????播種，祈禱。先試再買。邁出第一步。

????所有這些正是描述了當前硅谷主導性的種子投資策略。當前創業圈對于Series A融資短缺的種種憂慮與筆者的種子投資經驗大相徑庭。依我的經驗，創業企業獲得后續融資是常態，而且我們有幾筆種子投資甚至成為Venrock投資組合中最成功的案例。

????在我看來，種子投資絕不是是無需投入多少時間的A輪低成本選擇。種子投資需要投入大量的時間和精力，深入參與到一家公司的成型階段，而資金投入和持股比例可能還達不到一般風投基金的衡量指標。既然這樣的投入可能領先于資本和股權，只有我們完全折服于這些人和他們的理念時才會這樣做，我們必須在它具有“傳統”意義上的投資價值之前早早參與其中。我們的使命是盡一切可能提供幫助，希望加快它成功的速度，提高成功的概率和規模。我們的方式是強調長期性、支持性和績效導向性。

????說實話，金錢有價，但時間和精力彌足珍貴——對于創業家和風投家都是如此。

????“深度參與”方式要求投資少而精，不能像近年來參與種子投資的大多數投資者（無論是天使投資，還是風險投資）那樣投資很多交易。筆者每年會進行一筆投資，涉及資本效率相對較高的各類醫療保健子行業——醫療保健IT、診斷和服務行業。移動醫療公司Castlight Health和Ariosa Diagnostics診斷公司是近年來較能反映我們投資方式的案例之一。

????2008年年中，我先是與托德·帕克（前Athenahealth聯合創始人, 如今是美國國家技術官），后來是和吉歐·科萊勒（前RelayHealth創始人）合作，尋找機會在網絡/醫療保健/消費者的交互領域打造一家公司；Venrock過去曾為帕克和科萊勒的公司提供過融資。2008年初，我們為一個項目忙了6個月，進行了種子投資，孵化建立了Castlight Health。

????我們在第一輪融資中投了33.3萬美元，一磚一瓦地建起了這家公司。最終，我們投資了1,700萬美元，獲得了近20%的所有權。過去四年中，Venrock投入了所有可能的資源和關系——無數的策略商討，客戶會議，高管招募和后續投資者介紹等等。如今Castlight的董事會已包括了第二位Venrock合伙人（鮑勃·科契），他每周都要會花超過1天的時間與Castlight的團隊在一起。今天，Castlight已經有機會成為市場的關鍵參與者，打造實用的醫療保健提供市場，在改善醫療保健品質的同時為用戶節省幾十億美元。

????Ariosa的故事與此類似，但它最初是源于Venrock一筆不成功的種子投資。我們對一家診斷初創企業投資9個月后虧損了30萬美元，這時CEO約翰·斯圖爾普納格（前Illumina創始人，Venrock也投資過Illumina）告訴董事會，除了繼續推這塊大石頭上山，我們可以有更好的事情去做。此后不久，我們對宋肯（音譯）和約翰的新公司Ariosa進行了種子投資：宋肯是一位出色的首次創業者，擔任CEO（此前是Venrock副總裁），約翰出任執行董事長，開拓孕期分子診斷新方法。三年后，在這場為準媽媽們提供全新優質診斷服務的競賽中，他們已處于領先地位——他們可以為最早孕期十周的胎兒提供無風險的基因異常診斷服務。

????Spray and pray. Try before you buy. Foot in the door.

????All of these describe the dominant seed investment strategy today in Silicon Valley. ?The start-up world's current angst around the "Series A crunch" is in great contrast to my seed experience, where follow-on financings are the norm and several of our seed deals are?on their way to being standout successes?in the Venrock portfolio.

????For me, seed investing is not a low cost, little-time-required option on the A round.? It is a big investment of time and effort in order to be intimately involved in the formative stages of a company, despite the fact that the dollars-in and percentage ownership don't hit usual venture fund metrics. Since the commitment front-runs the money and ownership, it is something we only do when we are so compelled by the people and the idea that we?must?to jump in long before it makes "traditional" sense. Our mission is to help in whatever way we can, in hopes of increasing the company's speed, likelihood and scale of success. It also allows us to emphasize our approach as long term, supportive, performance oriented company builders.

????Let's face it, money is cheap, but time and effort are really expensive – for both entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.

????A "deep involvement" approach requires making far fewer commitments than most others who have embraced seed investing in recent years – whether angels or venture funds. I have done about one per year across a variety of the more capital efficient healthcare subsectors – healthcare IT, diagnostic, and services. ?Castlight Health and Ariosa Diagnostics are among several recent examples that illustrate our approach.

????In mid-2008, I partnered with Todd Park (ex-Athenahealth, now CTO of the U.S.) and then Gio Colella (ex-RelayHealth), both of whom Venrock had funded previously, to explore the opportunity to create a company at the intersection of web/healthcare/consumer.? We worked for six months on the project and, in early 2008, seeded and incubated Castlight Health.

????In that initial round, we invested $333,000 and proceeded to build the company brick by brick, eventually investing $17 million for nearly 20% ownership. Over the last four years, Venrock has devoted every possible resource and connection possible – countless strategy sessions, customer meetings, management recruiting, follow on investor introductions, and the board now includes a second Venrock partner (Bob Kocher) who still spends more than a day a week with the team.? Today, Castlight has the opportunity to become a pivotal participant in the creation of a functional healthcare delivery market, improving care while saving billions of dollars.

????Ariosa is a similar story, but one whose roots are found in an unsuccessful Venrock seed investment.? We lost $300,000 after nine months in a diagnostic start-up when the CEO, John Stuelpnagel (ex-Illumina, a Venrock investment), came to the board with the message that we all had better things to do than continue to push that particular rock uphill. Soon thereafter,we seeded the combination of a terrific first time entrepreneur/CEO in Ken Song, then at Venrock, with John as executive chairman to tackle new approaches to prenatal molecular diagnostics. ?Three years later they are leading the race to provide an entirely new and improved standard of care to expectant mothers – where they can confidently assess genetic abnormalities with no risk to the baby at ten weeks of pregnancy.