How We Work | First Round

Nothing matters more than getting to product-market fit.

We’ve distilled two decades of experience into a framework to help founders find PMF faster. We’ll work with you to tackle these building blocks one by one.

Build your team

We fill in as a founding recruiter as you fill out your early team. We source, run outreach, and connect you directly with qualified candidates.

"First Round recruited amazing people into two of our key early roles: our first data scientist and our head of care operations. They didn't just advise on these searches — they actually got them done."

Marta Bralic Kerns · Pomelo

Position your product to win

Have us pinch hit as an early marketer until you have your own in place, finding the right language to scale your story.

“Gave me the tools to speak more clearly about the company in a more engaging way long after our announcement. Highly recommend and very grateful for the help."

Kareem Amin · Clay

Get to repeatable revenue

Open doors to your key accounts, get detailed feedback based on game tape of your customer calls, and let us interview your first sales leader after you’ve fine-tuned your founder-led sales playbook.

"From helping us build our forecast and sales processes to mapping out customer success playbooks, First Round has been an invaluable partner in the trenches of everything go-to-market."

Michael Chime · Prepared

Raise your next round

Many founders are surprised to find raising their Series A is a different ballgame. We work with you to shape your narrative, craft each slide, line up investor intros, and practice until it’s pitch perfect.

"In the face of a tough macro environment, we couldn’t have done it without you. I kid you not — we had people tell us that this was the best pitch deck they’ve seen."

Karan Kunjur · K2 Space

We aren’t above the daily details—in fact, we live for them.

The next 10 months set the course for the next 10 years. We make it easier and make it count.

When we lead your first round, we’re all in.

In an industry that’s moved to call options and traded focus for footprint, we’re the most closely aligned investor on your cap table—and outwork everyone else, too.

Start digging into the details.

What makes First Round different?

We’re focused on being the world’s best partner for founders at the very first stages of company creation — so we’ve designed First Round to do just that. You get super active partners (most of whom are former founders themselves) to work side-by-side with you across your first few years. You also tap into an extensive team designed to help you fast forward through the tough nitty-gritty of those early years so you can focus on what makes your company special. Whether it’s GTM experts mapping out your initial sales strategy, or recruiters connecting you with top-tier candidates for critical early hires, we’re here to fill in until your team is filled out.

Usually founders have to choose between early stage focus and that kind of functional expertise, but with First Round you can have your cake and eat it too.

Do First Round partners take board seats?

Yes, we often do. It’s not uncommon for us to take a board seat at first and give it up to a new investor after later rounds. We’ve found that founders like this — as it helps them manage the size of their boards as they grow.

What happens beyond board meetings?

While you’ll see your point partner in board meetings, we prefer what we call “working sessions.” Our partner Hayley Barna shared more about our approach here, but essentially, every 4 to 6 weeks, we go deep with a founder on a big challenge. We’ll spend the entire meeting working through the problem, and we’ve found this type of collaboration far more valuable than traditional reporting and governance. Founders say that their First Round partner is the first person they text and call, their coach in the corner — and the kick in the ass when they need it most.

How do you handle competitive conflicts?

We do not invest in companies that directly compete with one another (i.e., companies that offer the same product, targeting the same budget at the same customer). That said, because we invest early on the path to product-market fit, sometimes a company we funded pivots or expands in a way that might be close to another investment we’ve made. It happens rarely, but when it does we set up an information firewall between the companies to avoid any conflicts of interest.

Where does First Round’s capital come from?

We pick our limited partners, or investors, very carefully. It’s important to us that we generate returns for shareholders we can be proud of and who share our values. The vast majority of the capital we invest comes from university endowments, hospitals, and a wide variety of charities.

We specifically do not have sovereign wealth funds or governments of any kind as investors in First Round.

A preview of the in-the-weeds advice you get from our team: