first check $500k-1M pre-seed (@ajhodls) on X (original) (raw)
recovering founder and self-loathing VC
- Pinned

i've been getting *a lot* of inbound requests to check out founder pitches lately. we have 100+ portfolio companies, many of whom I meet with on a monthly basis. so my bandwidth for cold inbound is unfortunately pretty limited. of ~300 cold emails a month, i only take ~1-2 
90% of VC deals are done because of social connections (friends, relatives) the earlier you understand that the better you can play the game
50/50 co-founder splits are the signal of a weak CEO
all my vc friends want to be founders all my founder friends want to be vcs how does it end
An average person with otherwise average intelligence and ambition has a 10x chance of getting rich if they move to SF. An exceptional person with exceptional intelligence and ambition has a 100x chance of getting rich if they move to SF.
the pre series A founder salary formula should be: $75k: single, no kids +25% SF or NYC đ đď¸ +25% married đ +100% 1st kid đ§ +10% per additional kid đ§

one of the biggest alpha opportunities in early-stage VC is low charisma founders who don't pitch well, don't tweet, don't podcast, but just execute day in day out.
startups with a COO co-founder â ď¸â ď¸â ď¸
elite founders send decks as PDFs
in any given YC batch 90% of the founders would be better off financially if they shutdown and joined the top startups in the batch
If you canât build something without money youâre probably not going to build something great with money.
call me old fashioned but if someone invested in your company they deserve to get a âiâm still aliveâemail at least every 6 months this is the problem with YC deals with no real lead investor
talking to portfolio founder today about a 30Macquisitionofferforhiscompany,roughly15xARR.growthhasbeensteadybutnotoutstanding.heaskedâwonâtyoubeupsetthatwedidnâtgofor30M acquisition offer for his company, roughly 15x ARR. growth has been steady but not outstanding. he asked âwonât you be upset that we didnât go for 30Macquisitionofferforhiscompany,roughly15xARR.growthhasbeensteadybutnotoutstanding.heaskedâwonâtyoubeupsetthatwedidnâtgofor1B?â my reply was that $15M (he owns about 50%) is a considerable sum for anyone,