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Levi Reed
Founder at Twig Ventures | Adjunct professor at UW Foster | Material Change Fellow | Director, Founder Institute-Seattle
Levi Reed is not currently an investor at You.com. He is a startup ecosystem leader and investor based in Seattle, Washington.12 His current roles include:
- Director of Founder Institute-Seattle1
- Founder of Twig Ventures3
- Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Startup4253
- Venture Partner at Loyal VC24
Reed has experience in product positioning, go-to-market strategy, and founding companies.2 He specializes in supporting early-stage startups, particularly those led by underrepresented founders.23 His LinkedIn username is indeed levireed.1
Career Highlights
- Startup425: Reed is involved with this non-profit program supported by six Seattle-area cities, which launched a new accelerator for first-time entrepreneurs in August 2024.3
- Founder Institute: He previously ran the Seattle chapter of this pre-seed accelerator.13
- Twig Ventures: In 2024, Reed launched his own investment firm.3
Reed is passionate about early-stage venture capital and has expressed interest in launching a project to support underrepresented founders in accessing resources for company building.2
Highlights
Early this year, in a conversation prompted by the announcement of Techstars’ departure from Seattle, Jesse R. Canedo asked me what are the biggest challenges for founders in Seattle. Where does our startup ecosystem need to focus resources to best support new ventures at the earliest stages?
I realized I didn’t really know. Of course I could share the basic ingredients of any functioning entrepreneurial ecosystem, but my experience of the fundraising environment in this area has mostly been on the other side of the table.
I decided to talk to some founders, and I discovered they had a lot to say (I was as surprised as you). I’ve summarized the conversations here, and if you’re at all interested in the state of early stage venture in our region I hope you’ll take a look.
Some interesting points:
-Money is a need, yes, but the #1 thing founders felt they lacked here was community across different levels of entrepreneurial success and between founders and investors
-We have a lot of pre-seed VCs but not a lot of pre-seed checks
-For the most part the founders I interviewed declined to name specific investors. However, there were two notable exceptions: by far the most frequent was First Row Partners. Despite several of the founders actually being rejected by the fund, literally every single mention (nearly 50% of my conversations) was highly positive and expressed gratitude for the help and support provided by Yoko Okano and Minda Brusse. The other VC mentioned by name, also positively, was Ascend VC, with founders expressing appreciation for the fund’s efforts to build community and connect networks.
Finally, while they understandably requested anonymity, a huge thank you to the founders and others who took time to speak with me so frankly about their experiences and opinions. I appreciate you.
If you’re curious, the image I used was created with Microsoft Designer using the prompt “Cave painting style representation of a female startup founder in Seattle”. I was mostly just playing around with the tool but this image was so delightfully weird that I needed to share it. You’re welcome.
Lately I feel like if I'm bringing any value for founders I'm working with, approximately 75% of it is:
- Convincing them that they're ready and capable to go raise a round, and
- Telling them they really need to go raise a round. Like right now.
If you're a founder hearing this message from me, it's because I love what you're doing and I think your company has real potential. Keep it up.
