First Funders

02: 300 startup investments, 500 LPs, sharp elbows - Jenny Fielding, Everywhere Ventures

Feb 14, 2024

01:07:14

Jenny Fielding, a pre-seed investor and angel with 300 early-stage startup investments, discusses investing in FinTech, hard tech, and consumer spaces over the past decade. From studying law to working in finance to leaving it all to found not just one but two startups, Jenny brings a founder-operator mindset to her fund, Everywhere Ventures. She writes pre-seed and seed-stage checks for $50k to $250k.

Highlights from our discussion:

Jenny’s first seed investment and its fast, huge outcome
Her simple evaluation framework for startup companies and their founders
The way larger funds can screw early angel investors
Everywhere Ventures’ latest seed investment comes out of stealth
A yearly ritual to become a better angel and startup investor

This is for information purposes only. This is not investment advice.

Topics

(00:00) - 02: Jenny Fielding - Everywhere Ventures
(03:07) - How does Shaherose know Jenny?
(04:17) - Jenny's Journey into Investing
(05:10) - Why did Jenny choose the investor side of the table?
(08:27) - How did Jenny land her first investment (which went big!)?
(11:02) - How does Jenny evaluate companies?
(15:39) - How Jenny categorizes companies and check sizes
(17:49) - How an angel investment went public and yet Jenny got nothing
(25:18) - How does Jenny maintain authentic relationships while seed investing?
(29:38) - Seed investors promise access to founders - does it matter?
(33:39) - Jenny's successful seed investment in a Blockchain company - for real!
(37:53) - Angel invest and chill? What signals help assess your investment early?
(39:26) - How Jenny seed invests and then helps with future fundraising
(40:46) - Using secondaries to generate returns and lower risk
(44:18) - Pre-Seed fund return profiles - what's the goal and reality?
(46:14) - Jenny and Everywhere seed invest in the "table stakes economy"
(47:21) - What is the difference between pre-seed and seed startup investment rounds?
(48:56) - Does valuation discipline matter for early angel and seed investors?
(51:44) - Jenny's latest seed investment: Fora comes out of stealth
(53:47) - Jenny's one trick to become better at startup investing
(55:43) - How Jenny partners with Scott to make investment decisions
(57:00) - Jenny's hot takes
(58:21) - Takeaways from the interview