Welcome to Issue #43 of our newsletter series, News From the First Row.
Thank you to Susanne Senoff and Grin Lord for sending some deals our way! That said, no intros are required - any startup can share their investment opportunity here.
📣 Announcements
For the full feed, check out (and follow) our LinkedIn page.
Join us at these upcoming community events
TUE, MAR 11th @ 5:00pm PT (via Zoom) | Deals & Drinks
Join us via Zoom for our 'Deals & Drinks' workshop! We bring a founder together with a group of investors (a mix of VCs, prospective angels, students, angels) to hear a pitch. We gather our notes and use them to facilitate a conversation about how we heard the pitch, what we observed, and what open questions we still have. Don’t miss it - RSVP today!
WED, APR 9th (Seattle, WA) | AWS x NVIDIA Startup AI Pitch Competition
Come see First Row Partner’s Minda Brusse on the pitch panel and take advantage of connecting with founders, Investors, and AWS and NVIDIA representatives at this high-energy competition. RSVP here.
WED - FRI, MAY 21st - 23rd (Wenatchee, WA) | Flywheel Investment Conference
Don’t miss out on a chance to meet investors and entrepreneurs at the 8th annual Flywheel Investment Conference in Wenatchee, WA. Visit their website for details.
MON - TUE, JUN 2nd - 3rd (Seattle, WA) | Seattle Investor Summit+Showcase
Organized by the Tech Alliance, this two-day event aims to connect innovators and investment in our region. Across presentations, panels and guided discussions, participants will hear from top researchers, entrepreneurs, and large enterprises. Venture capital and corporate venture investors will share their perspective on themes and opportunities. First Row Partner’s Minda Brusse will be joining a panel and attending other parts of the summit. Tickets are available here.
Can’t make the next Deals & Drinks?
Join in the invite list and we’ll include you on the next one!
Our portfolio companies are hiring
Please let us know (hello@firstrowpartners.vc) if you or anyone in your network is interested in these opportunities:
Esteam is hiring a Head of Technology (San Francisco)
Harmony Intelligence is hiring a Software Engineer and a Chief of Staff
mpathic is hiring Clinical Core Manager, Senior Software Engineer (Backend), and Senior Software Engineer (Frontend)
Velt is hiring Software Engineer (Backend leaning), Software Engineer (Frontend leaning), and a Founding Developer Success Engineer
WAVEAI has several openings on their website
And in case you missed it
Wealthmore in The Philadelphia Citizen, “Growing More Wealth With WealthMore”
Humanly made the GeekWire 200
🔆 Highlights
Yoko Okano leads “Breaking Barriers: Expanding the Angel Ecosystem” | Mar 01 2025
To kick off Women’s History Month, on Saturday, March 1 2025, Annie Katrina Lee and Yoko Okano hosted an inspiring half-day session focused on equipping and empowering women investors. The panelists (Nichole Heidrick, Minda Brusse, Karin Kidder, Danna Redmond, Dan Dillinger, Angie Parker, Stacy Saal, Maria Hess, Dana Sather Robinson, Kate Nolan, and Waverly Swinton) brought unparalleled energy and expertise to the room.
One of the biggest takeaways? Connections matter. Seeing so many meaningful conversations spark between new and experienced investors was a powerful reminder that investing is not just about capital—it’s about community. We encourage participants to sustain the momentum of the day by taking the next step. Whether it's a follow-up workshop, a networking session, or the next investment opportunity, every step forward counts.
Huge thanks to everyone who attended, engaged, and shared insights. It’s clear that when we come together, we create real momentum for change. And a special thank you to the sponsors, Loon Creek Capital and General Catalyst, and to Foundations for donating their space for the day!
University of Washington Jones + Foster Accelerator Cohort Graduates | Feb 12 2025
Congratulations to MoodRoom, Nimble Surgical, Rainier Honey Co, RFPGo.ai, and SecondSite for graduating from the 2024 Jones + Foster Accelerator! Each team successfully accomplished a series of defined milestones and measurable goals, which are set with the guidance of Minda and Yoko during their first week. Since First Row has delivered the welcome week program, these milestones have become a more meaningful reflection of progress and an impressive 25 out of 28 companies have received 100% of their funding from the Accelerator.
First Row Fuels Forward Momentum for Early-stage Founders & Startups
First Row is a proud partner with accelerators and early-stage programs, particularly in the Seattle/Washington ecosystem. We provide tactical advice, frameworks, and mentorship to help founders focus on meaningful signal in testing their business models and building early traction. Supporting founders across industries sharpens our own zero-to-one expertise and helps us better identify outliers. Through our programming, we also share insights on pre-seed deal analysis, strengthening the innovation pipeline for both founders and investors.
