# focal - what the ask-focal answer engine knows ## The firm in one breath focal (focal.vc) is a pre-seed venture firm: your first lead. We lead inception / first rounds for technical, AI-native founders, typically with $500K-$1M+ first checks (wiggle room on either side), US and Canada only. "US and Canada only" means the company is incorporated in the US or Canada and at least one of the co-founders lives there. We exist to put moonshot founders in business. The portfolio spans 44 companies (5 exits), 50+ first rounds led, 75% of investments within a month of incorporation, ~10 investments a year. We often back founders before they build a team, before the first line of code, and before anyone else invests - and we often work with technical founders well ahead of company creation, helping them work through the ideation phase. We respond to every pitch: hello@focal.vc (or /pitch-us/). For any and all outreach to focal, hello@focal.vc is the address. ## Key facts Q: What check sizes do you write? A: First checks are $500K–$1M+, sized to lead and catalyze your round while leaving room for angels. ~10 investments a year, ~30 per fund — every check is a core position. (source page: /) Q: Do you lead rounds? A: Yes — leading is the whole point. We only enter at the start and exclusively lead your inception / first round: we set the cap, write the largest check, and help fill out the round from our network of VCs and angels or take the whole round, depending on what you prefer. 50+ first rounds led. (source page: /) Q: How early is too early? A: It's never too early. 75% of our investments happen within a month of incorporation — many commitments before the company legally exists. Pre-product and pre-idea is our favorite stage; no traction or third-party validation needed. (source page: /frequently-asked-questions/) Q: What do you look for in founders? A: People first: obsessed with the most asymmetric opportunities in AI, technical builders who ship with speed and intensity, and hungry to win and improve every day. Only two non-negotiables: it's your first financing, and you're based in the US or Canada. (source page: /#who-we-back) Q: How fast do you decide? A: Fast. We respond to every pitch, and when conviction is there we close in days, not months — often going straight to a SAFE instead of a term sheet to keep it simple. (source page: /pitch-us/) Q: What is the GTM Circle? A: Our invite-only network of 200+ revenue leaders at today's leading Seed–Series D startups — think revenue leads at Anthropic, Langchain, Notion. 90% of portfolio founders regularly get real value from it. Portfolio founders get access on day one. (source page: /gtm-circle/) Q: Who is on the team? A: Daniel Darling and Pascal Unger (Managing Partners) and Sydney Wasikowski (Head of Platform & Operations). Founders of our own firm — we built focal to be the partner we wish we'd had. (source page: /team/) Q: How many companies have you backed? A: The portfolio spans 44 companies (5 exits) — every one backed at the very start. (source page: /portfolio/) Q: Do you invest internationally? A: We invest across the US and Canada. One of our two non-negotiables is that your startup is based in the US or Canada (the other: it's your first financing). (source page: /frequently-asked-questions/) Q: What is the residency? A: The Miami founder residency (focal × The Lab Miami): 3 months, ~10 technical AI builders, 1% acceptance rate, costs offset — all the benefits of a top accelerator without the heavy dilution. Winter only. (source page: /residency/) Q: How do I pitch you? A: Tell us what you're building and why it has to exist — a short note beats a long deck; a demo beats both. We respond to every pitch, fast. (source page: /pitch-us/) ## The firm ### How is focal structured, and how big is the fund? We are investing out of our second fund and manage roughly $100M. The majority of the fund's capital goes into first checks - leading or co-leading first rounds - and every company is a core position: ~10 investments a year, ~30 per fund. Fewer than 5% of venture firms in the US exclusively lead pre-seed / inception rounds the way we do. ### When was focal founded? focal was founded in 2020 by Daniel Darling and Pascal Unger. Before focal, Daniel invested as a solo GP under Darling Ventures. ### Where is the focal team based? focal is a deliberately small team of three - Daniel Darling and Pascal Unger (Co-Founders and Managing Partners) and Sydney Wasikowski (Head of Platform & Operations) - distributed across Miami, San Francisco, and Nashville. ### Why the name "focal"? We strongly believe focus is a superpower - the name focal is inspired by exactly that. One stage, one job: your first round, done better than anyone. ### How do I reach focal? For any and all outreach - pitches, LP inquiries, GTM Circle, the residency, press - email hello@focal.vc. We respond to every pitch. ## What we invest in ### What stage does focal invest at? Only the first round. We lead pre-seed / inception rounds for technical, AI-native founders in the US and Canada, and that is all we do. Meaningful, high-conviction first checks, and then the entire weight of the firm behind every