🌈 Borys Musielak’s Post

🚨Founders🚨! I’ve been thinking a lot about the right round dynamic for founders at the pre-seed and seed as I think through my own seed stage investment strategy, and I don’t think there’s enough conversation around the importance of founders maximizing network nodes through your VCs and round syndicates. Early on, whether you are raising $2m, $4m, or $8m for your pre-seed / seed round, just as important as the capital you are raising is the collective operational know-how and network access that you are inheriting through your investor base. It is inherently adverse for most VCs to advocate for this, particularly those that have high ownership thresholds, so that’s probably why most don’t discuss it openly with founders prior to partnering with them. The argument most VCs give founders is that they “need the ownership to be worth” the support they provide a company throughout the seed phase and subsequent lifecycle of the company. IMO unless a VC can lead your seed, Series A, and Series B etc, then the value a VC will *actually* bring to you once you find PMF (product market fit) probably ends up being a fraction of what they are selling you on– so point being, as a founder, always remember to prioritize your needs vs the needs of a VC. The hidden secret that is true in most of venture– ultimately VCs end up adding the same value regardless of whether they have 20% or 10% as they *need* you and *want* you to be successful, most just won’t admit it. As I continue to see and be a part of exciting seed stage companies who go on to raise small and large seed rounds, I can’t help but think about the type of advice I wish founders were receiving more often than not when finalizing their seed round dynamics! More to come on this topic on how founders can productively navigate these scenarios and how I think a VC’s fund strategy can best complement the needs of founders that it services while still meeting performance expectations for LPs alike!

Excellent advice for founders from the one and only Giuseppe Stuto 👇 At the pre-seed and seed, who’s on your cap table matters as much as how much you raise. The right mix of partners brings networks, customers, and operating experience that money alone can’t buy. Choose investors who show up and help you win, not just those who push for allocation.

An increasing number of successful startup founders are moving to the other side of the table to become venture capitalists, and the data suggests they’re performing well. A 2022 National Bureau of Economic Research study found that founder-VCs achieve a 30% investment success rate, compared with 23% for traditional venture capitalists. Their hands-on experience building companies may give them an advantage in recognizing strong business models, supporting early-stage founders, and understanding what it takes to scale. Examples include Marc Andreessen (Netscape → Andreessen Horowitz) and Peter Thiel (PayPal → Founders Fund)—entrepreneurs who successfully transitioned into venture investing. Their track records suggest that entrepreneurial experience can sharpen investment judgment and help identify promising founders. However, experience can also introduce challenges. Former founders may rely too heavily on their own past strategies or favor familiar sectors. The best founder-VCs balance their entrepreneurial instincts with openness to new perspectives and markets. We explore these dynamics, and what they mean for the future of venture investing, in the latest edition of #SPVSpotlight, featuring insights (and a touch of humor) from #SyndiCat. Full blog here: https://lnkd.in/dDhKgMqv Planning your next syndicate or want to learn how Propel(x) can simplify your SPV journey, talk to our team: https://lnkd.in/dgQCBujB.

Aspiring Angel Investors: Here’s Your Reality Check (and Your Playbook) Angel investing is often seen as the gateway to massive returns, but let's start with the cold, hard data. According to research by the Angel Capital Association, only about 5% to 10% of angel investments will ever be profitable. This is a high-stakes game where most of your bets will fail. So, how do the successful angels beat those odds? It comes down to a disciplined approach that goes beyond the pitch deck. Based on my experience, I am sharing following actionable principles for new angel investors: 1. The "Power Law" Portfolio: You are not looking for singles or doubles; you are looking for a massive home run to cover all your losses. This requires diversification. Experienced angels understand they must make enough bets (often 10-20+ investments) to capture that one outlier success. Limit your angel portfolio to a high-risk allocation—for many, this means keeping it at less than 10% of their total investment capital. 2. Invest in the Jockeys, Not Just the Horse: The team is the single greatest predictor of success in the early stage. Your due diligence must focus heavily on the founders: their resilience, domain expertise, and ability to attract talent. Remember, the best angel investors offer more than capital; they offer mentorship, advice, and their network. Angel-backed firms are reportedly 14% more likely to survive for 18 months or more, proving the value of the 'angel' beyond the check. 3. Define the Finish Line (Exit Strategy): Never invest without a clear path to liquidity. An impressive product is only an investment if you have a viable exit. Look for startups with the potential for acquisition by a larger entity or a path toward an Initial Public Offering (IPO). This clarity helps the founder focus and ensures your capital isn't trapped in a perpetually operating but illiquid company. If you are entering the world of angel investing, acknowledge the risk, commit to a diversified portfolio, and prepare to roll up your sleeves as a mentor. Let’s connect and collaborate… #Angel #Startup #VentureCapital #FundRaise #EmergingTech #ScaleUp

There’s a side of venture capital nobody talks about, where even winning looks like losing. A few years ago, I watched two founders build companies that looked identical on paper. Both were raised from top funds, hit every milestone and celebrated as the next big thing. But the way they built was completely different. The first one scaled like a rocket. Every quarter was a headline: faster growth, bigger rounds, louder valuation. The investors were thrilled; on paper, everyone looked rich, and then the market flipped. Liquidity dried up, lock-ins kicked in, and suddenly no one could move. Valuations were just numbers in a deck. There were no exits, real returns, only silence. The second founder moved more slowly. She spent less time talking about scale and more time cleaning up her structure. Every board meeting, she’d talk about exit optionality, not because she was planning to sell, but because she wanted the company to always be ready. She built relationships with potential acquirers years before she needed them. And when the moment came, she didn’t chase an exit but executed one. Clean, quiet, 5x return for everyone on the cap table. That’s when it hit me, venture isn’t about finding unicorns but about building outcomes that actually return capital. You don’t make money when you invest. You make it when the founder decides you’ve earned your seat at the table. Because in venture, winning on paper means nothing if you don’t know how to walk out with real value.

