For us at General Catalyst, the best seed conversations feel like the unveiling of a hidden truth. An insight waiting to be activated. Seed is our earliest window into the sequence of innovation. It’s the frontier where we believe the most insightful people in the world are forming their first convictions, often in defiance of conventional wisdom. Where others see what is, these founders see what could be. They don’t just bend reality. They seek to reshape it. We live for these moments, and we’re set up to support them.
Our seed philosophy is simple and built on this paradigm: back exceptional people early, then never stop backing them. We believe in founders who see the future in novel ways and aren't afraid to build it. Too often, early-stage founders are forced to choose between the intimacy of a boutique seed firm and the long-term firepower of a larger fund. At GC, we believe they shouldn’t have to choose. That’s why we’ve shaped a seed strategy that we believe can deliver both: the founder-first nuance of a cutting-edge seed fund and the global reach and scale of an entrepreneurial-minded multistage platform.
Investing in Founders, Not Just Companies
Seed is much more than a strategy to us. It's our most powerful lens into the future. It's how we see the world not as it is, but as it could be, through the eyes of the rare founders bold enough to shape it.
We don't believe in fair-weather partnerships. When others step back, we step forward. When the path gets unclear, we help you find your way through. If you are struggling with product-market fit, we want to be your thought partner on how we can re-frame your vision or pivot. We thrive in ambiguity and are committed to shaping it alongside you.
We want to be your first call to help you refine the next idea when you're ready to build again. Because we don't just invest in companies; we first and foremost invest in founders. And while the best founders might not always succeed, we believe they will not fail. That is a small but meaningful difference.
We've designed GC Seed not as a feeder to our Growth fund, but as the lifeblood of our entire platform. We believe that the world's most impactful companies begin in the ambiguous early innings. How we show up in those moments matters most.
Seed is our core, and it’s where our team has forged many of our most iconic partnerships, including Anduril, Applied Intuition, Deel, Helsing, Legora, Mercor, Mistral, Stripe, and Zepto.
Built by Founders, for Founders
Our approach to seed is based on the principle that relationships, not transactions, are the core of our business. What sets us apart isn’t just our platform and track record. It’s how we show up when our founders need us most, because we know that the most defining moments happen in the messy middle, when things could tip either way.
We know this because at the core of GC Seed are three Managing Directors, each of whom have previously built seed firms and walked the founder's path.
Neeraj Arora brings unmatched insight into what it takes to build and scale. As the first business leader at WhatsApp, he helped turn it into one of the most iconic companies of our generation. As the founder of Venture Highway, Neeraj seeded a new generation of builders across India and globally. Today, he helps GC founders unlock cross-border growth and access global talent hubs, pairing ambition with practical know-how. He has been an early backer and believer in companies like Applied Intuition, Meesho, Moglix, and Zepto.
Yuri Sagalov has lived every phase of the startup lifecycle. A technical founder himself, Yuri built and scaled a company before becoming a partner at Y Combinator, where he backed some of the most epic technical teams in the ecosystem. He later started Wayfinder, a seed fund focused on deep technical talent. Yuri helps founders shape not only what they build, but how they build it, from architecture to team culture. He has been an early backer and believer in companies like Boom Supersonic, Decagon, Flexport, Legora, Solugen, Supabase, and Stoke Space.
Jeannette zu Fürstenberg built La Famiglia, a seed fund that became one of Europe's most trusted platforms for early-stage founders and a foundational building block of what is now our GC Famiglia. Jeannette is a relationship builder at heart, with deep ties to some of the most enduring legacy brands and industrial families across Europe. She bridges old-world wisdom with new-world innovation, helping our founders access customers, capital, and conviction. Jeannette has backed six unicorns and two decacorns from the earliest stages, including Applied Intuition, Deel, Forto, Groq, Helsing, Mistral, Personio, and Stoke Space.
Together, we bring unmatched founder empathy, decades of operating experience, and geographic range. And we share a belief in backing people early and staying with them for the long haul.
Shaping the Future Before It’s Obvious
Pushing boundaries means wading into the unknown. There is no playbook, only potential. Our job is to help founders explore, shape, and unlock that potential. And in a world transformed by AI and Global Resilience, one thing is very clear: startups will need a different kind of VC.
That’s why we believe the best seed founders need much more than capital. Our seed platform addresses the critical areas where early-stage ambiguity is highest: building the right team, connecting with the right community, finding the right customers, structuring the right partnerships, and accessing the right form of capital.
Technical Recruiting: The Real Day One Need
Ask any founder what keeps them up at night in the earliest days, and most will give the same answer: finding the best technical talent. At GC, we've built a specialized talent team that knows how to identify and connect the kind of engineers who don't just write code, but who shape product DNA. We help you tap into technical talent pools across North America, Europe, and India.
Go-to-Market, Reimagined: the GC Famiglia
Founders often talk about the loneliness of the early stage. One of the most powerful advantages of building with GC is access to our GC Famiglia: an unparalleled community of global companies and iconic CEOs across every sector. These are not surface-level connections. These are relationships built on mutual trust, forged over time, and nurtured within our Famiglia ecosystem.
Our Famiglia is also one of our most powerful go-to-market engines. With a network spanning emerging startups, established tech leaders, Fortune 500 enterprises, and policymakers, we connect founders across entire ecosystems. Whether you’re validating your earliest GTM hypotheses or looking for a catalytic design partner, we help you open doors that have the potential to not just accelerate your business but shape its trajectory. This community of builders, operators, and industry leaders becomes an extension of your team, providing insights and opportunities that would otherwise take years to develop.
We call it Famiglia because that’s how it’s lived. It’s a place where ideas, experience, and advice are passed around as easily as pizza and stories over dinner. We’ve seen firsthand that when you bring great people together across generations, magic happens: whether it’s a key introduction, a piece of hard-won wisdom, or just the reminder that you’re not in this alone.
Aligned for the Long Game
As you gain traction, a delicate question will emerge: how should your seed investors position themselves for your next round? We know how important the next fundraising step can be, which is why we're clear about our seed approach: for all new investments, we commit to doing our pro rata when you raise your next round, because we believe in you and your long-term vision. But we will not lead that round.
Why? Because we want to avoid creating any adverse signal in the market. We want your next lead investor to come in with full confidence, not questions. Our role is to support, not distort. To reinforce your momentum, not crowd it.
This approach is founder-first at its core and part of a larger philosophy we bring to every partnership: long-term alignment without short-term interference.
Capital That Evolves With You
Our partnership philosophy also applies to the financing tools themselves: as your needs evolve, your capital options should evolve with you. That's why through our Capital Solutions, we offer a range of investment tools that go far beyond traditional venture equity, providing multiple avenues for growth. Whether it's structured equity, secondary support, credit, or strategic growth capital from our Customer Value Fund, our platform is built to flex with your needs, not force you into a one-size-fits-all model.
We believe that founders should never feel boxed in by capital, which is why we aspire to dream with you about what the future could look like. Having access to different kinds of capital gives you something invaluable: degrees of freedom. It lets you think bigger and act bolder, on your terms. You can focus on what matters most: scaling your company and achieving your vision in a way that aligns with your goals, values, and timing.
Great companies aren't built in linear stages, they're built through a series of thoughtful inflection points. And we're here to meet you at every one of them.
Planting the Seeds of Tomorrow
Whether you're just getting started or already working on your second (or third) moonshot, we'd love to get to know you. Not just your pitch, but you, your perspective, your values, and your vision of what the future could be.
Let's shape it together.