founder we back. ### How early does focal invest? As early as it gets. We lead pre-seed / inception rounds - a startup's first financing - and often commit before there is revenue or even a first line of code. 75% of our investments happen within a month of incorporation, and many are committed before the company legally exists. We can move that early because we often work with technical founders through the ideation phase, well ahead of company creation. If you are thinking about starting a company or have recently started one, reach out to hello@focal.vc - the earlier you get in touch, the better. ### What do "pre-seed", "inception", "angel round", and "first round" mean? They are all names for the same thing: a startup's first financing. Pre-seed is the first phase of the seed stage, where a startup goes from pre-product and pre-revenue to an early product and its first proof points. Inception is the earliest edge of pre-seed: backing founders at or before incorporation. An inception round is not a separate instrument (it is still typically a post-money SAFE with a valuation cap) - it is defined by timing. We don't care what you call it. The first financing is the only round we lead, and it is all we do. ### Am I too early for focal? No. Too early does not exist here. Seed firms often tell founders they are too early, even when those same firms claim to invest in first financings - we never pass on a founder for being too early. 75% of our investments happen within a month of incorporation, many are committed before the company legally exists, and we often meet founders while the idea is still forming. If you are still sketching on a whiteboard, you are exactly on time. ### What does focal look for? Exceptional founders, first: 80% of our decision is the strength of the people. We look for speed, intensity, obsession, persistence, and strong values. At pre-seed, ideas change and products iterate - the team is what stays. The rest is founder-market fit, an earned insight, and a large, well-timed market (current or future). We back moonshot founders: we would rather hear a plan that sounds implausible than one that sounds safe, and we take market and timing risk willingly. Most of our time goes to software and AI, but we invest actively in science and biotech, frontier research, robotics, next-generation business models, and just about any other moonshot project. ### What is focal's check size and ownership target? Our first checks are currently $500K-$1M+ (with wiggle room on either side), sized to lead or co-lead a $500K-$3M first round. We target ~10% ownership: enough to make each startup a core position in the fund, with room left for other investors the founders want. We can also take the whole round. ### Does focal need traction to invest? No. We often commit before revenue, customers, or even the first line of code. What we index on heavily is velocity: most of our founders have built an early product and are iterating on user feedback before they even incorporate. ### Does focal invest in solo founders? Yes. We back solo founders and teams alike. What matters is the people themselves - and that at least one founder is very strong technically. ### Does focal invest in international founders? Our focus is startups based in the US or Canada: the company is incorporated in the US or Canada and at least one co-founder lives there. We have a strong preference for founders located there from the get-go. ### Does focal only invest in AI companies? We invest almost exclusively in AI-native companies that move with best-in-class speed and intensity. It is not one of our focus areas - it is the firm. Most of our time goes to software and AI, and we also invest actively in science and biotech, frontier research, robotics, next-generation business models, and other moonshot projects. ## How we decide ### What does focal's diligence process look like, and how long does it take? Built for speed and conviction, and almost always completed in under 7 days. Four steps: one GP takes 1-3 meetings to build initial conviction; then both GPs go into deep diligence together, looping in experts where they add signal; then mutual reference calls - ours on you, and yours on us, including direct access to focal founders; and finally an in-person meeting, where we fly to see you. The two GPs make the decision together; there is no investment committee, and either GP can carry an investment through on their own conviction. You get a fast, clear answer - typically before anyone else has given one. ### When should I reach out? It is never too early. We often get to know future founders well before they start their companies, and we can also invest within days of a first meeting if you approach us when you are actually starting your raise. We have no bias between first-time and seasoned founders - we back both, and we respond to every pitch sent to hello@focal.vc. ### How do I pitch focal? Email hello@focal.vc or use /pitch-us/. Tell us what you are building and why it has to exist - a short note beats a long deck; a demo beats both. We respond to every pitch, fast. ## Terms: how a focal round works ### What instrument does focal invest