Executive assistants, high salaries, and other ways early-stage founders will trigger a seed VC

VC Jenny Fielding, co-founder of Everywhere Ventures and former Techstars managing director, was basically trolling on X when she posted, “Y’all have strong opinions about pre-seed founders who have EAs to help them schedule? Just checking.”

Fielding knew the post was “a little bit snarky,” she told TechCrunch, but it sparked a big conversation. Some people suggested that early-stage founders could simply use AI executive assistants. Others grew affronted that a VC implied that they shouldn’t hire a human to assist, even at the earliest stages of their company.

Fielding’s point, however, was that founders still hold some misconceptions from the excess funding days of 2020-2021 about appropriate cash management, especially during a startup’s early years, when revenue is scarce. That’s when companies should be working on the basics of building a product that people want to buy. 

“I was a founder. I started two companies,” she said. “Then I spent seven and a half years at Techstars, really helping very formative companies.” So she tries to “give founders the real information they need, not the fuzzy stuff,” she laughed.

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