Brayton Williams ⏻
5.2K posts
Brayton Williams ⏻
@BraytonKey
Co-Founder of @BoostVC ⏻: Lead Pre-Seed rounds for Deep Tech (bio, space, crypto, AI, robots, Sci-Fi). Advisor @Etherscan. BOD @moltbook @unstoppableweb.
Apply for funding 👉 เข้าร่วม Mart 2011
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I miss the days of a $15M on $75M Series A.
Can’t do anything for less than $30M on $160M today.
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@AlyseKilleen 100%. A founder working on some obscure, often mocked idea shows more commitment than a founder working on 'hot current thing.'
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+1 to “we invest in ppl not ideas”
Caveat is that the nature and abilities of people are revealed, to a significant degree, by the ideas they bring forward. That’s why we go deep on ideas. But the commitment and investment made, is in people.
Brayton Williams ⏻@BraytonKey
“We invest in people. We don’t invest in ideas.” - @RonConway Easy to say. Hard not to fixate on the idea. But the best founders make the idea almost irrelevant.
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@BexelInitiative @RonConway Our track record shows when we bet on person and were unsure on idea it outperforms WAY better than bet on idea and unsure on person.
And sometimes I forget that.
Lot of nuance lost in the middle though.
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@BraytonKey @RonConway 🤔🤔🤔
Kinda agree in this, but we are seeing in real time that ideas are not cheap, and home boi underwriting is useless and expensive on the margins.
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“We invest in people. We don’t invest in ideas.” - @RonConway
Easy to say. Hard not to fixate on the idea.
But the best founders make the idea almost irrelevant.
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It honestly doesn’t lol.
The people that have destroyed this industry have no faces and aren’t here anymore.
They come, they extract value, they leave.
Everyone in this photo is still here.
If you don’t like what they do and how they do it, do something better.
Jake Brukhman@jbrukh
This image represents everything wrong with crypto and why the industry is where it is now.
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@PeterJ_Walker Is there strong correlation between top graduation rates leading to eventual top DPI?
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For seed VCs looking to benchmark your portfolio - what is a "good" graduation rate to Series A?
Depends on the time since seed, of course.
After year 1:
- 5% is low, 20% is high
Year 2:
- 15% is low, 35% is high
Year 3:
- 20% is low, 40-45% is high
100% graduation rate is probably bad, actually - not taking enough risk!
GIF
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The bar is insanely high but if you want to take a shot here are the job openings:
jobs.ashbyhq.com/radiant-indust…
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@Coveted Maybe 4-5 years to a Series A. All the issues we see are leading up to that.
Here is a case we see:
Co-founder leaves 2 years in. Before a Seed round has happened. 25% of cap table is gone. Stalls fundraising convos. The remaining co-founder is stuck.
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@BraytonKey How long did the series A take would be my question to that? Standard vesting period solves for that.
Your not making a strong case at all.
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Co-founder vesting should be 6 years.
The only founder who isn’t happy with that, is the one who leaves.
I talk to so many founders who wish they did this.
Peter Walker@PeterJ_Walker
Your cofounder won't leave, of course, no chance. But other people's cofounders - they have wandering eyes. About 25%-28% of 2-founder teams lose one of those cofounders by year 4. Get that cofounder prenup (vesting schedules) in place!
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@Coveted Quitting is fine. Taking a huge chunk of the company with you is not.
We see most problems here pre-Series A. So still at a very early part of the company life.
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@BraytonKey Whom does it make a difference for? If someone wants to quit, they will regardless of _____.
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@rrhoover Woah did not know that. Great start.
I think it takes someone like @ycombinator to make it the new default.
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@BraytonKey AngelList used to default everyone to 6 years vesting. They still might.
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Did 6 year vesting from the start with @foxglove
Seemed like a no brainer at the time, and I’d do it again
Startups are hard work and it’s better to be up front about the commitment
Brayton Williams ⏻@BraytonKey
Co-founder vesting should be 6 years. The only founder who isn’t happy with that, is the one who leaves. I talk to so many founders who wish they did this.
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@adrianmacneil @foxglove "better to be up front about the commitment" 💯
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@hthieblot Would love to see @ycombinator to standardize a new norm here.
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Unpopular opinion:
If I started a company today, founders & founding employees shouldn’t fully vest in 4 years.
Building a real company takes a decade.
What I recommend to founders:
Founders
6-year vesting, 1-year cliff
Back-weighted:
Year 1 — 10%
Year 2 — 15%
Year 3 — 15%
Year 4 — 20%
Year 5 — 20%
Year 6 — 20%
Founding Eng / Growth
• 2–5%+ equity
• ~$120k salary
• 6-year vesting, normal weight
• 1-year cliff
Employees
• 4-year vesting
• 1-year cliff
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@hhua_ Open to it! But still think 4 years is too short for how long company timelines are these days.
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@BraytonKey Maybe a different vesting schedule? 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% for 4 years?
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This is great -
Here’s the bottom line: we do not know the ceiling on the supply of great founders, nor the ceiling on capital, because we much more quickly hit a ceiling on the number good investors.
Any time you hear an investor saying that venture is constrained by the number of great founders, what they’re really saying is that they are constrained by their ability to find great founders.
Similarly, beware investors who say there are too many venture capital firms. There is an obvious lack of good venture capital firms, which is partly down to restricted market access. It is not a competitive and meritocratic environment.
Dan Gray@credistick
There's a popular notion in venture capital that deployment and returns are constrained by the number of great founders. This overlooks the fact that finding great founders is the primary function of a VC; it is an admission of failure. Perhaps, the real problem is that too many investors grew familiar with the "hot market" norm of being fed hot companies from their network, and have forgotten what real origination looks like? This aligns with market data which shows unhealthy deal concentration, which is a logical consequence of extreme concentration at the fund level. The bottom line is that we cannot know the ceiling on the number of great founders, nor the ceiling on capital, because we much more quickly hit a ceiling on the number competent investors.
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@LD103006 Don't get too comfortable meeting founders though.
I still need to be relevant as the middle man 🤣
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@BraytonKey 100%. After all….LPs are 90%+ of the capital being invested in companies on a look through basis ;)
It’s fun meeting founders through references too - some of those become long lasting relationships.
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LPs should spend more time with founders.
At minimum, it makes the job way more fun.
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@BraytonKey @AdamDraper I'm impressed you turned his bday into top of funnel engagement. I respect it.
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My co-founder @AdamDraper turned 40 today 🥳
His 30s produced some legendary investments.
Clock resets today.
First investment of the 40s… who’s it going to be? 👀
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