Precursor Ventures just raised a second fund to zero in on pre-seed-stage startups

We talked with him earlier today to get an update on the firm, which is focused in part on funding women and other underserved minorities but is more broadly seeking out burgeoning marketplaces and people “who have fundamental insights that are likely to be true for five to seven years,” no matter whether or not they have founded a company previously, says Hudson.More from our chat below.TC: Like a lot of fund managers, the money for your first fund came mostly from family offices. I think the majority of founders we meet are coming out of another company or experience, they aren’t super famous yet, but they’re totally qualified and have a good idea and need $500,000 to $1 million to make enough progress for the bigger seed funds to pay attention, and someone has to fill the gap.TC: You aren’t the only fund backing these types of startups. We’re sensitive to the dynamics of seed funding, wherein seed investors want [a bigger ownership percentage]; if we’re taking 10 percent and they’re taking another 25 percent, that’s already well above the ownership level that a founder should [be left with].TC: What was the math that you pitched to your investors?CH:  Basically, I didn’t want us to be a fund where we need multibillion-dollar outcomes. So the founders’ insights have to be sufficiently durable that their ideas will be true in a year and where a million dollars can get them from a lack of evidence to an indication that they’re on to something.TC: Are you funding people who come out of industry and so know what their industries’ pain points are?CH: Sometimes, or sometimes they’ve encountered a problem in their life that needs to be solved and is adjacent to the work they do.TC: And how do you keep tabs on all of these companies?CH: We probably spend the most amount of time internally on our own systems and processes that we use to keep track of portfolio companies, though at this stage, there’s no substitute for spending time with them, so half of my day each day is spent with companies that we’ve already backed.TC: Do they also give you monthly or quarterly updates?CH: We work out a cadence, whether it’s monthly meetings in person or over video or via something written.