Do Seed Round Labels Still Mean Anything?

Jeff Morris Jr says a $60 million seed round would be below average now, and the old venture-round buckets no longer mean anything.

He started the way most new managers do, with a smaller fund pitched as a seed fund. Seed was the simple package: companies raise the smallest amounts of capital, many limited partners want seed exposure, and a fund to fund in particular has wanted a concentrated seed strategy with managers who fit the buckets. Sequoia did a seed round the morning of the conversation, a first round of capital, and he thinks the amount pinned to the company was $60 million, not the valuation. Rounds of that size show up every single day, and $60 million sounds small. Seed labels linger while the real variables are valuation and how much capital is being raised.

The firm is staying with an earlier stage model, while keeping a percentage of the portfolio flexible enough to partner with a known founder, the next Elon Musk, and join the journey.