Leslie Feinzaig

I recently sat down with a group of Forum Ventures founders about to go out to fundraise and the topic of SAFE rounds came up. The context focused on the pros/cons of raising a priced vs a SAFE round and the conversation notably shifted toward the dilution implications of a SAFE round. Founders are keenly aware of the top line dilution of any funding round - ie selling 20% of their startup for $3M at a $15M cap - but very few fully grasp the implications of doing a SAFE round vs a priced round. The universal standard for institutional VC investors is a post money SAFE. This document essentially outlines ownership that an investor will have in a startup just prior to the execution of a priced round. Most importantly though, it is structured so that an investor in that SAFE will not be diluted by subsequent SAFE's that are issued. This is where founder education around the implications of this structure are not fully appreciated. In a situation where a founder continues to stack subsequent SAFEs, they don't actually convert until the first priced round and the net dilution they are taking is actually more than they realize. Here is a practical example - take a situation where a founder has already sold 15% of their business on a post money SAFE in a pre-seed round, and is now choosing to sell another 20% in a seed round. If the founder opts to raise this money on SAFEs, the dilution of that additional 20% will come entirely from common equity holders- meaning they will now own 65%. If SAFE holders were also diluted by that round, as they would be in a priced round, the founder would own 68%. This dynamic becomes more dramatic the more capital a founder raises on SAFEs. Note - this is a high level example and does not include an option pool carve out or other round nuances. Almost universally, when a founder raises their first priced round, there is some degree of sticker shock at the outright dilution on their cap table, particularly when options pools are factored in. This pain is even more acute when a founder has raised a fair amount of capital on SAFEs along the way. There are certainly benefits to raising SAFE round, mainly cash in hand 6-8 weeks faster and not having to decide on board seats too early, but I encourage all of our founders to run through cap table modeling and correctly account for the implications of SAFE rounds before they make fundraising decisions.

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Awesome new initiative Aviel Ginzburg!! When Sean Sternbach and I launched Venture Out, Aviel and Pablo Brown-Rodriguez were silent cofounders. Aviel freely shared his words of wisdom from years of building community in Seattle. He and Chris DeVore were the first money into our community, followed quickly by Flying Fish Partners, Liquid 2 Ventures, M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund, and a huge list of Seattle angels. After growing to 1200+ members in <3 years, running multiple pre-preseed accelerators, a few learnings about building great community and the Seattle Founder Ecosystem: In the early days, no one knows what they are doing. Seek outside advice and guidance from people just ahead of you. Unicorn founders and tech moguls have great stories, but the woman who left amazon six months ago, launched an MVP, and crashed through her first 2 dozen investor discussions will have golden advice. Be open, honest, and vulnerable. Our best events and discussions happened when people let their guard down. No one will spend their life (which a startup requires) to build your idea. They might build something similar and tackle the same problem, but only your life experience and decision-making will make the difference. Share ideas often. Give first. As a ~10 year Techstars mentor, I saw this as the best part of the community. In my opinion, they have lost this completely. Don't come into a community and take. Give all you can, even when it feels counterproductive. Something might eventually come back that changes your life and direction. Even if it never does, you will 1000% feel great about the decision. Play long-term games with long-term people. Naval Ravikant was the first person I heard say this. Surround yourself with committed doers, makers, and visionaries. There are a lot of want-entrepreneurs in the world (which is a good thing; we need more people to take risks), but spend the most time with people in the ring, putting their time behind what they are doing. Learn how to give advice and direction without being evangelical, condescending, or a jerk. Learn to be direct but helpful. It's what you want on your journey, so invest in being a great thought partner for others. A final few notes: 1) No, you likely will never get paid the same amount or make as much money as a founder as you would as an L7/L8 at Amazon. If that is why you are starting a company, you're already in trouble. But knowing Aviel, he is already filtering for this 😂 2) You will likely learn in 6-18 months in the ring as a founder, than the rest of your life combined. Start to write, share your experience, find a therapist, and get ready to unpack a LOT as you go. The only way to make space for new information is to process it, store it, and then let it go. 3) The relationships are the most important part of the journey. I will always remember meetings with Matt Ehrlichman, Asha Sharma, Kyle Sandburg, and Matthew Neagle and the rest of the Porch Group team. Go Aviel!!!

