Celebrating 3 Years at Seaplane Ventures

Seaplane Ventures just turned 3! Here are 3 quick but hard-earned lessons from our first 3 years.

1. Preparation is a Superpower. We earned allocations this year in 3 wildly oversubscribed rounds where we had no obvious right to win. The edge wasn't a logo wall. It was that founders were impressed that I showed up having done tons of research and with targeted, thoughtful questions. Unscalable? Yep. But when you have conviction, doing the extra work is often the difference between a polite pass and a potential fund returner.

2. Make Your Own Luck. Our biggest winner came via a cold DM here on X from a founder in response to a thread where I'd highlighted that we were actively deploying. 2 years later and the company just raised at a $500 million valuation. You can’t schedule serendipity but you can create more chances for it by putting yourself out there, looking at tons of deals, and showing up IRL. (Typing this in a hotel in SF where I'm visiting for meetings + Demo Days.)

3. You Will Take L’s. Keep Going. I was excited to start a new firm but returning to emerging-manager life wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. In the span of a single week I had two LPs ghost me for meetings and my first handshake deal fell through when the founder reneged. I hung in there, got the backing of 37 LPs, partnered with some amazing founders, and we’re increasingly getting invited into rooms most first-time funds don’t.

I'm so grateful to our LPs and founders for their trust. Year 3 was our best yet and year 4 is about compounding on what we've built.

P.S. Hey founders. We're still actively putting money to work at Pre-Seed and Seed. Click the button below if you'd like to learn more and pitch us on partnering!

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The Seaplane Venture Fund is available only to accredited investors. This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. An offering to invest in the Seaplane Venture Fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.