themselves. This is another area where early investors are keeping mum, but are paying attention. When Fielding analyzed the startup's operating costs and saw that “the founder was paying himself $300,000,” she said, Fielding ended the deal.
While that salary is in line with a previous Google or Microsoft position, she advises that a reasonable salary at a pre-seed level is between $85,000 and $125,000. That's a math thing. A founder raises $1 million in a healthy seed round, but even if they put in $200,000 themselves, they've already spent a fifth of the money.
“We're not saying you should have $100,000 forever,” she cautioned, but in the early stages, “you don't have that money to burn.”
This story was originally published on November 24, 2024.