SeedBlink

firstminute capital is a $320m sector-agnostic seed fund backed by 120 unicorn founders, including over 20 founders of $10bn+ businesses. Our General Partner Brent Hoberman is a double unicon founder. Yet, we are more than a fund. We’re an ecosystem of entrepreneurs from all over the world who, facilitated by firstminute capital’s team, come together to help one another, turn vision into reality and create the future. Our community is our edge. It is the source of the transformational support we offer to our partners who are warmly welcomed inside. An invitation into the firstminute capital community is secured by those with a special kind of spirit, not just a solid spreadsheet. A rare breed driven by a powerful characteristic we call, ‘Magnetic Ambition.’ Those with it often don’t recognise it in themselves, yet they are propelled forward by it, every day. We see it in their ability to capture hearts and minds with their vision, their belief and their commitment. When we find a founder with Magnetic Ambition, we open the door to the firstminute capital community and we give them everything they need. At your service What can founders expect from working with us? First of all, our 9-person investment team will fight for founders. Between us, members of the team have backed 10 unicorn startups at seed; we have IPO-ed companies; we have started companies; we have fundraised ourselves and we have failed and picked ourselves up again. So we are all here to help with advice, strategy brainstorming, product workshops, introductions to customers, raising a Series A or just being there for you in the tough times as well as the good times. If we can't help, we'll know someone in our extensive network who can and we'll make that intro. On top of the investment team, founders also get the whole "platform" team, which is another 11 people dedicated to helping founders scale their business and help with areas such as hiring and marketing. Our goal is to be the most helpful seed fund in Europe. We love to help founders build. Network effects At firstminute, we see ourselves as collaboration catalysts. We act to unlock the value our the community and bring our own expertise to bear when the time is right. Thanks to our 120 unicorn backers as well as a network of top CEO supporting us, firstminute has an extensive global reach. We like to bring on our investors - some of the top angels in the world - into our deals and as advisers to supercharge companies. firstminute's co-founder is Brent Hoberman, who after founding and exiting two unicorn startups himself created a network of companies under the 'Founders' umbrella. These include a world-class event series called Founders Forum as well as a consultancy, a recruitment firm, a charitable arm and Europe's largest incubator-accelerator. This whole ecosystem is part of our network, which helps with everything from sales introduction to finding top talent. We also have a large investor network to help with that Series A fundraise and beyond, having done deals with our friend at funds such as Tiger Global, Sequoia, Benchmark, a16z, Coatue and Atomico. Being part of our community, with our events and parties with some of the biggest names in tech and business, means you will be working with the best. We do an annual retreat for founders as well as regular drinks and dinners. Every year we hold our flagship summit in London which brings together firstminute investors, portfolio founders, partners from the top US and European multi-stage funds, and friends who are all bright lights in the tech community. Read more about that here.

January Ventures is a VC fund focused on angel/pre-seed in the US & Europe. We are replacing the friends & family round and re-writing the networks in venture. We believe the founders of the next decade will look fundamentally different: more female, more diverse and more distributed. We back founders based on their tenacity and ambition, not their pedigrees or who they know. Our vision is an equal opportunity tech ecosystem. Our firm is built on the principles of transparency and access, and we back founders based on their tenacity and ambition, not their pedigrees or who they know.

We invest in early seed and pre-seed stages, offering tickets of up to €200k alongside co-investors. Our sector focus is broad, encompassing any industry, with a geographic emphasis on Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). FAQ At what stage do you invest? What do you mean by pre-seed? Ideally, we want to lead the first investment round in your company. Sometimes this is also referred to as an angel round. As for product development, we will generally want to see the MVP and some go to market story or traction. It is great if you can get those first five clients or sell the very first batch of your product prior to our investment. If getting traction is impossible, you still should have a story of progress and achieving goals in your startup. I feel like my company is too early/too late for you. Can we still talk? Sure, you’re welcome to reach out at any point. A lot of startups that we’ve invested in came to us too early, but because we could start those relationships and develop a mutual understanding, it was a lot easier to make the investment decisions later on. If you are too far down the road for us, but you believe we could add some value, feel free to reach out to us as well. We’ll definitely look into what we can do together. What is your USP?Pre-seed investment focus – we are the biggest pre-seed VC fund in Poland and in the CEE region. Competence Hubs – we provide our portfolio companies an unique model of support in the way of 8 Competence Hubs, which are focusing on the following areas: Marketing, PR & Growth; AI & Technology; Finances & CFO on Demand; Legal; Next Rounds & Co-investors; People & Culture; Grants; Exits. Co-Investors – to every investment round in a seamless, efficient process we add co-investors – business angels with a unique background specifically matched with your needs. 120+ investments – we have the unique experience with the largest amount of investments in the CEE region. 100% private capital – we are fully private VC fund, which gives us and our portfolio companies a lot of flexibility. How are you unique?Timing: we are likely the earliest possible institutional investor due to our focus on pre-seed. Acceleration model, built on four pillars: the in-house team ready to help founders all hands in if needed adding co-investors to every investment round in a seamless, efficient process 8 Competence Hubs unique experience from 120+ investments. You mention co-investors. Are they absolutely necessary? Do we have to bring them, or do you help us connect with prospective investors? We believe that adding co-investors at this stage is super helpful for the startup, and we have got a number of cases to prove it. Co-investors will most often be experienced business angels, and we make sure to find the best possible fit. If you bring someone to the table, that’s great. We are also happy to dig through our network. How do you work with portfolio startups? We believe that adding co-investors at this stage is super helpful for the startup, and we have got a number of cases to prove it. Co-investors will most often be experienced business angels, and we make sure to find the best possible fit. If you bring someone to the table, that’s great. We are also happy to dig through our network. Where do you stand on diversity and inclusion We welcome teams and founders from all backgrounds. AIP Seed has also enjoyed great success with a number of female-led startups like GLOV, SiDLY or EduCat.