Here are a few highlights of our recent engagements:
WTIA Cohort 12 Fundraising 101 | Feb 20 2025
For the past five years, First Row Partners has partnered with the WTIA Founder Cohort Program to help shape the trajectory of early-stage businesses in the Washington area. In this session, Minda led an ‘Ask Me Anything’ on fundraising, emphasizing the importance of knowing the investor, crafting a compelling narrative, and setting realistic goals—covering how much to raise, the structure of the raise, and managing investor conversations.
Seattle Angel Conference (SAC) 27 ‘Meet the Funders’ Workshop | Feb 25 2025
Minda joined the panel for ‘Meet the Funders,’ one of the educational events of the Seattle Angel Conference (SAC) 27 program. Designed to connect investors and founders around early-stage investing, this format provided an opportunity for both new investors and founders to engage with us directly. Following a spotlight discussion about the firm, breakout rooms allowed founders and investors to ask questions in a more interactive setting.
The “Demo Day” for this round of the SAC Investor Cohort will select the final investment is on May 21 2025. You can get tickets here.
JP Morgan Founder Fundamentals: Preparing for Due Diligence | Feb 27 2025
JP Morgan Startup Banking hosted Minda and Adam Derry (Startup Attorney and Founder & Partner at Blue Horizon Legal) to meet with a curated group of Seattle-area founders and discuss due diligence preparation. Why is it important? Not only does it speed up fundraising and build investor confidence, but a well-organized company from the start is also more likely to scale efficiently, secure follow-on funding, and build a sustainable business.
Kudos to Lindsay Randall for putting together a fantastic program that supports early-stage and first time founders with essential knowledge and networking to get their company from zero-to-one.
📰 What we've been reading
Andrew Chen | The Growth Maze vs The Idea Maze
Andrew Chen’s article, "The Growth Maze vs. The Idea Maze," explores the distinct yet interconnected challenges startups face when refining their product concepts (the Idea Maze) and scaling their user base (the Growth Maze). These frameworks are particularly valuable for evaluating early-stage startups.
The Idea Maze: This represents the iterative process of developing and validating a startup’s core product or service. Founders must navigate various hypotheses, pivot when necessary, and ultimately achieve product-market fit. Investors should assess a founder’s ability to critically evaluate, adapt, and refine their ideas, demonstrating both resilience and strategic thinking.
The Growth Maze: Once product-market fit is reached, the challenge shifts to scaling the user base and driving sustainable growth. This phase presents its own hurdles, including market competition, operational scaling, and efficient customer acquisition. Investors should look for a startup’s ability to execute effective growth strategies and overcome scaling obstacles.
Andrew emphasizes that while the Idea Maze is about discovery and validation, the Growth Maze is about execution and expansion. For pre-seed investors, evaluating a startup’s potential requires a deep understanding of how founders navigate both mazes — demonstrating problem-solving skills, adaptability, and strategic foresight. By recognizing the importance of both the Idea and Growth mazes, investors can better identify startups positioned for long-term success.
Carta’s Q4 State of Private Markets Report
Carta published its Q4 2024 State of Private Markets report highlighting several key trends pertinent to pre-seed investors:
Decline in Seed Funding: Seed-stage startups raised $1.8 billion across 507 rounds in Q4 2024, marking an 18% decrease in total funding and a 26% drop in deal count compared to Q4 2023.
Shift Towards Smaller Pre-Seed Rounds: There was a notable increase in smaller pre-seed deals, with 44% of all pre-priced rounds under $250,000 in Q4 2024, up from 30% in Q4 2023.
Preference for SAFEs: SAFEs (Simple Agreements for Future Equity) continued to dominate early-stage financings, comprising approximately 64% of all seed rounds from Q4 2023 through Q3 2024.
Demographic Shifts in Pre-Seed Funding: Startups with Black or African founders saw a decline in pre-seed funding, receiving only 0.4% of total pre-seed investments in 2024, down from 1.1% from the previous year.
🖼️ Practice | Observing Art
Art & Critical Thinking. We see a bold line connection between the intuitive and critical thinking skills practiced in the arts and the work of evaluating innovation ideas and opportunities.
Looking at art with abstract and complex themes is an opportunity to slow down your thinking and reflect on how you form a point of view (metacognition). Use the self-guided questions provided below to walk through this image:
Take a closer look — Slow down your gaze and bring this piece into focus. What color palette is used? Can you identify all the colors? What kinds of shapes and lines do you find? Are they spontaneously placed, or planned? Is the composition busy, calm, disorderly, or methodical? Are you reminded of machinery, nature, language, or some other system? How would the piece change if you removed all the black marks? What do they communicate or change about the piece? You may see ‘signs and messengers’ in this piece as you reflect on the complex and rapidly changing world today.
👋 Talk Soon!
Please reach out to us so that we can share more about our investment strategies, pipeline, and our fund portfolio.
Minda Brusse & Yoko Okano