. @shsiwak and I have been building @AirhouseHQ for ~2 years now. Seed stage fundraising has changed drastically since I raised for Shyp in 2015. I wanted to share some of my learnings (thread)

There is way more capital available at seed stage. I think this is primarily due to AngelList syndicates, other founders investing directly and more seed funds fueled by low interest rates.

There is less value in the “name brand” VC participating in your seed round.

AngelList syndicates have been a complete game-changer to be able to tap into dozens or hundreds of people invested in your success.

Having more investors leads to better recruiting leads, access to new media outlets (ie. podcasts) and better at helping get early customers vs traditional VC.

Spend more time and thoughtfulness on investor updates to take advantage of your increased # of investors.

Later stage investors are all LPs in smaller funds so write your investor updates like they are going directly to them.

Not having a board allows you to move faster at seed stage.

Rolling seed rounds are now common and not looked upon as a negative signal.

SAFEs are the best way to raise capital if your valuation cap is post money. If you have a pre money cap the dilution for founders and early employees can really creep up on you.

SAFEs allow your employees to pre-purchase all of their shares up front when the shares are worth nothing.