Today, I’m talking with Einar Vollset, a General Partner at TinySeed, the first startup accelerator designed for bootstrappers, and the Managing Partner at Discretion Capital, a technology enabled Investment Bank focused on M&A, due diligence and strategic partnership development.
We’ve had this call scheduled for today, Wednesday, March 18th, for a while and planned to talk about TinySeed Fund 2, but obviously a lot has changed recently.
We still get into what’s to come with the next, larger TinySeed Fund, but Einar is one of the most thoughtful investors I know so I wanted to get his perspective on the Coronavirus pandemic and what founders should be thinking about.
My company, SaberSim, has been hit pretty hard by all of this. We serve the daily fantasy sports market and with all major sports leagues suspending operations, we decided to pause all billing for our customers, putting a stop to revenue until play resumes.
It sucks, to be honest, but we’re fortunate enough to be able to strengthen our cash reserves so we can weather this out without any layoffs and keep building in the meantime.
Many companies won’t be as fortunate as we are while others will actually benefit, but every company will feel this in some way.
Our chat is realistic and I can’t say we painted a rosy picture, but it’s not all doom and gloom. Einar draws on his experience to offer a unique perspective on what the Coronavirus pandemic means for your business.
You won’t want to miss this…
Topics covered:
- TinySeed update
- How’d the first batch go?
- What’s next for those companies?
- What changes will the next cohort see?
- Coronavirus
- What’s the fallout from the Coronavirus look like for founders?
- How do you see it impacting the fundraising process?
- What advice do you have for founders?
- How does this impact your fundraising process for TinySeed 2?
- GP lessons
- What are you and Rob doing differently as GPs for TinySeed 2?
- How do you structure the fund to support the operating costs?
- How do you structure the fund to handle outcomes that aren’t exits?
- Where can listeners go to learn more?
Resources mentioned:
- “How to Invest in Startups” by Sam Altman
- “What AngelList Data Says About Power-Law Returns In Venture Capital” by Abe Othman
Where to learn more:
To hear more from Einar, you can follow him on Twitter.
You should also check out MicroConf On Air, a daily livestream with conversations, Q&As, and hang-outs focused on non-venture track founders.