🎉 Special Post: Darling Ventures is now focal

hello focal 👋. We just launched our firm's new name and bold brand: focal - your pre-seed lead. Check it out 👀

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Apr 26, 2023

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Over the past ~~few~~ MANY months we have been working on a rebrand and launch. We plan to discuss our process and learnings in a future 🧱 post, but for now….

We’re excited to launch our firm’s new name and bold brand!

Introducing: focal 👋

It’s the same firm, same strategy, new name, sharper positioning. With focal, we’re doubling down on what’s working well as we look to work with the next generation of entrepreneurs.

🙏 Two ways you can help us

1. We would highly appreciate it if you can repost / interact with our announcement post / add your commentary to it:

2. If you’re looking at interesting pre-seed startups, let us know 😉

💲 What focal invests in

focal leads pre-seed rounds across the US and Canada, backing software, platform, infrastructure builders reinventing how industries operate and business is done. With a strong moral compass guiding them.

We believe (now more than ever) that there is a gap in the market for high-conviction major investors at the very start of a founder's journey. Achieving that position in the #1 market is a generational prize and the journey we continue to be on as a firm.

We thrive where others say “too early”, catalyzing the first round of funding with up to $750K for up to 10%. Think of us as following:

We are stage specialists, laser focused on helping founders cut through Seed and get to Series A and beyond with velocity
We invest with a concentrated strategy to maximize the bandwidth and capital reserves to back them up from the start
We help our founders blow past traction metrics with our early GTM expertise and enable them to learn alongside our GTM community of 100+ revenue executives at leading startups (more to be announced here soon 👀)

Why rebrand?

Darling Ventures allowed Daniel to establish himself as a venture capitalist in the US. The growth of the firm since saw Darling Ventures become a two person partnership with Daniel and Pascal teaming up and a three person firm with Sydney joining

We believe that now is the right time to move away from a brand centered around individuals to lay the foundation for the future that reflects where we are headed. The rebrand allows for focal to continue to attract the best talent to work at the firm, further build out our partnership and lay the foundations for a truly inter-generational firm.

Thanks for reading and for your support 🙏

Until next time 🧱,

Sydney & Pascal

👋 Investing at the Pre-Seed

Here’s a quick reminder if you’re currently looking at pre-seed companies:
We lead / co-lead pre-seed rounds in software / platform / infrastructure builders reinventing how industries operate and business is done.
We invest with collaborative ownership targets of 5% - 10% and would love to take a look too 😁.

Brick by Brick