First Round Capital

Most people describe finding PMF as an art, not a science. We're here to change that. Introducing PMF Method. After 20 years and 500+ investments in pre-product-market fit companies, we've drawn on our data and worked with some of the world's most iconic enterprise founders, distilling what they did in their first 6 months into a free 14-week intensive experience that helps sales-led B2B founders build epic companies. In tactical sessions, we help early founders discover what customers really want, build the right v1 product, and close your first sales — all while keeping 100% of your equity. You'll work alongside a tight group of other builders at your same stage, and get to learn from the hard-earned insights from founders of $1B+ B2B companies, like Vanta's Christina Cacioppo, Looker's lloyd tabb, Plaid's Zachary Perret, Ironclad's Jason Boehmig, Lattice's Jack Altman, and Verkada's Filip Kaliszan. The Summer 2024 session of PMF Method runs from 5/29 to 8/28. Any early founder working on a new B2B SaaS company is welcome to apply — just get your application in by 5/7 (or tag a founder friend below!) More details, FAQs, and application link in the comments below 👇

First Round Capital saw the very early opportunity before others.

Building something meaningful is never easy, especially in a complex, regulated space like insurance. That's why today's news about EvolutionIQ’s $730M acquisition by CCC Intelligent Solutions is so inspiring. Tomas Vykruta, Michael Saltzman and Jonathan L. were early to AI applications but they didn’t go after the low-hanging fruit. They navigated skepticism about market size and all the challenges of bringing new tech to an old industry. But they stayed focused on their mission of helping injured workers get back to their lives faster. Grateful that my partner Bill Trenchard saw something special in their early idea so that First Round Capital has been along for the ride ever since their 2019 seed.

EvolutionIQ is one of those IYKYK companies. After heads-down building to bring AI to an area not many know much about (disability insurance claims processing), they’ve been acquired by CCC Intelligent Solutions for $730M — 6 years after they started. So impressed by founders Tomas Vykruta, Michael Saltzman and Jonathan L., and very grateful they gave my partner Bill Trenchard and First Round Capital a seat on this rocketship in their 2019 seed round.

Great companies often start by solving a specific problem exceptionally well. That's exactly what EvolutionIQ did by bringing AI to disability insurance claims processing. Today they announced their $730M acquisition by CCC Intelligent Solutions — congrats to Tomas Vykruta, Michael Saltzman and Jonathan L.! It’s been a masterclass on how customer satisfaction + demand + efficiency come together to create extreme PMF. Proud that Bill Trenchard and First Round Capital backed their early idea in 2019.

Today, CCC Intelligent Solutions announced its planned acquisition of EvolutionIQ for $730M. It’s an incredible outcome for founders Tomas Vykruta, Michael Saltzman and Jonathan L. — and I’m incredibly grateful they chose to partner with me and First Round Capital when we led their seed back in 2019. They’re exactly the kind of founders I love working with — they went “unreasonably deep” on the idea and their customer, brought outlier technical talent to an overlooked problem, and showcased uncommonly strong commercial chops. To me, the lesson from their journey is that building an enduring AI company isn't just about great technology. It's about focusing on the fundamentals and quietly, but relentlessly, executing on solving actual problems for customers. It’s hard to pull off — and even harder to copy. Congrats to the co-founders and the entire EIQ team. They truly deserve it.

The first signal of product-market fit for dbt Labs? A line in a Google Sheet. Founder Tristan Handy didn’t have a splashy launch or a big marketing campaign. Just an open-source repo, anonymous tracking, and one telling trend: 10% growth, month after month. Quiet signals can tell you everything—if you know where to look. On In Depth, Handy shares how he recognized those early signals of PMF and leaned into them—lessons every founder can apply on their own building journey. Tune in here: https://lnkd.in/e2UDQmfp

How did I go from IC to SVP of a rapidly-scaling startup in under 5 years? I made a ton of mistakes and did a lot I wouldn’t do again, but I also went out of my way to learn as much as quickly as I could. This article from First Round Capital featuring advice from Molly Graham is a classic at this point. It’s influenced how I and leaders I’ve coached and advised think and have scaled. There’re lots of gems in here, but one of the most important learnings — —> Hire people better than you and delegate as much as you possibly can to them as quickly as you can so you can keep up leveling. What have been some of the best pieces of advice you’ve received on your career journey? Things that stick with you a decade or two later?

Sometimes scaling your impact means letting go of how you thought you'd get there. In 2019, Tristan Handy was running dbt Labs with just three engineers, despite having 1,000 customers and 3x year-over-year growth. He never wanted venture funding, but reality was knocking: “It was so clear we were doing the product and the community a disservice by under-investing in it,” he says. Watch Handy share the moment he realized that serving their mission meant changing course on the In Depth podcast.

There are plenty of reasons why dbt Labs shouldn't be a $4B platform: ❌ Founder Tristan Handy didn't even want to build a startup in the first place, which is why he initially went the consultancy route ⚙️ dbt was originally an internal tool to make their consultant business more efficient, which they happened to throw up on GitHub 💵 As an open source tool, the team would have to nail commercial adoption & monetization to build an enduring business So how did they pull it off? On the latest episode of In Depth, Brett Berson sits down with Tristan for the nitty-gritty details of the 0-1 journey, and how dbt Labs managed to find extreme product-market fit against the odds. Listen wherever you get your podcasts (we'll drop the links in the comments).