We were early investors in Uber, Airtable, The Trade Desk, Cruise, PillPack, SeatGeek, Coupang, Whoop, Formlabs, and many, many more great startups. Now, we’d like to be early backers of your career. About Founder Collective Founder Collective is a seed-stage venture capital firm built by entrepreneurs. Our mission is to be the most…

I recently offered to introduce a founder to a legend in their field who was interested in investing. The founder hesitated and argued, “There’s no more room for angels” or “I’m worried they might steal my idea.” My advice? Take the darn meeting anyway. Here’s why: 🗣️ Conversations open doors My counsel to the…

By David Frankel COVID made software central to the economy. Ecommerce, edtech, and email jobs all boomed. SeatGeek was the rare exception that went from generating billions of dollars of GMV to nothing. COVID could have killed the company. It didn’t. Here’s why. Huge credit goes to SeatGeek’s exceptional CEO/Co-founder …

Being a successful venture capitalist requires various skills, but we believe that the ability to empathize with founders separates the good from the great. The first years of a startup are a rollercoaster of stress for founders where success is unpredictable and sometimes seems out of reach. …

By Amanda Herson I couldn’t be more excited about joining the partnership at Founder Collective. The last two years on the team have been energizing, and I am even more bullish about the next 20. Founder Collective is open for business, and I am eager to invest! …

By Micah Rosenbloom Entrepreneurs solving their own problems can be a formula for startup success. But often, I see founders over-index on their unique situations. Before starting, consider the following: 🥸 Are you weird? 🧮 Are you objective or obsessed? 📈 Is it a big market or a mirage? For…

By Amanda Herson VCs offer a lot of advice from a 30,000-foot view. Here are 7 bits of practical wisdom I gleaned when managing a large, resource-constrained, growing team that you can apply to your startup today. 📈 Think big, but set small goals Focus on getting 100 orders a month. Then 100 a week. …

By Joseph Flaherty Levi Strauss’ biography is the model for the “picks & shovels” business model. He sold jeans to prospectors, and while most mining claims went bust, his tough trousers minted a fortune. Many founders believe it’s better to be a toolmaker than a miner. But is it? In…

By David Frankel We recently held a roundtable discussion with founders of scaling startups in our portfolio on managing hybrid organizations in this third year of COVID. They shared a dozen tips based on learnings from managing thousands of remote employees. 📅 More meetings are an unfortunate necessity The common belief was that these needed to be…