Ed Sim: Why Seed Has Never Been More Competitive & Why Pricing Has Never Been Higher | E1076

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

October 27, 2023

Duration

50m

Channel

The Twenty Minute VC

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Every single 20VC episode is recorded with Riverside.FM. It is the one product that I could not live without. Try it today here (https://creators.riverside.fm/20VC) and use the code 20VC for 15% off. ----------------------------------------------- Ed Sim is one of the best seed round investors in venture as the Founder and Managing Partner @ Boldstart, Ed focuses specifically on developer, infra and SaaS at pre-seed and seed round. Over the last decade, Ed has backed some of the best including Snyk, BigID, Kustomer, Front and Superhuman. ----------------------------------------------- Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (0:16) Introduction & Background (02:02) Understanding Investment Stages and Dynamics (25:07) Current Market Analysis & Trends (33:24) Advice for Founders & Investment Strategy (37:37) Personal Reflections & Lessons (43:19) Competitive Dynamics (45:26) Quick-Fire Round ----------------------------------------------- In Today’s Episode on Seed Rounds We Discuss:

1. The Three Types of Seed Round: What are the three different types of seed round today? Has seed ever been this competitive? Will seed be unimpacted by the macro decline we are seeing? Why are growth and multi-stage funds being more active than ever in seed?

1. Too Much Cash Will Kill You! Why does Ed believe that too much capital can kill companies at the seed round? Why does Ed believe that the best founders are not always optimising for the highest price? What are the single biggest negatives of taking a high price at the seed round? What advice does Ed have for founders who have large offers from multi-stage funds at seed?

1. Is Growth Dead? Why does Ed disagree and suggest that growth is not dead? What do multi-stage and growth funds now what to see that they did not before? How will the growth market evolve over the next 12-18 months?

1. IPOs, AI and M&A: What will cause the IPO windows to crack open again? Why does Ed believe that many investing in AI are simply giving money to Nvidia? Does Ed agree that 95% of the cash going into AI from venture today will go to zero? Will we see more or less M&A in the next 12 months? How did Ed evaluate the Loom acquisition by Atlassian? ----------------------------------------------- Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3j2KMcZTtgTNBKwtZBMHvl?si=85bc9196860e4466 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-twenty-minute-vc-20vc-venture-capital-startup/id958230465 Follow Harry Stebbings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Ed Sim on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Edsim Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vc_reels Follow 20VC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok Visit our Website: https://www.20vc.com Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/contact ----------------------------------------------- #EdSid #Boldstart #venturecapital #20vc #HarryStebbings

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Ed Sim

  guest

• Harry Stebbings

  host

• Narrator

  other

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of The Twenty Minute VC, featuring Ed Sim and Harry Stebbings, Ed Sim: Why Seed Has Never Been More Competitive & Why Pricing Has Never Been Higher | E1076 explores ed Sim Dissects Hyper-Competitive Seed, Jumbo Rounds, And VC Discipline Ed Sim of Boldstart outlines how seed-stage investing has evolved into highly competitive, often oversized inception rounds, with prices and round sizes pushed up by multi-stage funds deploying excess capital. He introduces a three-part framework for inception rounds—discovery, classic, and jumbo—and argues strongly that too much money too early generally harms startups and distorts hiring, execution, and future financing paths. The conversation covers fund sizing, ownership, reserves strategy, and why capital efficiency and disciplined pricing matter more in a world of compressed exit multiples. They also dive into AI hype, enterprise SaaS prospects, M&A dynamics, and hard‑won lessons from wins like Kustomer and Snyk and from over-leaning into preemptive rounds.

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