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What VCs look for in early-stage tech startups

Luke Smith, an investor at early-stage venture capital firm Forward Partners, explains what VCs typically look for when investing at pre-Seed. 

Raising funding at pre-Seed is entirely different to raising funding later in your business journey, mainly due to the fact that at that stage your revenues are either non-existent (as you’re pre-launch) or they’ll be small enough that they won’t be a significant factor in the investment decision.

This means that the strength of the founder or founding team becomes a key factor in the minds of pre-Seed investors and convincing them of your leadership and entrepreneurial qualities is core.

That being said, there is no cookie cutter model for a successful entrepreneur; they come from a huge range of backgrounds and career paths....