SignalGate — Encryption Can’t Fix Stupid… But AI Can
April 7, 2025
This week’s government news was dominated by Signalgate. All kinds of theories have been floated about how it occurred, who is responsible, and if the messages were really secret.
Today, we’re talking about competitive investments. Should founders be worried about them? Obviously, I am a biased investor, but here’s the main points:
For seed, pre-seed and accelerator investments — these investors are so early they’re primarily betting on the founders, not the idea. Many companies at this stage pivot, so you probably shouldn’t be too worried about competitive investments in the earliest rounds.
If you’re at the Series A stage or later and an investor would be on both your board and the board of a competitor, that’s where potential issues might arise and it may not be worth the risk.
Ultimately, this is more about the person than any blanket policy. For example, Marc Andreesen was a great board member for Meta for 14 years, during that time his VC firm invested in 2 other social networks: Pinterest and Clubhouse.
Best of luck out there.