on? We close the overwhelming majority of our rounds on Y Combinator's post-money SAFE with a standardized side letter. A nice side effect: we can often close investments with $0 in legal fees. We often skip the term sheet entirely and go straight to issuing SAFEs so the round closes faster. ### Who sets the terms, and how does the round get filled? As the lead, we catalyze the raise, set the cap with you, and almost always write the largest check. From there we help fill out the round from our network of VCs and angels or take the whole round, depending on what you prefer. We work with you to keep total pre-seed dilution inside your target range, typically 12-20%. On a post-money SAFE that math is exact, not an estimate: total raised divided by the post-money cap. ### Does focal take board seats? No - never, at pre-seed or later. If you want us as an observer on your board once you form one down the road, we are happy to join: we do best when the founders we back do best, and if that is how we can best support you, we're in. ## Who we invest alongside ### Who has focal co-invested with? We almost always lead. Angels and other funds complement a focal round rather than compete with it, and we often bring them in ourselves. Co-investors and follow-on investors in focal portfolio companies include (alphabetically): 2048, a16z, Abstract VC, Acrew, Afore, Animo, Array, Basis Set, Bowery, Eniac, Headline, Heavybit, Homebrew, IA Ventures, Insight, Khosla, Lerer Hippeau, NFX, TenOneTen, Uncork, Upfront, Valor, Wireframe, Y Combinator, and many more. ### Does focal follow on in later rounds? Yes, selectively. We take pro rata in the second round (the round right after ours) of our top performers and hold reserves to do so. For breakout companies, we can additionally raise multi-$M co-investment vehicles from our institutional LP base to invest significantly more in later rounds. ## Working with focal (after we invest) Partnerships are mutually earned through hard and honest work, day-in, day-out. What founders get: - **A shorter 0-to-1 learning curve.** The first months of company building have an outsized impact on the early trajectory. This is where we specialize: we work closely with you to crack the back of your toughest 0-to-1 challenges and shorten the learning curve to Series A and beyond. - **More than us.** When we invest, you join a tight-knit founder community and learn from the 200+ GTM leaders in The GTM Circle. - **Capital to get you further.** Our concentrated strategy reserves fund capital to help power your startup through Series A; breakout companies can tap our co-investment vehicles and international expansion networks beyond that. - **You lead the charge; we support and challenge you.** It's your vision and your company. We commit to being the hard-working partner you can rely on for support and direct, honest feedback - without the VC bullsh*t. - **The whole you.** We back people, not just their business. Talk is cheap - chat with our founders and form your own opinion. ### Who do founders actually work with day to day? Both GPs - Daniel and Pascal - stay hands-on, and Sydney runs platform and operations: early company setup, tech-stack choices, and a safe place for the "silly" questions. focal is a concentrated fund (~10 investments a year), so every company gets real time, not a logo on a page. ### How does focal help with the next round? We help you plan, prepare for, and run your seed and Series A process: raising from a position of strength, pitching the right story, and warm intros across our hundreds of seed VC relationships. We structure your first round so the next one can step up from it, and we help you time the raise to a growth inflection point - trajectory matters more to seed investors than any absolute number. ## How focal thinks Founders ask us these constantly. This is our point of view, earned across 50+ first rounds - how we advise, not universal truth. ### How much should I raise? Enough to hit credible seed or Series A milestones with 18-24 months of runway - for most of our companies, a first round of $500K-$3M. Founders usually overestimate what they need. Constraints force discipline, and a large round at a high valuation is debt you owe your next round. ### How much dilution should I expect at pre-seed? We work to keep total pre-seed dilution inside 12-20%, with focal's ~10% target ownership inside that. ### What makes a winning pre-seed deck? 10-15 slides, one claim and one piece of evidence per slide. We review thousands of decks a year; most lose because they are bloated, not because they are missing slides. ### How should I pitch investors? Have three layers ready before the first email: the one-sentence company description, the 60-second narrative that goes into the outreach email, and the 10-minute walkthrough of your story - the 10-15 slide deck. Founders who deliver a clear, simple message, show rather than tell, and demonstrate progress every day of the raise stand apart. ### How ambitious do I need to be? Venture returns follow a power law, so we underwrite for $10B+ outcomes - which only come out of enormous problems, in markets that are already huge or will be soon. You