Raising funds as an early-stage founder is never just about having a great product. Investors look for clarity, traction, and a compelling story that connects vision with execution. Founders in the US typically explore several paths to raise capital: 💡 Angel Investors such as Jason Calacanis or Elizabeth Yin, who back founders at the idea or prototype stage 🏠 Angel Groups and Syndicates like TCA Venture Group (Tech Coast Angels), Golden Seeds, or Hustle Fund Angel Squad, which offer access to a network of experienced investors 🚀 Micro VCs and Seed Funds including Precursor Ventures, 2048 Ventures, or The House Fund, which invest early with strategic support 🤝 Accelerators and Grants such as Y Combinator, Techstars, or the SBIR/STTR programs that provide early validation and mentorship This is where consultants and advisors can make a real difference. Firms and independent professionals in this space help founders refine their fundraising strategy, strengthen financial models, craft sharper investor decks, and build investor-ready data rooms. Examples include advisory firms like FUNDED, Visible.vc, or independent consultants with strong LP and investor networks. The right guidance can shorten fundraising cycles and improve investor confidence, turning effort into momentum. 💬 For early-stage founders out there, what’s been your biggest learning so far in raising capital: storytelling, metrics, or timing? #Startups #Fundraising #AngelInvesting #VentureCapital #EarlyStage #InvestorRelations #Entrepreneurship

The dirtiest secret in venture is that the whole model only works if companies keep raising capital. If a startup stops raising, gets acquired for a small amount, or just becomes a healthy, profitable business, the math breaks. I chatted with two founders last week who have raised sub $1M, still own 80%+, and are running great companies. $4–5M ARR, growing 50% YoY, making $1M+ in profit. By any normal standard, that’s a huge success. But for a venture fund? Not really. Let’s say that the business is worth $40M. A typical seed check, 5–10% ownership, would return maybe a few million. Nice, but meaningless inside a $100M+ fund. That’s the uncomfortable truth about venture. You can back incredible founders, healthy businesses, and real customers, and still get an outcome that is basically a rounding error. It’s not because anyone did something wrong. It’s because the model is built on power laws. One or two companies have to return the entire fund. Everything else is noise. That’s why investors have to ask themselves: Can this company raise again? Not “is it a good business” or “is the founder talented”, but “will other investors line up for the next round?” Because if it can’t, the whole machine stops. The business might thrive, but the fund doesn’t. And here’s where it gets strange. The companies that can raise are often the ones with momentum, not necessarily the ones with the best fundamentals. I’ve seen plenty of cash-burning companies end up being great investments, simply because they kept raising, kept scaling, and created liquidity along the way. On the flip side, I’ve seen profitable, disciplined companies that never needed outside capital, and they make zero sense for a venture fund. Those founders might build generational wealth for themselves, but they’ll never move the needle for a fund. That’s the paradox of early-stage venture. The companies that make the most business sense often make the least financial sense for investors.

The #VC rulebook is being rewritten. While top firms hoard capital, a silent crisis is gripping the rest of the market. Fundraising is frozen. Startups are staying private for 13+ years. The hunter model is broken. But there's a way out—and it doesn't require beating the giants at their own game. The winning move is to become an ORCHESTRATOR. My latest article is a strategic playbook for any VC feeling the squeeze. I reveal how to unlock the hidden billions trapped in your existing network. You'll discover: 🎻 The Orchestrator's Edge: How your agility, focus, and trust are lethal advantages the giants can't match. 📈 The $100B Network: Your LPs and alumni aren't just a Rolodex—they're a live platform for co-creation. 🔧 The Concrete Playbook: A step-by-step example of architecting a multi-party deal that creates exponential value for your portfolio. This isn't about finding new gold. It's about building a refinery for the gold you already own. Stop hunting. Start orchestrating. Read the full strategy here: https://lnkd.in/eUbWaEfG #VentureCapital #VC #InvestmentStrategy #Startups #Orchestration

A founder asked me today: “Beyond investing resources instead of cash, what really makes you different from a VC?” It’s a good question. Most venture capital firms are, at their core, 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿𝘀. Their operations are funded by the 2% management fee they charge investors, and their business model depends on the 20% carried interest from a few big wins. It’s a model designed to 𝗯𝘂𝘆 𝗹𝗼𝘄, 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵, and it works — but it also shapes how they operate. Because of that structure, most VCs can only be 𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀. The business model isn’t built to get into the trenches, help fix a scaling bottleneck, or solve a deep technical issue (unless you’re the one golden child in their portfolio). Arcanys Ventures operates very differently. Our operations are funded by the profitable 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗺 𝗼𝗳 Arcanys — a world-class software company that employs over 340 in-house engineers. That means we invest 𝗼𝗳𝗳 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗯𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗲𝘁, not from money raised from someone else. We don’t rely on one or two moonshots to make our returns. Instead, we have the 𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗲 to support every company we back — hands-on, technically, and operationally — to help them survive, grow, and scale. Many later become clients of our service arm — 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳-𝘀𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝘆𝗰𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗳𝘂𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆-𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀. It’s a completely different structure — and that’s the point. Because when your business model doesn’t depend on luck, you can afford to be a true 𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿, not just a money manager. #VentureCapital #Startups #TechForEquity #Founder #InvestmentStrategy #Execution