Justin Herbert-Wood | Seed27

Co-founder of Seed27. Helping idea-stage, pre-seed and seed founders get seen by angel investors with a 60-second video pitch. London.

[Justin Herbert-Wood | Seed27 @JustinHW_Seed27]

I'm Justin, co-founder of Seed27.

I believe the UK loses good ideas, not because they're bad, but because the founder didn't know the right person.

That's why Seed27 exists: record a video pitch, get seen by investors.

Your idea should get the hearing, not your contacts.

[Justin Herbert-Wood | Seed27 @JustinHW_Seed27]

@CestSir Agreed, Gabriel. If you can't answer it honestly for yourself, it's not fair to ask it of anyone else.

[Justin Herbert-Wood | Seed27 @JustinHW_Seed27]

@AroraBhavyam @Carles_Reina Totally, Bhavyam, and it's a useful one. Knowing which solo GPs are actually active is half the battle for founders.

[Justin Herbert-Wood | Seed27 @JustinHW_Seed27]

@chanmeetnarang Well put, Chanmeet. Naming what the Series A investor needs to see is the bit most decks skip. If you can't say it, you can't tell when you've actually de-risked anything.

[Justin Herbert-Wood | Seed27 @JustinHW_Seed27]

Contrarian take for seed founders: the most important slide in your deck isn't traction. It's "what this money gets us to".

People invest in a next milestone, not a round size.

If you can't say what's different in 18 months, the number you're asking for is just a guess.

[Justin Herbert-Wood | Seed27 @JustinHW_Seed27]

@akashramaiah Akash, I don't think founder and idea are opposites at pre-seed. Crowded market plus great founder is a price question. New idea plus average founder is a dead end. The rare bet worth chasing is your moonshot case: a great founder who picked the empty market.

[Justin Herbert-Wood | Seed27 @JustinHW_Seed27]

@Kshitiz675 Kshitiz, the money can move without you. Machenta just raised a $40M seed with USV in the round and stayed in London. US investors back UK companies all the time. What they want is US-sized ambition in the plan, not a US address on the deck.

[Justin Herbert-Wood | Seed27 @JustinHW_Seed27]

@tekbog Sending updates before the round is the move. Angels who've had three honest updates arrive at your seed half-sold, and they forward them. Worth adding one line to each: the single intro that would help most this month. That's how the seed list builds itself.

[Justin Herbert-Wood | Seed27 @JustinHW_Seed27]

@TheBarnWaterloo A first cheque from somewhere else isn't a loss if the next ten stay local. The risk is founders moving to follow it. A strong local angel group that writes the follow-on is often what keeps a Waterloo company in Waterloo.

[Justin Herbert-Wood | Seed27 @JustinHW_Seed27]

@buttonupd Dan, the line I'd draw: pay yourself enough that money worries stop eating your focus, and no more. Usually that's rent plus basics. Investors rarely mind that. What worries them is a founder quietly job-hunting in month nine because they set it at zero.

[Justin Herbert-Wood | Seed27 @JustinHW_Seed27]

@uselegion @GoAheadVC Useful list. Ada's 13x stat is the bit UK founders should sit with. If cold pitches only win ~10% of deals, make yours read like a warm one: open with the portfolio company you'd sit next to and why. That's the line that gets forwarded to a partner.

[Justin Herbert-Wood | Seed27 @JustinHW_Seed27]

@pradyum1916 Pradyum, I'd treat it as a tier-1 engineer, not a co-founder. A co-founder's job is to tell you you're wrong, and an LLM will happily build the wrong thing beautifully. Step one for me: write down what a user should do on day one before you prompt anything.

[Justin Herbert-Wood | Seed27 @JustinHW_Seed27]

@jeromejacob_ Jerome, the pub shifts and nightclub photography are the real case for this. One tip for whoever gets the allowance: treat the year as a test with a deadline, not a salary. Pick the one thing that has to be true by month six, like ten paying users, and judge yourself on it.

[Justin Herbert-Wood | Seed27 @JustinHW_Seed27]

Full details and how to enter: https://t.co/z3Gq0TiXHC

One tip if you have a go: say the problem before the solution, and be specific about who has it.

[Justin Herbert-Wood | Seed27 @JustinHW_Seed27]

Unpopular opinion: the best ideas in the UK aren't in pitch decks yet. They're in notes apps and people's heads.

That's why we run the Seed27 £5k Pitch Competition. £5,000 for one founder. No equity taken.

We want a strong range of pitches from right across the UK.

[Justin Herbert-Wood | Seed27 @JustinHW_Seed27]

@danlee0824 Love that, Dan. One tip for the calls: ask each dev what they did the last time an API bill surprised them. Real past behaviour beats "would you use this?" every time.

[Justin Herbert-Wood | Seed27 @JustinHW_Seed27]

@hamzaw That's the trap, Hamza. No money for a fractional usually means no money for a breach either. Even 2FA everywhere and a free run through the OWASP top 10 beats nothing. Sadly a lot of founders only listen after the first scare.

[Justin Herbert-Wood | Seed27 @JustinHW_Seed27]

@Winterrose Britton, a test founders can run before they sign: talk to two founders that angel backed whose companies didn't work out. How they behaved when it went badly tells you whether they're an angel or just early money.

[Justin Herbert-Wood | Seed27 @JustinHW_Seed27]

@guilleflorvs Guillermo, the detail I love is Balderton's stake going back up after the Series A because they kept buying. The return came from the conviction to follow on, not just the £1.5M. For founders: pick seed investors who have reserves and the nerve to use them.

[Justin Herbert-Wood | Seed27 @JustinHW_Seed27]

@vaibhav514g Vaibhav, pausing was the smart call. $7m of run rate turns the round from "please believe us" into "here's what happened". The thing I'd nail before restarting: show it repeats. One big week reads as a spike until the next month confirms it.

[Justin Herbert-Wood | Seed27 @JustinHW_Seed27]

@jitsucom Vlad's point lands. One more reason to wait for those 10: ads only work when you know what to say. Write down the exact words your first paying customers use to describe the problem. That's your ad copy later, and it'll beat anything you'd guess on day one.