Boost VC leads pre-seed rounds for 'Sci-Fi' founders building fringe, frontier technologies that other VCs ignore — nuclear, space, bio/longevity, robotics, crypto, climate. Adam Draper describes the firm's job as 'believing first': writing the very first $500k check on the strength of the founder and the mission, not on metrics that don't yet exist. They look for 'cockroaches' — resourceful, mission-obsessed founders who endure and refuse to die — with the only hard requirement being that the company could 'make 1 Billion lives better.'
A problem framed as a clear, single benefit to a specific group of people — not a sprawling mission. Founders should distill what their product does today into a 'one-liner' anyone can repeat, and solve for one group at a time rather than boiling the ocean.
“Building a company is just about solving a problem for one group of people at a time.” — 7 Things I Say To Founders
“The one-liner is the most important message to nail when building a startup.” — Adam Draper
“Talk to your mom, talk to the random people on the street explain the problem you are solving.” — Adam Draper
A solution that distills a concrete customer benefit — explainable in one line that others can 're-pitch' — and that is focused in a single direction rather than diffuse. Boost backs the impossible, but the founder must articulate today's product clearly, separate from the long-term vision.
“The goal of a one-liner is to distill the benefit of your product to the customer or human you are speaking with.” — The One-Liner
“If you do it well, other people will be able to 're-pitch' you to their friends and family, which triggers a network effect of communication.” — Adam Draper
“Focus your efforts in one direction. Do not try and boil the ocean” — Adam Draper
Boost takes the biggest bets other investors won't, but anchors market scale to human impact rather than spreadsheet TAM: the only hard requirement is that the company could 'make 1 Billion lives better.' They explicitly invest in 'fringe' markets the rest of the market still calls crazy.
“The only requirement is that your company must make 1 Billion lives better!” — Boost VC (firm homepage)
“We move fast, like to lead pre-seed rounds, and are not scared of the ideas the rest of the market still calls crazy.” — Adam Draper
“No idea is too crazy.” — Adam Draper
At pre-seed Boost expects little hard traction — they pride themselves on 'believing first.' What matters is demonstrable progress against a self-defined metric and, in deep tech, educating the investor on what 'good' looks like and reporting against it monthly. Investors are not customers; real traction comes from listening to customers.
“We pride ourselves on believing first!” — Boost VC Celebrates 10 Years with a new $90m Fund!
“What are you trying to accomplish in the next 6 months? Do you have a metric you can track for success?” — Adam Draper
“it's important to tell us 'What good is and why it is good.' And then get back to us on that every month” — Adam Draper
Boost is a 'people investor' above all. They want 'cockroaches' — resourceful, mission-obsessed founders who endure — and judge energy, authenticity, and intelligence by getting founders off script. Credentials matter far less than the builder.
“I have been a people investor” — Why We're Leading Radiant's $300m Series D
“The companies we never had to worry about, we called cockroaches… because they just wouldn't die.” — Adam Draper
“Do they have the energy? Are they authentically obsessed?” — Adam Draper
“We bet on the builder, not the credential.” — Adam Draper
Boost wants founders who understand value capture and don't undervalue what they build — they observe startups under-price by roughly 4x. The lens is sustainability through customers, not investors: build a business by listening to the people who pay.
“The way to build a sustainable business is to listen to customers.” — 7 Things I Say To Founders
“Startups naturally under-value what they are building. I have found, they naturally under value it by about 4x.” — Adam Draper
“It's really important to note that investors are not customers.” — Adam Draper
Boost likes opportunities others can't see and founders building where no one else is looking — the contrarian edge IS the moat. Endurance and persistence ('build in the winter') is how a cockroach outlasts competitors who quit when it gets hard.
“We saw the opportunity to help that no one else seemed to see” — Why We're Leading Radiant's $300m Series D
“To be a cockroach is to build in the winter, and build for the sake of building” — Adam Draper
“So there is always an analog version of what you are attempting to build.” — Adam Draper
Boost wants a clear social, technical, or regulatory pressure forcing change now. They explicitly ask 'Why Now?' on the homepage, and their best bets ride a timing shift others missed — e.g. backing nuclear in 2020 while capital chased software, or bio as sequencing costs collapsed.
“Why Now? Show us the social, technical, or regulatory pressure forcing change.” — Boost VC (firm homepage)
“Capital was flooding into software. 'Remote-first' was the popular thesis” — Adam Draper
“The cost of sequencing your DNA has gone from $3 Billion, to $500.” — Adam Draper
Boost leads pre-seed rounds with a standard $500k check (or $50k Fellowship) for founders raising small rounds — they tell founders to charge more and not under-sell, and they want the ask framed around a big vision and 6-month milestones rather than investor-pleasing optics.
“We invest $500k to lead or co-lead pre-seed rounds!” — Boost VC FAQ
“If you're raising $2M or less and building the future (time travel, teleportation, superpowers), we want to meet you” — Adam Draper
“Running fast in the wrong direction, is still in the wrong direction.” — Adam Draper
“my role in meetings is to get founders off script”
“Thanks to my Co-Founder Brayton Williams for being resilient in our endurance.”