Founders are like pilots.

Where pilots steer the lives of their trusting

passengers, founders carry with them their employees and users, bringing them
through wind and turbulence. Whether it be fueling for the journey, recruiting the
right crew, or navigating to the destination, the difference between success and
failure at each of these points is often the difference between life and death.

If you�ve ever been a pilot, then you are familiar with the Pilot�s Checklist?�?a
collection of essential commandments that guide each flight. The Pilot�s Checklist
helps pilots run through their operational mechanics: are my ailerons ready? Is my
fuel gauge reading correct for this particular flight? Are my speed and altitude
meters working?

If only such a thing existed for founders.

The questions founders face at the earliest stages of company building are
recurring in nature?�?where should I look to hire great talent? What third party
tools should we use? Who should we raise our next round of financing from? Where
should our office be located? Founders tell us they feel like they�re reinventing
the wheel as they solve these problems that are critical for running a company, but
aren�t central to product/market fit.

What we do

KPCB Edge is a team of builders, investing in seed stage founders working on

emerging areas of technology. We spend two days each week investing in seed stage
companies, using the rest of our time to build tools and products for the founders
we invest in, toward the ultimate Pilot�s Checklist for founders. We all write
software and have backed, built, or managed products used by thousands of people.

At Edge, we focus on solving specific problems that founders across our portfolio
face?�?recruiting, third party tools, financing, operations, or just connecting
with fellow founders. We believe that at the earliest stages of company building,
founders can be helped as much by great software as by great people. That�s why
we�re taking a software defined approach to venture capital.

How does Edge invest?

We built Edge to answer the question, �What would we want from our seed investors
if we were raising a round right now?� Our investments follow a simple pattern:
1.The most founder friendly terms?�?We are often the first outside capital a
founding team may raise. At this stage, it doesn�t make sense to us to speculate
about valuations or exits. We believe that conviction at this stage is binary?�?you
either believe in a team or not. We use Edge SAFEs?�?straightforward, uncapped
convertible securities (which we�ve open sourced here). We don�t request
information rights, pro rata clauses, or board seats.
2.72 Hour SLAs?�?A founder�s time is expensive, and any spent away from shipping
product and selling to customers is, often, time wasted. We aim to be respectful of
our founders� schedules?�?in general, Edge investment decisions are made within 72
hours of our meetings with founders.
3.Teams working on emerging areas of technology?�?While we�re excited to work with
exceptional teams working on any problem, we spend the bulk of our time in the
following areas:
�Virtual reality
�Drones
�Blockchains
�Computer vision
�Digital health
�Mobile marketplaces
In the coming weeks, we�ll write more about each of these areas, explaining why we
believe these are important problem areas that we want to help founders tackle.

Like the companies we back, Edge is in its earliest stages, and we�d love to hear
from you if you believe there�s something in our own Pilot Checklist we should be
thinking about.