Startup funding round names are officially dead.
Yesterday Wabi announced a $20M pre-seed round led by a16z. Really cool idea (they're creating a way to create, discover, and remix personal mini apps).
but what is pre-seed doing in that announcement?
Awhile back, Thinking Machines announced a $2 billion seed round at a cool $12B valuation. Pre-product, but not pre-credibility of course, given who Mira Murati is.
Big question is: does this matter? Who cares what the round is called?
Well, turns out having a shared understanding of stages makes fundraising easier for lots of founders. It allows them to focus on VCs who can realistically invest into their businesses. It allows them to have some semblance of understanding for what metrics those investors will require of them.
We could:
All agree to just talk about round size instead of name (bucketed in reasonable ways like $1M-$5M, $5M-$10M, etc). Probably won't happen.
Ditch round names in favor of numbers (first institutional round, etc).
Keep all funding secret and only discuss company shutdowns or exits (...good luck).
All so confusing these days 😬
Anyway go check out Wabi, looks pretty sweet.
And if you want data regularly on what (most people) are raising in VC, subscribe to our newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gNa_Dk-F
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