Investing in Features vs. Platforms in Early Days

One of my favorite things early-stage VCs say is when they pass on a deal because it is a "feature, not a platform." Who comes to market with a fully-baked platform in the seed stage? Burn heavy, non-customer-centric founders that believe they know more than their customers, that's who.

Building best-in-class features to a larger tech stack are how many of the best businesses are built. These companies pipe their way into their customer base- offer a better, quicker, and cheaper workflow than their competition, which will then earn trust.

Over time, the company will have continual conversations with its customers, bringing more features and eventually becoming a platform. The only caveat to this features vs. platform discussion in the early days is if the customer's software spend so tiny that warranting multiple software licenses would ultimately be a bad experience for their customer.

My litmus test of great founders is those maniacally focused on building the best-in-class functionality for specific use cases in the early days but have a greater vision and roadmap to bring their product to be a platform.