How early is ‘early stage’?

If you’re in the early stages of your business we’d love to hear from you; it’s never too early to reach out to Trifecta Seed. However, if you’re raising a series A or looking for later-stage funding, we’re probably not the right firm for you.

I’ve raised some money from angels - can I still reach out?

Absolutely, some of our investments have been after a small round with angels or friends and family. Having said that if you’ve raised more than a few million dollars, we’re probably not a good fit.

Do you have a industry or area focus?

No - while it’s true that our investments have mostly been in e-commerce, mobile apps and consumer goods and brands, we are chronically curious across many other areas as well.

Do you have a geographic focus?

Also no - however we strongly believe that early stage founders, no matter where they are based, should set their sights in the US and launch there. Our two main holding companies are based in the UK and Hong Kong.

What’s the most important thing in your decision making process?

The founder or the founding team. We look for founders that we trust and admire who are able to execute rapidly and believe in treating their Customers how they would want to be treated themselves.

We believe in playing long term games with long term people - on occasion we have been known to even in a promising entrepreneur pre-idea.

What else do you look at?

If the idea works - it must be likely to earn decent returns on capital.

How much do you usually invest?

We typically like to invest between $300,000 to $1,000,000 in a start up, however we have gone higher and lower in some cases.

Do you have strict ownership requirements?

No, however our ideal ownership is at least 15% after a business has raised its seed round.

Does Trifecta Seed have to be the lead investor in the round?

While we prefer to be lead investors for the right businesses, it is not a must for us. We strongly prefer having a meaningful stake (at least 15%) in the companies we invest in, so we can invest significant time and effort helping the founders, but this does not mean that we have to lead the round.

What makes Trifecta Seed different?

We’re a proprietary investment firm, meaning that we invest our own funds from our own balance sheet. This means that we are able to offer permanent capital and be perfectly aligned with the founder on when to get liquidity. This contrasts with traditional VC/PE firms with funds that need to return capital to LPs typically within 7-10 years. For an entrepreneur raising money from an investor, the investor might be pushing them to sell the company prematurely so that the fund manager can get their maximum fee and avoid penalties on their fees for returning capital after a certain date.

When we invest in an entrepreneur, they know that they wont be forced into a liquidation event just because our managers are chasing higher carry.

We quite literally have aligned incentives with the entrepreneur. For a wonderful business, our favorite holding period is forever.

We’re also operators, and we think that we’re better investors for it.

If you are an early-stage entrepreneur looking for an investor, get in touch with us below.