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the beauty of SXSW is that YOU get to help decide what the world gets to see! please consider voting for these two panels, because as technology + society continue to hurtle forward, these feel like important conversations to have: 💛 Humanity vs Capitalism: The New Story.  Humanity believes it faces a stark choice: ditch capitalism and save the planet or ditch the planet and save capitalism (which clearly won't work). So as most of us are witnessing how extractive and unbalanced our current economies are, we're asking, what are the alternatives? This panel of regenerative leaders and entrepreneurs offers several encouraging answers. VOTE HERE: https://lnkd.in/dpVsK3uK       🧡 The Femme Futurists Society: Repatterning The Future.  A conversation with four of the world’s leading female futurists challenging the embedded beliefs, constructs and approaches that have patterned the decaying systems we currently have. As we enter an era of complete systemic redesign, what we believe is the framing for what is possible, so this panel will provide provocative questions and perspectives that open our imagination to new thriving futures. VOTE HERE: https://lnkd.in/d9CHwnfs NOTE: this voting period closes SUNDAY AUGUST 18TH thank you!! 🙏

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In this week’s newsletter Kelly Shetron and I explore Te-Ping Chen's article for The Wall Street Journal, titled “The Loneliness of the American Worker." Below you can get a little glimpse of what we shared. The goal of this conversation was to uncover the many ways that community builders can create more meaningful connections in the workplace--and in the world at large. These ideas are simple in theory but radical in practice. What are you doing to cultivate more meaningful connections, plan better meetings, and reduce isolation at work? If you didn't get the email, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter: https://lnkd.in/esjxe43G

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🚨 Arizona ESA Parents: Escape Hold Music Hell! 🎶➡️😌 Tired of: - Endless hold times? ⏳ - Confusing next steps? 🤔 I've got you covered. Introducing: Arizona ESA Helper 🦸‍♀️ It's a custom GPT that: Cuts through the red tape 🎗️ Delivers answers FAST ⚡ Why I built it: We Love the ESA program (game-changer for homeschooling!) 🏠📚 I also know the growing pains of startups with limited resources 💪 Try it now: https://lnkd.in/g8Wuinvp Your ESA questions are answered in seconds. Not hours. #ArizonaESA #EdTech #ParentHacks #Homeschooling #AIforGood

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Wonder will happen to human creativity & media industries with the rise of web3 & AI? 👇🏼 Tonight at 530p we have another Emerging LA happy hour in Santa Monica. There are 99 guests are signed up, and only 11 slots left! SIGN UP HERE: https://lnkd.in/gcR8dKHY This happy hour will be part of our 'Future Frontiers' series, with a panel discussion on the latest developments in emerging technologies and how it will impact the creative industries. These trends matter as it relates to content generation, creators, IP, royalties & rights, and ownership. Emerging tech such as crypto & generative AI is already bringing disruptive innovation to media, and that is why everyone in Hollywood is keeping a close eye on it! The speakers for our panel discussion are leaders at top firms, funds & startups in this field and come from Xsolla , Hashed , Spaceport.xyz , and Republic Crypto. Come listen to them speak and bring your questions for our AMA with the audience! Thanks in advance to our panelists:​​​ • Michael Dershewitz ​(COO/Head of Corp Dev at Xsolla) • Jun Park (Sr. Investor at Hashed) • Le Zhang (Founder/CEO at Spaceport) • Maria Chak (Head of BD at Republic Crypto) These are areas that we pay close attention to at Sunset Ventures, and it can be tough to keep up with the latest developments. So I am excited to learn from this group discussion! A big shout-out to my co-host for the evening Timothy K. as we represent Wharton Digital Assets Club in SoCal and the support from the Lightspeed Faction VC + Orange DAO + AI LA teams!! 🙏🏼 The mission of these events always remains the same, we want you to 1. Deepen connections with good people in LA tech community 2. Learn actionable insights as a builder or investor 3. Leave more inspired than you arrived as you continue your journey -- Hurry and sign up now if you would like to come. If you know someone in your network would find this community & discussion useful... Then please repost & tag! ♻️

