Six investors are in "once you have a lead." There is no lead.
Solo founder & CEO of a Pre-seed Dev tools in 🇵🇱 Poland.
Raising $1M pre-seed. Over nine weeks I've collected six soft commits between $50k and $150k — call it $550k of "I'm in, who else is in?" Every single one is conditional on a lead. Nobody will be the lead. The largest check told me, with zero irony, "we don't price rounds, but we're excited to follow."
So the round is a circular dependency and I'm the deadlock. I asked the biggest one directly to lead. They said leading "isn't their model." I asked what leading would even require. Vague noises about "someone with conviction setting terms."
I'm now considering just setting terms myself — a SAFE at a cap I pick, same docs for everyone, take it or leave it — and calling it a party round. Half of what I read says that's how pre-seed actually closes in 2026; the other half says a leadless round is a red flag at the next raise. Which is it? And if you broke this exact deadlock, what was the move that actually made checks wire?
Broke the same deadlock fourteen months ago, $800k target, five "who else is in" commits. What worked:
Stopped asking anyone to lead. Set the terms myself — picked the cap (we went $5.5M after pricing backwards from 18% total dilution), standard SAFE, identical docs for everyone. Then one message to all five on the same morning: terms, a data room link sent separately on request, and a close date two weeks out. No lead mentioned anywhere. The sentence that did the work: "First money in is named in the announcement."
The biggest check took "first money" — all the status of leading, none of the pricing work they were allergic to. Once they wired, three of the other four followed inside ten days. The fifth ghosted; replaced with two smaller angels off the waitlist the deadline itself had created. The unlock was never a lead — it was a real date after which the door shuts. Soft commits stay soft precisely as long as the round has no clock.
One honest caveat: this works at pre-seed because SAFEs make pricing optional. At your seed proper you will still need an actual lead with an actual board appetite — the party round buys you the 12-18 months to earn that conversation, nothing more.
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nested view test
confusing
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