I started Seedscout two and a half years ago with a simple value prop…Crunchbase for startup updates. I thought that if you had a tool that tracked all the monthly updates from founders all across the world, you would get datasets that would blow the competition out of the water. Essentially,  you’d have a  dataset that lives and breathes with the companies it tracks.

For a good year and a half, I tried to make this model work and turn it into a startup. 

It didn’t work. 

Not because the data wasn’t 100x better than anything else on the market, but because investors just didn’t see the value in a tool like that. I couldn’t make money off of it. So, I have since moved on from that model and discovered a new one that makes a lot more sense to both founders and investors.

Strangely enough though, now that I have put some distance between that idea and my 100% effort, I realized that there was something right in front of me all along that I completely missed. In hindsight, it was always the founders that gave consistent and sharp monthly updates that tended to have more success in their startups. The founders that gave an update once every few months and wrote a novel always found themselves pivoting or losing focus…not really getting anywhere. 

This, in itself, is a filter. And we’re in search of these every day.

We’re Always in Search Of Meritocratic Filters

Seedscout is all about building a meritocracy in the world. We are about helping highly skilled individuals break through the noise, irregardless of if they have an untraditional background. We don’t see a Harvard grad any different from a college dropout. We don’t see the YC founder any different from a founder that cold emails us from Ghana. We care about one thing, and that is WHAT CAN YOU DO? Everything else doesn’t matter to us.

If you prove you’re competent, you can work with us. But how do we have founders prove their competence? The begs an interesting question. Our answer is through filters that promote meritocracy.

Filtering by Charging

We started off answering this question by implementing a paid product that only founders who afford it could use. This created a natural filter in regards to who could use the Seedscout product. Not just any founder could use us. You had to be able to afford us, which says something about your ability to build something, get revenue, and allocate some of your profit to Seedscout. With that said, I am realizing this is too prohibitive.

Filtering By Discipline

There are millions of founders out there that still can’t afford Seedscout that are solid founders, just early. These are founders who would pass a sniff test if I could sit down with all of them. But since I can’t sit down with 1,000+ founders a day, we are looking backward to chart the path ahead. Since one of the outcomes of the monthly update product was the real founders showed up every month and the less serious ones didn’t, we are going to use this same formula for who can try out Seedscout Pro. We are proud to introduce a second filter based on merit.

Introducing Our New Seedscout Pro Trial

I am excited to announce the Seedscout Pro trial. For every quarter of monthly updates documented, founders will be able to try Seedscout Pro for one month, no cost at all. Each month of Seedscout Pro is worth 10 investor introduction requests and one mentor call. This offer is valid for up to 30 investor intro requests and three mentor calls. After that, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid tier.

We believe writing monthly updates are a core component to being a good founder. If you’re a serious founder, you’ve been making monthly updates for the last year. If you want to take us up on this offer, forward your last 3-9 monthly updates to updates@seedscout.com. For every three you send, you unlock one month of Seedscout Pro. Nine is the max we need to give you the full offer.

Geniuses live everywhere, and our goal is to find them. This monthly update filter lowers the barrier to entry to join Seedscout for the right type of founders so they can prove themselves within our ecosystem and meet the right investors. Haven’t been making your monthly updates? Start now and in three months, you’ll be able to try Seedscout Pro too.

FAQs

Can current customers redeem this offer?

Yes, if you’re a current customer send us your monthly updates and we’ll credit your account with the extra monthly intro requests

How do I send you my monthly updates?

Take the monthly updates you’re already sending to stakeholders and forward them to us at updates@seedscout.com. For future updates, just add us to your email list where you send out updates to.

How does Seedscout Pro even work?

Check out the Seedscout Pro one pager here

Does this include the IRL events too?

Not at the moment, but we’ll think about how to work this in.

Any other questions? Send them to mat@seedscout.com. Now it’s time to forward those updates! Looking forward to having you in the Seedscout Pro trial.