Flowchart Depicting How a Seed VC Decides Investments

“We don’t prognosticate macro-economic factors, we’re looking at our companies from a bottom-up perspective on their long-run prospects of returning.” – Mellody Hobson

Venture capital – or risk capital – represents a modern enabler of business in contemporary landscapes. It empowers entrepreneurship to take wing, expands the scope of operation of new businesses, helps bring new business ideas to life, and allows start-up firms to gain scale in competitive markets. An early form of venture participation emerges in the form of seed money – also known as seed funding or seed capital. This “is a form of securities offering in which an investor invests capital in a start-up company in exchange for an equity stake or convertible note stake in the company.” This form of funding “generally covers only the costs of creating a proposal. After securing seed financing, startups may approach venture capitalists to obtain additional financing.” Therefore, it would be interesting to explore the mechanisms, lines of thought, and processes that enable venture capitalists to decide on investments.

  • The VC-driven Narrative

A seed VC decides investments on many parameters – these include the provision of business development support, business operations support, fund-raising support, strategic recruiting support, and the creation of a plan that enables entrepreneurs to reach Series-A funding. Therefore, these factors could be mapped within the spaces of flowchart-based diagrams and could also etch the various factors that allow the emerging matrix to gain multi-faceted expression. In addition, “the decision to invest in the business or not is often based on the business plan, a beta test, a prototype, or the minimum viable product.” Hence, venture capitalists focused on seed funding can explore various lines of participation and support that they may extend to start-up operators and freshly minted enterprises.

  • The Value of Start-Ups

Interestingly, a significant aspect that determines how seed VC decides investments resides in the magnitude of the problem an entrepreneur is working to address (or solve) through commercial methods. For instance, a venture capitalist may invest ready funds in disruptive technologies that bear huge potential. The investor may explore the potential of new technologies through the spaces of connected diagrams. This enables greater clarity into the rationale for investing in new business enterprises. Certain “seed investors may participate in early-stage businesses that have not garnered much revenue or even zero customers.” These investors may discern the long-term potential for performance and profit in fledgling enterprises. This instance encourages readers to consider the esoteric aspects of how seed VC decides investments.

  • Entrepreneurial Skillsets

The skillsets and abilities of entrepreneurial teams steering a new business operation/enterprise may influence how a seed VC decides investments. This implies a focus on human talent in driving high levels of valuation won by a start-up organization. For instance, venture capitalists may map the work experiences, skills, abilities, and qualifications of senior management teams developing a start-up; such mapping can undergo detailed renditions in the spaces of flowcharts – enabling venture capitalists to validate the rationale for seed investments. Secondary levels of validation may emerge when venture funders evaluate factors – such as the nature of market requirements, the potential for growing revenues generated by a start-up, etc. These factors can mold various levels of activity that comprise how a seed VC decides investments.

  • Primacy of Start-up Business Model

The business model espoused by start-up organizations remains a prime consideration when seed VC decides investments. Such a model explains how start-up organizations intend to serve markets and earn revenues from various segments of customers. It would help to describe various aspects of a start-up business model with flowcharts – this rendition may also include an exploration of the market opportunity, the methods to find/locate buyers and customers, an assessment of the size of the addressable market, etc. In addition, providers of seed funds may encourage start-up owners and operators to expand the business model in a bid to earn higher levels of revenues. Such actions may emerge from the experiences of venture capitalists and may influence how seed VC decides investments at subsequent stages of investment-driven collaborations.

  • Types of VC Investment

Various types of investment can define the landscape of participation of seed investors in new businesses. Investments may emerge as loans, lines of credit, micro-loans, small business grants, a limited partnership, angel investments, barter arrangements – among others. This sheer variety of modes of participation can influence how a seed VC decides investments in a range of new businesses or start-ups. Each mode of participation can find adequate descriptions within the spaces of flowcharts and demonstrate the value of investor participation in growing new businesses. Certain venture capitalists may allow start-ups to court multiple lines of venture investment – this is thus a form of complexity that may eventually influence how a seed VC decides investments.

  • Factors that Attract Seed VCs

Low levels of commercial debt, flexibility in business arrangements, the prospects of high commercial growth, a stable business environment, and seamless sharing of knowledge and experiences in steering start-up organizations: these factors can influence and mold how seed VC decides investments. Venture capitalists can examine these factors inside flowcharts, and establish lines of connection between these and the potential fortunes of a start-up operating over extended periods. In addition, seed investors may work to guide and groom the talents of founders of start-up organizations. This form of participation can expand the expanse of start-up ecosystems, and impart greater vitality to the performance of new business initiatives.

  • Entrance Barriers: an Enabler?

The matter of low entrance barriers in an industry (or domain of commercial activity) can mold how seed VC decides investments. Further, it would benefit to explore the nature of entrance barriers through flow-based diagrams. Low barriers imply lower quanta of investments, and this can translate into scenarios wherein, a venture capitalist invests funds in multiple start-ups. Low barriers can attract competition and therefore, VCs and start-ups can design levels of value proposition into new businesses or services. This represents an evolution of the business mandate, and can significantly influence how seed VC decides investments through subsequent tranches. Such collaborations may develop into future models of investment that can distinguish the future of venture capital landscapes.

  • To Conclude

Readers may peruse these lines of exploration to ideate on how seed VC decides investments. Venture capitalists could thus be visualized as a form of modern resource, an enabler of possibilities, and an expression of constructive intervention that helps expand the landscapes of modern commerce. Seed funders, in turn, must consider a range of criteria and parameters to arrive at investment decisions; they may utilize the agency of flowcharts to focus on start-ups eligible for seed funding. They may also utilize flow-based diagrams to analyze the commercial/disruptive potential latent in new business ideas. Such diagrams could also assist VCs to guide the founders of start-up companies in negotiating the complexities inherent in modern markets.

Further, readers may create different editions of flowcharts to develop VC-driven investment strategies in the context of the headline topic. Each strategy may find detailed expression within connected diagrams, and this allows stakeholders to evaluate the utility/fitment of each strategy. The modern venture capitalist may also expand/mold the list of criteria that influence the idea of investments in evolving landscapes of markets; this enables smarter decisions that could benefit a wider number of start-up businesses and their operators. In enabling these scenarios, the flowchart remains a matchless construct that can drive the evolution of VC landscapes.

Develop interactive decision trees for troubleshooting, call flow scripts, medical appointments, or process automation. Enhance sales performance and customer retention across your call centers. Lower costs with customer self-service.

Interactive Decision Tree