10 Top & Active Pre-seed SaaS Investors
These investors could well become your biggest cheerleader. They also promise to push you in the right places. Discover who they are and start applying for fund.
Getting the right investor in your corner
Because not all VC firms — and angel investors — are “created equal.” Find below some criteria to consider in your search for your next investor.
Subject matter expertise
Investors with subject matter expertise in a specific industry tend to invest in that space. It makes total sense. They have a keen eye for what might work or not in that industry/sector. Consequently, this increases their odds of providing much value to the companies in their investment portfolio.
Connections
Having investors who can boast an impressive network of strategic contacts in your sector is definitely a plus. Those connections can be a combination of former colleagues and bosses at blue-chip companies, founders from their investment portfolio, and fellow investors. All this helps close strategic partnerships, which in return, would enable your company to grow fast.
Ticket size
Lastly, consider the ticket range and the sweet spot of the investor. It is a hint of how much money your company can expect from them.
But again, VC firms usually co-invest along with other VCs. So, that should not be a big problem to raise more money through them than they can offer you directly.
Did you say pre-seed investment?
The pre-seed stage happens to be one of the most challenging phases in the life of a startup. The reason is you need to interlock many moving pieces in order to get the project off the ground. And cash is very much needed at this stage to get things done.
Consequently, investors in their desire to de-risk as much as possible the investment — you know, 9 out of 10 startups fail — feel more comfortable investing past that stage.
So, it is soothing to know these angels and VC firms are putting more skin in the game by investing at such an early stage, called by many “the missing middle.”
At the pre-seed stage, the entire focus of the founder(s) or initial team is on turning their idea/thesis into an actual MVP (Minimum Viable Product) and demonstrating proof of concept.
So, if you are presently working on a SaaS — short for “Software-as-a-service” — any of these top pre-seed SaaS investors could well be a fit for your early-stage startup. Also, some of them also invest up to series A, B, and beyond .
Now, O founder, let’s discover who might be your next lucky SaaS investor.
NB: This list has been compiled in no respective order.
12 top & active pre-seed SaaS investors
Rafael Corrales
Founder and Partner, Background Capital.
Rafael is a founder-turned-investor right after his startup got acquired by WordPress. He launched Background Capital in 2018, currently at its Fund 3.
- Notable investments: Instacart, Blockchain, Webflow, Clearbit.
- Ticket size range: $100K — $250K
- Sweet spot: $100K.
Kevin Colleran
Partner, Slow Ventures.
In their own words, Slow Ventures — which has $450M under management — “gives curious founders the resources, connections, experiences, and empathy required to build strong, sustainable companies.”
- Notable investments: Robinhood, Venmo, Clubhouse, Airtable, Solana, Behance, Slack, among many others.
- Ticket size range: $500K — $2M
- Sweet spot: $1M.
Ron Conway
Founder and Co-Managing Partner, SV Angel.
Often described as Silicon Valley’s “super angel”, Ron has been an active angel investor since the mid-90s and is a widely acclaimed investor for his role in the tech ecosystem.
- Notable investments: Twitter, Google, Airbnb, Pinterest, Square, Dropbox, Facebook, Snapchat, Stripe, Slack, Github, etc.
- Ticket size range: $25K — $100K
- Sweet spot: $50K.
Lolita Taub
Co-Founder and General Partner, The Community Fund.
Led by Lolita Taub and Jesse Middleton, The Community Fund, which started in 2020, is a $5 million early-stage fund investing in community-driven companies through an investment partner team.
Concerning Lolita, she describes herself as a Latinx operator and investor pushing for diversity in tech, while her expertise lies in sales, B2B business models, and GTM (Go-to-market) strategy.
- Investments: over 70
- Ticket size range: $25K — $50K
- Sweet spot: $38K
Submit your company here for investment consideration.
Cyan Banister
Angel investor and now Partner at Long Journey Ventures.
- Notable investments: Cyan was an early investor in Uber, Postmates, Flexport, Carta, and SpaceX.
- Ticket size range: $100K — $1M
- Sweet spot: $250K.
Gigi Levy-Weiss
General Partner at NFX.
NFX has $450 million under management.
- Notable investments: Lyft, Marqeta, Doordash, Patreon, Poshmark, SimilarWeb, Trulia (acquired by Zillow).
- Ticket size range: $500K — $5M
- Sweet spot: $1M.
David Tisch
Managing Partner at The BoxGroup.
In October, BoxGroup announced they closed on $255 million across two funds to back startups at their earliest stage.
- Notable investments: Airtable, Bubble.io, Clearbit, Clubhouse, Skillshare, Openspace.
- Range: $250K — $500K
- Sweet spot: $375K.
Mark Suster
Managing Partner, Upfront Ventures.
- Notable investments: Ring, Bird, thredUP, GOAT (the world’s largest marketplace for buying and selling authentic sneakers).
- Ticket size range: $750K — $5M
- Sweet spot: $1M.
Satya Patel
General Partner at Homebrew.
- Notable investments: Fuzzbuzz, Chime, Lumi, Noto.
- Ticket size range: $200K — $2M
- Sweet spot: $1M.
Paige Craig
Founder & Managing Partner at Outlander Labs.
For over 10 years, this firm of founders-turned-venture-capitalists has identified and helped scale some of the world’s biggest and best tech companies with 100+ investments and 12 unicorns.
Outlander Labs also runs a contest known as OutPitch 2.0 where the five finalists compete live for a $100K investment. To expect to make it to the upcoming final on December 7, 2021, apply by November 11 here.
- Notable investments: Heartbeat, Huddle, Vidrovr, Talli.
- Ticket size range: $50K — $250K
- Sweet spot: $200K.
Good to know
The majority of these investors focus on the US/North American market. But, do not let your hopes get shattered this quick if you live outside the US.
Great ideas and amazing founders are found everywhere, all over the planet. And your next smart move should be to register a US C-Corp, remotely.
You can incorporate in almost no time with the industry leader and enjoy 10% off in the process. Check The right way to register your company in the US to see what other whopping perks come with the incorporation.
Good luck with your fundraising, and see you on your next round.
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