| This is 100% a symptom of not being in the US. Seed stage VC might as well not even exist in Europe. It’s so risk averse that it’s something else. It’s not VC. In the US, you can raise money ($1m+) with just an idea if you have some combination of the following (often times just one of these is enough)… - you have some traction in the form of pre-signed customers - you have previously had startups success (multiple rounds, an exit, etc.) - you are a master networker with a very large Twitter/LinkedIn following - you are well known within your circle of expertise. Could be that you run a large newsletter, or podcast, or blog - you know VCs personally, and are close enough with them that they’re willing to take on some risk with you - you have a world class team of co-founders. Could be someone that built something open source, or lead some large branch of a FAANG company (I’ve seen former AWS employees raise on the simple fact that they worked for AWS) - you went to a prestigious university like Harvard or Stanford. Many VCs attended these universities and are more willing to work with you in these cases (as much as people don’t want to believe this it’s true) There are probably dozens of other scenarios and combinations of scenarios that would allow you to raise with just an idea. But it’s 100% possible (I’ve done it). |