Liquid 2 is a generalist, high-velocity pre-seed and seed fund (co-founded by Joe Montana, Mike Miller, and Michael Ma) that bets on humans over markets: 'You're investing in humans, with faith that those humans will choose a good market.' They write collaborative, non-lead checks ($250k-$500k median) into a large portfolio, deliberately seeking many shots at a unicorn outcome, and they earn their place on cap tables through customer introductions and a vast founder network rather than ownership or board control. Team plus market is the bar: 'Team trumps a lot of things, but to get billion dollar outcomes, you need a great team in a great market. You actually need both.'
A specific market the founder uniquely understands and is poised to win — Liquid 2 weights founder-market fit over the abstract problem, and a founder who knows their space less well than the VC is a red flag. At pre-seed they accept that the exact problem may shift as founders pivot.
“It's bad when a founder knows less about a space than a VC.” — Mike Miller & Michael Ma: Think Seed Like Liquid 2 Ventures
“Great founders have a unique story about why they're going to win in their specific market.” — Michael Ma
“You have to leave room for serendipity, especially when it comes to great founders.” — Michael Ma
A short, succinct walk-through of team, market, and product — delivered with honesty and the right level of excitement. The product matters, but it sits inside a 'team, market, and product' triangle rather than carrying the pitch alone.
“But mostly, it's team, market, and product. I like people that are intentional about what they get across and do it succinctly.” — Mike Miller & Michael Ma: Think Seed Like Liquid 2 Ventures
“A lot of founders look at product-market fit as a hurdle to unlock the next stage of venture funding, but it's not that. It's the experiment you run to see if you built the right product.” — Mike Miller
A genuinely large market — billion-dollar outcomes require a great team in a great market, not just a great team. Liquid 2 looks for whether the product can capture enough of the market to deliver a venture return, and it holds macro views (decarbonization, fintech) as guides to where big markets are forming.
“Team trumps a lot of things, but to get billion dollar outcomes, you need a great team in a great market. You actually need both.” — Mike Miller & Michael Ma: Think Seed Like Liquid 2 Ventures
“I've seen great teams in tough markets, and they'll get a $100 million outcome. The same team, if you put them in a great market, will do much better. Great team plus great market is where you get outliers.” — Michael Ma
“Will their product capture enough of the market for this company to be an interesting venture return?” — Mike Miller
“We're on the precipice of industrial transformation as we decarbonize the economy. That means a huge market opportunity.” — Mike Miller
At pre-seed, traction is not required — the firm invests in humans before metrics. But it defines product-market fit quantitatively as a product in market growing ~10-15% monthly, sustained for ~18 months; hitting that 'phase change' is when a company becomes fundable by anyone.
“We get them to that phase change where you have a product in the market, it is growing 10% to 15% monthly, and it's been sustained for 18 months.” — Mike Miller & Michael Ma: Think Seed Like Liquid 2 Ventures
“Once you do that, those teams are in the driver's seat. Anybody will invest in those companies. They will be able to hire teams.” — Mike Miller
Co-founders with a long, trust-based working relationship who will stay together on a decade-long scale; reasonable technical depth across the team plus someone excited to grow the business side; founders who come out of strong tech networks and can recruit A-talent. Most failures are founder failures, so team durability is the dominant filter.
“Founding teams that are in an established working relationship, for many years, are the best.” — Mike Miller & Michael Ma: Think Seed Like Liquid 2 Ventures
“How long have they known each other? They have to convince us that they're going to stay together on a decade long scale. The majority of company failures boil down to founder issues.” — Mike Miller
“We also look for some diversity of roles. Everybody has to be reasonably technical, but you need someone who is excited to grow the business side.” — Mike Miller
“A lot of the founders are coming out of companies that are good news companies, like Facebook, Dropbox, Twitter, Airbnb, or Google. These are growth-stage companies that attract the best talent, and that talent goes off to do the most exciting next things. We're trying to follow that talent.” — Mike Miller
“Good founders convince other people to buy into their vision. Half their job is recruiting talent.” — Michael Ma
Software-first companies that can hit durable, repeatable growth; the core competencies are enterprise, SaaS, and B2B. Liquid 2 frames the model around reaching the growth 'phase change' where the business compounds and capital can be poured in to scale.
“Overall, the things that we know best are enterprise, SaaS, and B2B companies.” — Mike Miller & Michael Ma: Think Seed Like Liquid 2 Ventures
“Afterwards, you can shake money on this company and grow. It goes through a phase change once you pass product-market fit.” — Mike Miller
Defensibility expressed as founder-market fit — a founder uniquely poised to win a specific market that a swapped-in founder could not. The implicit moat question is whether this particular team, by virtue of insight, experience, or background, beats anyone else who could attack the same space.
“But what's important is somebody who's uniquely poised to win.” — Mike Miller & Michael Ma: Think Seed Like Liquid 2 Ventures
“Larry and Sergey were the perfect people to run Google, versus Mark Zuckerberg who is perfect for Facebook. If you switch those founders, Larry and Sergey would not be great founders for Facebook.” — Michael Ma
“Maybe they have that point of view around their space. Maybe they worked in the industry for a long time. Maybe they grew up in the right mix of things that would make them perfect for a founder.” — Michael Ma
Timing read off shifts the best founders are reacting to — Liquid 2 explicitly says it doesn't push its values on the market but reacts to what great founders are doing (e.g. hardware getting cheaper to start, ecommerce surging post-COVID, decarbonization accelerating). A credible 'why now' aligns with a structural shift in technology, behavior, or cost.
“It's not us pushing our values on the market. It's a reaction to what the best founders are doing.” — Mike Miller & Michael Ma: Think Seed Like Liquid 2 Ventures
“There've been changes in how easy it is to get a hardware startup off the ground. It's not us pushing our values on the market. It's a reaction to what the best founders are doing.” — Mike Miller
“The mix of COVID-19, Amazon not being able to meet demand, and the rise of the Shopify ecosystem, means companies are pitching one degree away from consumer.” — Mike Miller
“Whether that's going to happen in the next five years, which would be relevant for a 10-year venture fund, or whether it's going to happen by 2050 is a more complicated question.” — Mike Miller
Liquid 2 writes collaborative, non-lead checks that intentionally don't fill the round, so the ask should leave room for a blend of angels, operators, and a backstop firm. They prefer a short deck and a 30-minute pitch focused on team, market, and product; reputation and honesty in the ask matter because power relationships can invert later.
“Our checks don't fill up an entire round.” — Mike Miller & Michael Ma: Think Seed Like Liquid 2 Ventures
“Our checks don't fill up an entire round. For a company to be successful, they eternally need a few different investors: a mix of angels, operators that write small angel checks, and firms that can backstop and deal with growth as things go.” — Mike Miller
“Michael has converted me to the deck – a very short deck to make sure that the things you want to get across in 30 minutes get across.” — Mike Miller
“The thing you have in this whole game is your reputation. That's the most important thing. Being honest is huge. Understand that the power relationship may be inverted at any time in the future.” — Mike Miller
“Team trumps a lot of things, but to get billion dollar outcomes, you need a great team in a great market. You actually need both. If you had to pick one, a good team can at least pivot and find a good market.”
“How long have they known each other? They have to convince us that they're going to stay together on a decade long scale. The majority of company failures boil down to founder issues.”
“We're almost categorically against sports. Our managing director and founder, Joe Montana, doesn't want to be typecast.”