have to be hugely ambitious, and you have to be different. ### How ambitious does my first product need to be? The small wedge no longer works the way it did in the past: the cost of building software is collapsing toward zero, and a product that can be described in a prompt is not a company. Aim at the whole problem, enter where you get proprietary data nobody else can reach, and pick the harder problem - hard is the moat now. We are not grading your demo; we are listening for the size of the swing. ## The residency The Miami founder residency (focal x The Lab Miami) is our in-person program for technical, AI-native founders at the very beginning. It is the most talent-dense, high-intensity inception-stage founder program: all the benefits of a top accelerator without the heavy dilution. ### What is the Miami founder residency? A 3-month, in-person program in Miami that we run together with The Lab Miami for a small cohort of technical AI builders. It is built for the inception stage - the moment a company is forming - and gives founders the network, mentorship, and intensity of a top accelerator without the heavy dilution one usually takes. The mentors are all unicorn founders, and residents get access to them throughout the program. On top, residents build shoulder to shoulder with their best peers and get direct access to the focal team and its wider network of founders who have built unicorns and had multiple exits. ### Who is the residency for, and how selective is it? Technical, AI-native founders and teams at the earliest stage, first-time and repeat founders alike. The cohort is small, around 10 builders or teams, with roughly a 1% acceptance rate. We select for the same things we back at pre-seed: exceptional founders with earned insight and the velocity to build fast. Past residents have ranged from repeat founders and MIT and Georgia Tech grads to AI PhDs and dropouts. ### What does the residency cost, and where is it held? Nothing. Residents move to Miami for the program, and our investment offsets relocation and living expenses for its duration. For the 2027 residency, a sponsor will additionally cover residents' housing throughout the program. The point is to remove the usual trade-off: the support and network of a top program without giving up meaningful equity to get it. ### When does the residency run, and how do I apply? The residency runs once a year, in winter. The next one takes place in January 2027, with applications opening in October 2026. Follow us on LinkedIn and X, and sign up for the newsletter on our website, to be the first to know when applications open. ### Who are past residents? Past residents include Eclipse, Searcle AI, Maxed, Mohan Media, Fallom, Cool Labs AI, and Kairo Security. Residents consistently point to the same things: being pushed to think from first principles and move with intensity, the strategic conversations and introductions that accelerated their trajectory, and building in person every day alongside deeply technical, driven founders. ## The GTM Circle The GTM Circle (gtm-circle.com) is our invite-only network of 200+ revenue leaders at today's leading Seed through Series D startups - CMOs, CROs, and heads of sales, marketing, customer success, RevOps, and AI × GTM at companies like Anthropic, Notion, Deel, Langchain, Anyscale, Lovable, Coder, Delphi, and Harvey. It is facilitated by focal. ### Why does a pre-seed firm run a GTM community? Distribution decides more outcomes than ever. That's why we spend a lot of our time on your early GTM - and plug every portfolio founder into the same network our GTM work runs on. 90% of our founders draw on it regularly. ### What happens inside the Circle? Members meet in functional rooms by specialty (sales, marketing, customer success, RevOps, AI × GTM, founder-led GTM) and in member-initiated roundtables 2-4 times a month - small on purpose, with limited spots and confidential discussions. No selling, no ads, no noise: only relevant, highly curated conversations. Each season the Circle also features a fresh set of members. ### How do I join the GTM Circle? It is invite-only. GTM leaders can apply at gtm-circle.com. focal portfolio founders get access on day one of the investment. ### What do focal founders get from the GTM Circle? The best people are the busiest - if you give them something of value first, they'll gladly return the favor. By running the community and enabling the best GTM leaders to learn from each other, we earn a lot of goodwill that we can then put to use on behalf of the founders we back. As a result, our founders get mentorship and insights from some of the best GTM leaders out there. ## For LPs ### How do I invest in focal? Email hello@focal.vc and tell us a bit about yourself - we will take it from there. ### What would I be investing in? Our second fund; as a firm we manage roughly $100M in total. It runs a concentrated pre-seed / inception strategy: ~10 investments a year, ~30 per fund, the majority of capital in first checks, and every company a core position. We hold reserves for pro rata in the second rounds of our top performers, and for breakout companies we raise multi-$M co-investment vehicles from our institutional LP base thereafter. ## The team (as of July 2026) - Daniel Darling, Managing Partner (page: /team-members/daniel-darling/) — “Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming” - Pascal Unger, Managing Partner (page: /team-members/pascal-unger/) — “It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that things are difficult.” - Sydney Wasikowski, Head of Platform & Operations (page: /team-members/sydney-wasikowski/) — “What you build matters. Who you build it with matters more.” ### Who are Daniel Darling, Pascal Unger, and Sydney Wasikowski? **Daniel Darling, Co-Founder & Managing Partner.