Seed table stakes in London

I sat down with a friend recently and he was bemoaning the lack of risk appetite of seed investors in London and explaining how he can’t possibly start his new business without the injection of capital he so desperately requires. I left the catch-up pondering what the table stakes were for raising a seed round in London. I’ve worked at two funded startups and know around a dozen people that have raised seed rounds and thought it would be interesting to think about the similarities:

Amazing founding team — Normally 1–3 people, well educated and super smart. They also have a long history together, they’re not bumping into each other at a founder dating/meetup event.

Either traction, an industry that’s really hot or previous success — This makes sense, either they’ve proven that they know what they’re doing or the investors like the space.

Well connected — They tend to be well connected to other successful business people. This helps with both knowing who to ask for money, introductions and getting the initial traction.

Great at story telling — They’re good at telling you about what they’re working on and why.

Unfortunately for my friend he’s probably ticking one or two of these boxes and is currently falling short of the table stakes to raise a round in London. The investors are probably being savvy as opposed to being risk averse.