agreed — but once upon a time back before unicorns and decicorns and sub-prime unicorns and failed FDA tests we used to have these things called seed rounds. They were ~$500-$750k in size, often with a couple of investors writing $250k checks as lead investors (which made up half the round) and could fund 2–3 people who were getting a product to market and generate sales.

The valuations were closer to $3–4M pre-money (Instagram raised $500k in its seed round from a16z and baseline back in those long-off times) and that discount priced in that everyone on earth didn’t want to do the deal yet.

It was what allowed those small, tiny new firms like Soft Tech and First Round to take conviction and lead rounds without a big fund.

Sorry, being a little dramatic, but I think we’ve convinced ourselves all rounds are $2M and that a $250k check can’t act as a lead. I think Shana Fisher, Charlie O’Donnell and Nick Chirls would all tell you otherwise.