Former Lyft executive joins a16z: focuses on early-stage project incubation, how to play a $1 million seed round?

Question

【ChainWen】There is another major personnel change in the crypto venture capital circle. Former Lyft executive Kenan Saleh officially announces his joining of a16z as an early-stage investment partner.

His main battlefield this time is a16z’s Speedrun program — an incubator that provides $1 million in seed funding specifically for early Web3 projects. In simple terms, it’s about helping startup teams get their first round of funding and accompanying them to develop their business model and scale.

When Kenan worked at Lyft, he had already collaborated quite a bit with a16z, and the two sides were well familiar with each other. He also specifically expressed gratitude to his former employer Bain Capital Ventures, saying that the fundamental venture capital skills he learned there provided him with a solid foundation.

For early-stage projects, partners who understand both traditional tech company operations and have top-tier VC backing may be more valuable than just the money. After all, seed rounds are not just about the funding amount, but also about finding someone who truly understands you.

LiquidityHunter · Accepted Answer

1 million USD seed round... How deep does the liquidity need to be to get out? Early-stage projects usually have terrifying slippage.

MEVHunterLucky · Answer

A $1 million seed round? How many projects would it take to keep everyone afloat haha

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It's the same old trick from a16z, just giving money first, anyway only a few can survive

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People from Lyft are now into crypto, the appeal of this industry is really strong

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The Speedrun plan sounds quite practical, but the key still depends on how this guy chooses projects

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Thanks to Bain Capital, that part sounded a bit pretentious, clearly a job change, so why say it like that

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Starting with $1 million, the initial amount is really high; I've never heard of such a seed round before

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With Lyft's background support, fundraising is indeed easier, but can Web3 really produce projects like Lyft?

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a16z is expanding again, are they quickly accumulating potential next unicorns?

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If this guy can apply Lyft's growth logic to Web3, there might really be some hope

SatoshiChallenger · Answer

A $1 million seed round sounds very attractive, but data speaks for itself — the previous projects at this stage had an exit rate of around 98%.

Interesting, another traditional tech executive coming to "empower" crypto. Can Lyft's experience be replicated in Web3? I remain skeptical.

Ironically, every bear market someone discovers a "new investment logic," only for the bull market to come again.

Objectively speaking, can $1 million truly sustain a viable business model? Or is it just a faster way to feed the wolves?

It's not me being contrarian, but why do people from Bain Capital always try to play Web3 with traditional VC tricks?

For this batch of seed projects, I bet that at least half will fall into financing hell within six months.

Interestingly, they are still discussing how to "scale up," while most early-stage projects die from pseudo-demand at a rate of 99%.

MoneyBurnerSociety · Answer

$1 million seed round... Isn't this just our group's "professional pothole fund," haha. Kenan's move this time is purely a upgrade from "money-burning master" to "teaching others how to burn money," which is a self-cultivation of the king of negative alpha.

BasementAlchemist · Answer

It's another a16z recruiting people, this time pulling an executive from Lyft to play early-stage incubation. The tactics are getting more and more familiar.

A $1 million seed round sounds attractive, but I wonder how good their project selection eye really is.

The Speedrun program sounds very Web3 just from the name. Feels like they're about to attract a bunch of entrepreneurs again.

This guy has had prior experience working with a16z, so it feels like they're already like family; now just formalizing it.

Saying they’re helping to run through the business model actually just means they're helping you spend that $1 million haha.

a16z is aggressively deploying early-stage projects. Are they truly optimistic or just trying to snatch up the tracks?