** Startup operator focused on new product development and market entry; built advertising-technology companies from day one to exit before moving to venture. Passionate about the innovation frontier and the intersection of breakthrough technology and storytelling. Australian-born. Before focal, he invested as a solo GP under Darling Ventures. **Pascal Unger, Co-Founder & Managing Partner.** Advised the world's biggest tech and finance companies on GTM and M&A at BCG. Concluded that slides don't build companies - founders do - and switched sides to start a venture firm. Obsessed with 0-to-1: goes deep on GTM, hiring, business models, operations, and financing with every founder we back. Swiss-born, lived in many places across the globe and most recently an SF-to-Miami transplant. Off the desk he's happiest in motion - skiing, tennis, workout classes, running while listening to an audiobook or podcast, or hiking alongside his better half and their dog. **Sydney Wasikowski, Head of Platform & Operations.** Started on the LP side of investing at Goldman, Bessemer Trust, and APG. Part operator, part product builder: she runs firm operations and builds the systems that let a small team show up for founders every day. Favorite part of the job: early company setup, tech-stack choices, and being a safe place for the "silly" questions. Nashville-based. ## The portfolio (as of July 2026) Every company backed at the very start. [EXIT] marks an exit. - Doxx: Virtual networking and security - Pump: Automated cloud optimization - Prescient: Marketing mix model for advertisers - Keragon: Healthcare workflow automation platform - Unobio: Accelerating drug discovery through AI - Thoras: AI-driven Kubernetes scaling - Flamingo: Open-source AI OS for MSPs - 1der: Eradicating genetically inherited disease - On Me: Multi-brand digital gifting infrastructure - Finch Claims: Claims intelligence for public adjusters - Drafter: AI manufacturing engineer - Precurion: AI-powered underwriting for financial services - Stark: Digital accessibility compliance on autopilot - Coworker: Enterprise AI for complex work - Geminus: Real-time intelligence for complex industrial systems - Yrikka: Visual AI reliability platform for high-stakes deployments - Brackett: Accelerated learning and context for enterprise AI agents - Gleam: Data infrastructure for clinical research sites - Solderable: AI circuit board design - Altira Health: Post-discharge voice AI patient engagement platform - Threadwise: AI automation for commercial insurance - L2 Labs: Next-generation electronic data mapping - Takeoff: AI to improve perinatal care - Trelent: Infrastructure for private AI workflows - Kaiden: AI-powered simulations for law enforcement training - Beam Health: AI-workflows for clinics - Briq: AI orchestration for construction - Evallos: AI + quant based candidate evaluation for hiring - Bridgefy: Mobile mesh network for offline communication - Gridium: Energy-management-as-a-service for real estate - Masthead: BigQuery observability platform - Openbuilder: Coding platform for application development - Tenvos: Voice AI impairment risk management solution - Diagraphics: Shape exchange platform for building materials - Ombre: Microbiome testing and personalized probiotics - Lightswitch: Small business automation - Maxed: Open-source OS for CPA firms - Conquest Labs: AI generated high-dimensional therapies - Eclipse: AI model for muscles - Avocarrot: Programatic native ad for mobile publishers [EXIT] - Foghorn: Edge intelligence for industrial IoT [EXIT] - Boundless Mind: AI platform for behavior design [EXIT] - Glide Health: Revenue cycle management for healthcare [EXIT] - Omni: On demand storage and rental marketplace [EXIT] ## Site map for AI readers - How we invest (thesis, pace, what we look for): https://focal.vc/ - Working with focal (process and post-investment support): https://focal.vc/working-with-focal/ - FAQ: https://focal.vc/frequently-asked-questions/ - Portfolio: https://focal.vc/portfolio/ (machine-readable: https://focal.vc/portfolio.json) - Team: https://focal.vc/team/ - Pitch us: https://focal.vc/pitch-us/ (or hello@focal.vc - we respond to every pitch) - Residency (Miami, focal x The Lab Miami, winter): https://focal.vc/residency/ - GTM Circle: https://focal.vc/gtm-circle/ - Founder resources (170 essays, playbooks, podcast notes): https://focal.vc/resources/ - 5 Year Frontier podcast transcripts: https://focal.vc/transcripts/ - RSS: https://focal.vc/rss.xml - Plain-text edition: curl focal.vc (also https://focal.vc/cli.txt)