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What 3 books/resources does every hyper-scale CEO need? I'll go first 👇 🔹 Andy Grove's "High Output Management" for running 1-1's and team meetings 🔹 Emilie Choi's video on RAPIDs for team decision-making 🔹 Ben Horowitz and Ali Ghodsi's podcast on Executive Hiring and Firing I am compiling the best books and resources that offer frameworks and in-depth tactics on org design, meeting structure, and leading at scale. I am thinking about it through the lens of hyper-scale CEOs going through growing pains. Let me know what I need to put on the list.

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We recently kicked off a search for a Program Director to join our Founder Success Team First Round Capital. Given I assume the right person for this role will already be in the startup ecosystem, I'd really love help getting the word out. Here is a bit of context: At First Round, we aspire to invest in founders who possess not just strengths, but areas of true genius, whether it’s technical skill, product intuition and/or domain expertise. But on the other side of every spike in talent are a few areas that are still underdeveloped, parts of the business where a founder doesn't have the skills and expertise — yet. The role of the Program Director on the Founder Success team is leading the ideation, curation, planning and execution of programs and events that fill in those gaps and help founders develop new, crucial competencies. More on the role and where to apply can be found here: https://lnkd.in/gPhhJD4U

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Ascend just released this new interview about why I love investing in Seattle/Pacific Northwest (PNW) startups at Ubiquity Ventures. Ascend is the most active pre-seed investor in the Pacific Northwest (Seattle, Portland, and more) and is run by Kirby Winfield. Thanks to Ascend's Nate Bek for the interview! Check it out the full interview: https://lnkd.in/giU2Wy3V A few snippets of what I said: ⭐️ On investing in Seattle (vs the Bay Area) "Companies like Auth0, Esper, Remitly, and others have demonstrated that they can start, grow, and thrive in Seattle. This is thanks to the continuous growth of hometown giants like Amazon and Microsoft, whose employees might outgrow the cultures at those companies." ⭐️ Why I fell in love with VC "First is about following new trends, nerding out on technologies, and getting inspired by new ideas .. resonates with the nerd engineer and the 5-year-old in me that used to love reading about new technologies ... [Next is] the innards of how companies are run, being in those pivotal meetings and discussions that change the direction of a company. These hard conversations about pivots, understanding metrics, and trying to separate the storytelling around startups from internal operations. That was the meat of building an exciting startup, which is quite different from just nerding out on cool new technologies. " And thank you to all the Pacific Northwest startups I've been privileged to invest in and work with: Eugenio P. and Jon Gelsey at Auth0 by Okta, Yadhu Gopalan at Esper, Fredrik Rydén at Olis Robotics, Claire Watts at ThruWave Inc., Adam Schoenfeld & Aviel Ginzburg at Simply Measured, Milkana Brace at Jargon, Yuriy Bulygin & Alex Bazhaniuk at Eclypsium, Inc. #seattle #seattletech #pacificnorthwest #pnwtech #portland

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I read an article by TechCrunch yesterday. It reminded me of why I chose a career in DEI. The article was about Keely Cat-Wells, an entrepreneur and disability rights advocate. She founded the company Making Space in 2023 and the goal is to help companies from all sectors hire, train and retain disabled talent. While in a tough period of trying to get investors for her company, she encountered a VC who was not afraid to air his opinion.  He said to her, "We love what you’re building but would only consider investing if you brought on a non-disabled, male co-founder." Not only did he not want to invest in a female owned company but he also did not want a disabled person. This is 2024 and we still have people that don’t believe in women having leadership roles and disabled people having jobs. This is the reason I educate people everyday on DEI practices. To get rid of biases. It warms my heart to know that Keely did not let this stop her, instead this incident served as a reminder to keep pushing for a change! #DEI. https://shorturl.at/scuUS

