Founders First: Our Playbook for Pre-Seed Trust
I co-founded Lombardstreet Ventures to double down on Pre-Seed—and here’s what eight years in the trenches—and hundreds of founder emails—have taught me about trust, speed, and what actually matters
It’s been a while, and I’m back sharing some thoughts on our journey.
Working as a venture capitalist in San Francisco offers a unique perspective on the high-tech market. As an entrepreneur, I’ve worn many hats throughout my career, but I can confidently say that this is the best job I’ve had since becoming addicted to technology in the early ‘90s. I work from home and am immersed in high-tech, “surrounded”—over Zoom—by incredibly talented people all day, and life is good.
When my business partner and I decided to found Lombardstreet Ventures, we did it for many reasons:
Investing in companies with only a few months of history is both exciting and challenging.
We aimed to invest at a time when things move quickly and people make a difference.
Investing in young companies from the Bay Area provides you with a front-row seat to glimpse the future.
We write small checks as a Pre-Seed specific fund, aware that they will require significantly more capital to implement their plans. From the outset, we aimed to comprehend how to support our portfolio companies throughout their journey to exit. Other VCs offered various services, but larger teams and significantly bigger funds are required for that. Additionally, there are no specific “services” that a startup needs at the beginning. The team is small and busy building the product and talking to customers. They need to demonstrate that they can manage uncertainty and keep things moving forward.
The more we engaged with founders, the clearer it became that our secret weapon was our expertise as software engineers and tech entrepreneurs with over 20 years of experience. Surprisingly, not many VCs share the same experience of building companies nowadays. Most haven’t been operators—they lack the hard-won, hands-on experience we’ve gained over the years. Building a company means living through wins and wipeouts, hunting down stubborn bugs at 2 a.m., and shaping a culture that convinces top talent to join you when you’re still a nobody. In the 90s, it was different. After the dot-com crash, it was founders, not financiers, who rebuilt the startup scene and brought optimism back to San Francisco while VCs were still recovering from the NASDAQ meltdown. Now, venture capital is just another asset class, with thousands of firms crowding the city. As a founder, you often get to choose your investors—and let’s be honest, people who’ve actually built something are way more valuable than career finance folks.
Over the years, we’ve rolled up our sleeves and helped founders through some tough spots. We know the only way to earn real trust is to be on call whenever founders need us, ready to help, never pushing, and always in their corner.
I'd like to share the four simple rules that we strive to follow with every founder we meet. Let me know your thoughts.
1. Be Fast, Stay Responsive
Getting a quick reply from a VC after your pitch isn’t just polite—it’s basic respect. Most VCs drag things out for weeks or never get back to you at all. We aim to provide honest feedback within hours, or at most, a couple of days. Sometimes, when deal flow gets crazy, we might need a little extra time.
No committees, no endless back-and-forth—just both partners in every founder meeting, face to face. Our AI notetaker catches the details so we can focus on the real conversation. At the end of the day, though, nothing beats gut instinct in the Pre-Seed phase.
Once we invest, if a founder emails us for advice, we make it a point to reply that same day.
Running this way means staying lean—a minimalist team focused only on deal flow, investments, and portfolio support. That’s why we keep our funds small—so we can stay close to founders, move fast, and avoid the bloat that comes with managing hundreds of millions.
2. Be Founder-First, Not Pushy
If you want to be a great investor, founders come first—always. If we’re not looking out for them, we’re just getting in their way. Founders are under enough pressure as it is, so if we can help cut the noise or stress, we do.
We give advice when asked, but never push our view—that’s a lesson we learned the hard way. Listening beats talking. Even if we think a founder is off track, being pushy just doesn’t work.
3. It’s Not Our Company
We never jump in uninvited. We’re here to help at any stage, but only if the team asks. We know we can’t do their job, so we don’t pretend to have all the answers. If we’re unsure, we say so. If we’ve seen something similar before, we’ll share our experience—but it’s always their call.
Some founders want us to be hands-on, others prefer space. We respect both. What matters is they know we’re here if they need us.
Honestly, teams do their best work when they don’t see investors as just another headache. Too many VCs don’t realize how much stress their impatience adds. At the end of the day, founders know their business better than anyone else—definitely better than us.
4. Be Patient
Every venture capitalist dreams of their investments taking off in the first year, but that’s not how early-stage investing typically works. When you’re backing a team with just an MVP, it usually takes 9–12 months to get a real launch and start making money. So we stay patient—every case is different.
Sometimes we think it’s time for a pivot, other times it feels like there are too many pivots. But unless the founder asks, we wait. Stay calm, maybe suggest a call, and let the team do their thing.
Why Trust Matters
We’re not perfect, and we’ve made our share of mistakes. But eight years in, we know what matters: stay honest, stay helpful, and let founders lead. That’s how you earn trust—and that’s what keeps us in the game.
Does this approach ultimately pay off? We think so—because trust compounds, and founders talk. Sure, you could try to control everything and chase quick wins, but you’ll burn bridges and miss out on the best teams. Ultimately, you must decide what kind of legacy you want to leave. For us, betting on trust and long-term relationships isn’t just the right thing to do—it’s the only way to build something that lasts.
And for anyone wondering if this approach resonates with LPs: the smart ones get it. Returns come from access, and access comes from trust. Founders pick their investors, and the ones with a real reputation for partnership get the best calls. In the end, that’s what drives results—on both sides of the table.