08 / WHAT WE LOOK FOR
THE BAR.
We back early. That means we lean on a handful of signals, in order. None of them are about polish — all of them are about whether the problem is real.
- 01THE PROBLEM
A real pain — often one you've felt yourself
The strongest companies start with a problem the founder has lived through. When you've felt the pain, you already know where it hurts, who else feels it, and what a fix is actually worth. That knowledge is hard to fake and hard to copy.
- 02THE URGENCY
Need to have, not nice to have
A nice-to-have gets a warm meeting and no budget. A need-to-have gets bought, and gets bought again when times are tight. If your customer could drop you tomorrow without anything breaking, the pain wasn't sharp enough.
- 03THE TEAM
A team that knows the field
Knowledge, experience, and network in the vertical you're attacking. We look for founders who understand the industry from the inside — who they need to reach, how it really buys, and why previous attempts failed.
- 04THE PROOF
Released — and someone pays for it
A product or service in the market beats any projection. Paying customers are the verification that the need is real: a verified business model. Not a signed LOI, not a waiting list — evidence that people out there want this and are willing to pay.
NO SISP.
A solution in search of a problem.
“Let’s use AI on something” is not a company. It starts from the technology and hunts for a problem to justify it — which is why it stalls the moment it meets a customer who has to pay. Start from the pain. The technology is how you solve it, never why you exist.
THINK
BIGGER.
FOR FOUNDERS
Sector
agnostic.
We don’t back categories. We back people solving a real pain — as peers, not gatekeepers. You’ll work with people who have built companies themselves.
READY?
Send it over.
A deck, a memo, or a paragraph. Tell us the pain, who feels it, and what you’ve already shipped.