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Earlier this week I asked a bunch of my VC and LP friends (38 to be specific) what types of evergreen content they consume And I asked them one simple question: Do you have 1-2 examples of evergreen content you love revisiting or stays in your mind rent-free? And let's just say while some familiar suspects for books and podcasts and blogs showed up, there were quite a few interesting recs, including lectures and tough-to-find articles. Lots of good stuff here: https://lnkd.in/gEvj_tRa

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This Bits of Signum, Creator Stories episode centered on our favorite topic, UGC (User Generated Content). But for once, it had nothing to do with Roblox or UEFN! We were joined by Anton Bernstein, Founder & CEO of Pocket Worlds, for a fascinating, in-depth discussion on the evolution of Highrise from an immersive social experience into a full-blown UGC gaming *platform*. Anton shares insights into the steps along the evolution, the team's ability to assist creators in building communities, the demographics focus advantage of Highrise players/creators (female 18-22), new and future creator tools on the platform, and much more. Anton Bernstein founded Pocket Worlds, a YCombinator-backed company that empowers shared experiences to connect the world. With over 50 million users and 10,000 creators, Pocket Worlds operates two major platforms: Highrise, a leading virtual world where users make avatars, engage in shared experiences, and form deep friendships; and Everskies, the top pixel doll community where users can dress up avatars and chat with friends. We hope you enjoy the episode with Anton as much as Eliza Jappinen and I did! cc: team Dot Play, Signum Growth, Nicholas Douzinas, Keshav Holani Bits of Signum Creator Stories Episode: Learn more about Highrise: https://highrise.game/ Download Highrise from the App Store: https://lnkd.in/egAQCjXJ

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Huge opportunity

Do you know any companies that are stuck or going through a rough time? At Palm Venture Studios, we believe some companies close that don't deserve to. Our mission is to identify these hidden gems and provide the support they need to thrive. We specialize in investing in and scaling companies, leveraging our expertise to turn challenges into opportunities. If you know a company in need of a lifeline or a fresh new chapter, let's connect and explore how we can help. #BusinessGrowth #Investing #CompanyTurnaround #Founders

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One of AI's most exciting use cases is empowering creative humans to execute their vision, faster. Cartwheel is making that happen with their powerful natural language-to-animation platform. AI only works and becomes ubiquitous if the interfaces are useful and easy to use. Read more below and check out the beta — especially if you know anything about animation and understand how much time this could save and creativity it will unlock. Well done Jonathan Jarvis, Andrew Carr 🤸 and team. https://lnkd.in/epX-GdAB

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An interesting article below, that demonstrates out how San Diego is punching above its weight.  And how Connect's strategy and execution over time, contintues to be central to that success. The article describes the current state of the market in Seattle.  (And i love Seattle.) It's a market that we tend to track with relative to venture fundings.  They used to kick our butts, we outraised them each of the last three years.  This despite the fact they have 3x as many funds there, and 9x the amount of resident capital there. (per pitchbook) Some key takeaways:  * They continue to compare themselves to SIlicon Valley. Instead, we leverage our proximity. *They whine there's not enough local investors (see note above - they have more than us). We bring over 200 VCs to SD annually! * They say founders are not connected with one another. We bring CEOs together regularly, in a variety of ways - private dinners and through our Springboard program. * They say they need to elevate their image on a national & international stage. Why we created and continue to build Five.Ten.Thirty (aka Inno Day).  * And the last paragraph - they need to concentrate on making their region a great place to live. Our mantra: "It's about Better, not Bigger." (See XEO, TL Fund). THANK YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR SUPPORT. WE ARE ON A MISSION TOGETHER!!!  (Comments, whining, suggestions on SD always welcome.) https://lnkd.in/g6Rq_f2Y

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