Remember that old saying, “A penny for your thoughts?” Well, this US-located startup called Notation Capital that has just launched plans to give you funds for a mere idea.
The idea behind Notation Capital is simple – tell us a startup idea, we like it, you walk away with funds in return for some equity in a project which is, well, on a paper napkin. The pre-seed fund has been started by 2 former Betaworks staff -Nicholas Chirls & Alex Lines, & for now, they have with them a war chest of US $8 million.
Announcing the launch of this startup, the duo wrote on their Medium blog: We’re calling Notation Capital a pre-seed fund, but really all that means is that we’re true risk capital investors— investing relatively small dollar amounts in extremely early technical founders or founding teams with the enduring will to bring interesting and innovative projects to life.
For the pre-seed projects we invest in, we’d like to be the first $100,000-$200,000 (we’re just fine being the only check to start) in rounds less than $400,000 total. We don’t consider anyone or any project “too early.” In fact, we’ve heard those words too often ourselves (both as founders and as VCs raising Notation Capital), so you’ll never hear us use them.
The concept of pre-seed seems interesting. Though it has existed in 1 form or the other, this form of funding has never been formalized before. Startup founders will tell you that they often need some initial capital to build, yet, many at this stage, do not want nor have the time to approach a VC for the “millions” of dollars to reach the next milestone. For ages, they have done the best & perhaps the only available thing – approach friends & relatives for some “starting up” money. Based on such feedback, Nicolas & Alex decided to start Notation Capital.
There’s more that’s gonna happen on this front, say the 2, so stay tuned.
Image Credit: Notation Capital
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