25 Aug 2026
Signal Headquarters
Vol. I
No. 237

The seed-stage venture risk premium arbitrage has disappeared, making $50–100M seed funds the worst-performing segment of the market.

The case

Seed investors' effective entry price has doubled from 2x to 4x their nominal entry price due to dilution.

“When I started, my model was I'm actually paying twice my entry price. Okay, that's how I model. Now it's 4x.”
Harry Stebbings · 13 Aug 2026

The risk premium arbitrage at the seed stage has completely disappeared.

“There was a real arbitrage because the risk premium at the seed stage was way overstated. That has changed completely.”
David Frankel · 8 Aug 2026

Topics

Fund PerformanceSeed FundingVenture Capital

Signal Headquarters · compiled from attributed public discussion. Last updated 2026-08-13.