Precursor Ventures’ first hire just spun out to start her own venture firm

Sydney Thomas, who was the first hire at Precursor Ventures, a seed and early-stage focused fund that backs first-time founders, is starting her own venture firm. The investor is going from principal at the firm she joined 6 years ago to the solo-partner behind a new, unnamed firm. The job move may feel like a leap in this environment — as institutionally backed investors warn that emerging fund managers will struggle to raise debut funds given LP freeze-ups — but Thomas doesn’t quite agree.

“I think it’s crazy to start a fund in any environment,” Thomas told TechCrunch. “I haven’t paid a lot of attention to a lot of the discussions because I learned recently that early-stage markets have zero correlation to the stock market more generally; and the over-indexing, or over-correction that is happening in the stock market is not actually reasonable for early-stage investors.”

Thomas declined to share what type of fund she’s raising — if it’s a 506(c) or a 506(b) — or what her average check size could look like. Her firm doesn’t yet have a website or a name, but she’ll spend the next few months heading into builder mode before opening up the inbox for investments.

I’m so excited to share that I’m jumping into the deep end and building a VC fund! My focus will be on the same thesis I’ve cultivated over the past 5 years – investing in + doubling down on Pre-Seed companies building technologies that make life better for real people. #LFG

— Sydney (@sydneypaige10) May 31, 2022

While her new gig is clearly still very early stage, Thomas will focus on addressing a gap she noticed during her 6 years — and 250 companies’ worth of experience — at Precursor. She wants to build a fund that backs founders at the pre-seed stage and then doubles down on them in the seed stage.

“It sounds very normalized, but it actually isn’t,” she said. “A lot of other firms and multi-stage firms outsource the pre-seed bucket to a Scout program, and so the partners that actually have the funds aren’t as intricately involved in a founder’s everyday.” This reality means that many of the startups that may turn to a multi-stage firm for their first checks will get lost in the sea as senior partners don’t really connect with them for follow-on funding. The investor thinks that founders are looking for a high-conviction, pre-seed partner who is interested in leading the next deal. “And given what I’ve seen in the landscape…that is novel,” she added.

We think founders need a quick Heart to Heart about the market

As for if Thomas’ firm is competitive with her former employer, it’s too soon to tell. A lot of the specifics are still being figured out, but, similar to Precursor, she is focusing on first-check funding and early-stage entrepreneurs. The future firm could clearly differ by picking …read more

https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/31/precursor-ventures-sydney-thomas-new-firm/