Focal

#1: 2023 tech reality check

#2: Pocket guide of essential YC advice

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👋 - Looking For Pre-Seed Funding?

At focal, we lead pre-seed rounds backing software / platform / infrastructure builders across the 🇺🇸/ 🇨🇦 reinventing how industries operate and business is done.

read it on substack

Featured Resources

June 6, 2023

January 29, 2025

Introducing findfunding.vc 🧨

We're thrilled to announce the launch of our open source VC database - findfunding.vc

company news

April 26, 2023

January 29, 2025

focal is live 👋

We just launched our firm's new name and bold brand: focal

company news

February 22, 2024

January 29, 2025

Early vesting is broken!

At startups, too often, too much of the cap table is owned by individuals who left before things started to work, causing resentment amongst the ones who made it work. Early vesting needs rethinking.

pascal's notes

October 19, 2023

January 29, 2025

What it takes to raise capital in 2023

The fundraising environment remains tricky to navigate for startups. Frameworks, like Point 9’s renowned SaaS funding napkins, offer a good a good temperature check on the early stage funding market.

pascal's notes

September 29, 2023

January 29, 2025

Cold Outbound is Under-Appreciated

To get to their initial B2B customers, most founders first tap into their network. That works well for some, but leads many others down a wrong path. Cold outbound is an under-appreciated alternative.

pascal's notes

July 13, 2023

January 29, 2025

🧱#8: The VC Rebrand Guide

Rebranding and revamping your website is no easy task. We lay out step-by-step how we did it for focal, all the way to launch.

brick by brick

April 12, 2023

January 29, 2025

🧱#7: Navigating Year-End

Now that the busy year-end season is (mostly) behind us, we look back at the operational lessons we've learned in the last six months.

brick by brick

March 20, 2023

January 29, 2025

🧱#6: On Point Offsite

In January, we had a week-long team offsite across Virginia & Miami. While the primary draw was to see each other, reconnect, & align, we also got a ton of work done. Here's what we learned.

brick by brick

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March 19, 2025

March 20, 2025

5YF Episode #33: Helm.ai CEO Vlad Voroninski

Leapfrogging Tesla, World Models, AI Training Simulators, and the Future of Autonomous Cars And Robots w/ Helm.ai CEO, Vlad Voroninski

5 year frontier

February 19, 2025

5YF Episode #31: Voltron Data CEO Craig Dunham

Unlocking 90% of Data, AI Bottlenecks, DeepSeek vs. Stargate, Precision Forecasting, and the Future of Data Processing w/ Voltron Data CEO, Craig Dunham

5 year frontier

February 5, 2025

5YF Episode #30: Fireworks AI CEO Lin Qiao

DeepSeek Deployed, How Open Source Wins, The Small Model Revolution, AI Infrastructure Wars, and the Future of AI Infrastructure w/ Fireworks AI CEO, Lin Qiao

5 year frontier

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Two Great Reads

#1: 2023 tech reality check

#2: Pocket guide of essential YC advice

Featured Resources