Jenny Fielding co-founded Everywhere Ventures after an unusual combination of experiences starting two startups, working in corporate innovation at BBC Worldwide, and leading an accelerator at Techstars, which shapes how hands-on she is with founders and ecosystems globally. She has backed hundreds of companies across continents as one of the most active global pre-seed investors, finding high-potential founders outside traditional hubs and being comfortable investing at the very first check stage.

• Strong emphasis on early traction and generating sales before attempting to raise capital. The expectation for pre-seed deals has shifted away from simply pitching an idea toward demonstrating real customer momentum. For example, high praise was given to a founder who reached one million in annual recurring revenue in fourteen months, proving that rapid early execution makes future fundraising significantly easier.
• Prioritizing defensibility and strong competitive moats above almost everything else in a pitch deck. Founders must proactively explain why massive language models will not easily replicate their software in the near future. Addressing this vulnerability in the very first meeting is crucial, as the assumption that an artificial intelligence company will soon build the same feature is a primary reason deals are currently rejected.
• Enthusiasm for non-technical founders leveraging new code generation applications to build their own products. The traditional requirement of having a chief technology officer is becoming less rigid for application-layer startups. This shift was highlighted by a recent commitment to invest in a company without a technical lead, driven by the belief that self-taught founders now have the tools to build complex platforms themselves.
• Observing a massive shift away from traditional horizontal software toward vertical artificial intelligence. General software startups are struggling, leading many to rebrand or pivot entirely to industry-specific solutions to survive the current market. This trend is so pronounced that even university students in entrepreneurship programs are overwhelmingly launching vertical startups rather than broad software platforms.
• Preference for founders to focus strictly on their own business during the first pitch meeting rather than interviewing the venture firm. Startups are specifically advised against spending time asking about fund sizes, investment processes, or active capital deployment. Furthermore, founders should understand that standard check sizes are two hundred fifty thousand dollars, which is a fixed business model and not a reflection of belief in the company.