By co-investing Mozaic Investors is increasing the chances for each stakeholder to gain from being part of the syndicate. Investors gain by diminishing the high risk related with investing in new ventures and by increasing their portfolio diversity by being exposed to high reward opportunities. Startups gain from the opportunity to raise money in underserved markets where venture capital is limited and in very early stages of the company. They also gain from the vast network of experts and successful entrepreneurs that are part of the syndicate thus increasing the potential on the investment with the smart money. Mozaic is a response to a couple of important problems that the startup ecosystem in Moldova and in the region is facing. The Investors Perspective. Lack of startup investing knowledge: Investors, especially in Eastern Europe, are not used to invest high-risk capital with the awareness that they can lose everything invested and the understanding that they have to keep the founders motivated enough because they are the ones developing the products thus investors should take only a small share of equity. High-risk investing alone: Not having a validation process for the startups usually leads to risky bets that investors take. The limited deals they are exposed to, contribute to decisions when they chose only from what they can evaluate. Not knowing other investors that can share the risk with them decrease the performance of their investments, thus not incentivizing the investors to keep investing. Lack of legal framework: The high cost of legal work regarding an investment makes investors to restraining investing in startups. Unclear rules, unprivileged legislation for investors are not something that an investor can change alone. There should be a common action and suggestions made to the legislative body. Lack of startups deal flow: Diversifying the portfolio require an increasing number of investible startups to choose from. An individual investor has no time and means to know all the startups there are in the ecosystem that are looking for investment thus exposing himself only to the direct approaches. The Startups Perspective. Lack of venture capital: By venture capital we are referring to alternative financing when startups are raising capital from private investors where no other financial institution are ready to finance the initial ideas and startups. Traditional financial institutions usually require more financial data, guarants or other indicators that a newly formed entity simply do not have. Thus founders are unable to support the developing teams and launch the products. A venture capital is not a loan and investors are aware that they can lose it. Also the founders are not tied to reimburse it the in case of failure, thus incentivising more founders to work on more ambition and rewarding projects not putting themself and their families in debt. Founders not owning the company: By investing the most of the money or all the money in the startup traditionally is expected the investor to have the majority of the social capital and voting rights on the matters regarding the activity of the company. This fact is not helping the founder to feel that he is in charge of the company thus he is losing motivation and is not engaged enough to achieve the company’s goal. Lack of smart capital: By accessing the capital from investors, founders also gain the access to investors that are experienced entrepreneurs and connected people that can advice or introduce the founders to potential clients. Ethical money: By promoting the highest standards of ethics throughout the investment cycle, the investors must act with integrity and respect while dealing fairly and objectively with the founders. The ambition is to help early stage companies become industry-defining and sustainable businesses. The Ecosystem Perspective. Not fully functional ecosystem: By covering to a good degree the other components of the startup ecosystem like Infrastructure (coworking, prototyping facilities) and Knowledge (know-how, conferences, events) there is a lack in continuity and sinergy in startup creation process. Not having the Capital and Legal components of the startup ecosystem makes the other components unproductive. Startups looking to other countries or even moving to pursue their goals. High levels of uncertainty: Startup world is known by having a high dose of uncertainty, but by adding to this the fact that founders do not know how they will finance their startups or the next steps in scaling, they have anxieties that keep them from starting in the first place.

We are an international network of startup founders, operators and venture capitalists making early-stage investments in the most ambitious Belgian entrepreneurs, wherever they are building the next generation of technology businesses. As an engaged community collective, we empower Belgian innovators with seed capital to start, hands-on operational advice, tools, mentorship and events to grow, and access to a broad network of founders, operators, investors and industry experts to scale. Our vision We fundamentally believe in Belgium's potential as a key entrepreneurial hub in Europe. And while the local tech ecosystem has come a long way, we're not there yet. By uniting people from across the ecosystem behind a common goal of supporting its most ambitious founders, Syndicate One aims to help Belgian tech reach its full potential. We’ve got the know-how, the network, and the seed capital to deploy.

Everything here is led by Founders, for Founders. We believe capital is a commodity, experience and inner purpose are not. We want to help our Founders succeed in building extraordinary companies. We’re an experienced team of operators who have started dozens of companies by shaping people's lives. We are on our journey to create a better society by creating impactful companies.