内容来源：https://www.geekwire.com/2025/product-wont-win-distribution-will-tips-for-startup-founders-raising-cash-right-now/

内容总结：

【西雅图电】在近日举办的"西雅图人工智能周"论坛上，风险投资机构与初创企业代表指出，在人工智能浪潮中，创业者需把握三大关键要素：精准定位核心问题、构建深度行业认知、打造差异化市场策略。

本次由西雅图风投机构Ascend主办的"新A轮融资格局"研讨会上，华盛顿州贝尔维尤Fuse基金创始合伙人凯兰·卡特与西雅图医疗福利初创企业Avante首席执行官罗汉·德索萨分享了行业洞察。值得注意的是，Fuse曾于2023年末领投Avante的1000万美元种子轮融资，当时该公司尚未形成规模收入。

当前A轮融资呈现两极分化态势。据Carta数据显示，今年一季度A轮融资中位数为790万美元，而CB Insights报告显示第三季度有9家企业A轮融资超2亿美元。"A轮融资的金额差距正在急剧扩大，"卡特强调，能够获得巨额融资的企业往往具备"不对称认知优势"，这种深度洞察能有效说服投资者押注未来。

在AI投资热潮中，卡特指出评估标准始终围绕商业本质："我们关注的是创始人能否以最佳方案解决客户痛点，无论是否使用AI。"他特别强调，在AI重塑软件销售模式的当下，"产品致胜的时代已经过去，市场渠道建设才是制胜关键"。

德索萨从创业者角度提出实操建议：面对客户时应化解其"害怕搞砸"的顾虑，重点展示AI如何开启生产力新范式；面对投资者则需量化AI带来的利润率提升，例如加速客户获取流程。作为曾带领Avante经历完整融资周期的创业者，他特别提醒："初创企业应减少对同类竞品的关注，更多思考如何超越行业巨头的功能迭代。"

针对融资策略，两位专家一致认为透明度至关重要。德索萨透露，Avante通过明确告知投资者需要6个月打磨核心产品，随后实施付费内测计划，最终成功将试点客户转化为长期合约。这种创造"稀缺性"的策略既维护了团队研发节奏，又为后续融资奠定基础。

在AI成为标配的创业环境中，卡特建议创业者保持清醒："若你的创意可能面临科技巨头免费产品或捆绑服务的竞争，这将是致命风险。"他最后总结，真正值得投资的是那些"在特定领域拥有绝对认知优势，并能设计出智能时代独特分销渠道"的团队。

中文翻译：

若你正致力于初创企业的早期发展，并试图通过风险投资来助推宏大构想——请聚焦于解决特定难题，确保怀有坚定的信念，并在人工智能时代审慎思考产品推广策略。

这些建议来自我近期在西雅图人工智能周座谈会上与两位嘉宾的对谈：一位是华盛顿州贝尔维尤市Fuse风险投资公司的创始普通合伙人凯兰·卡特，另一位是西雅图医疗福利初创企业Avante的首席执行官兼联合创始人罗汉·德索萨。这场由西雅图风投机构Ascend主办的座谈会题为"A轮融资新格局"，折射出AI热潮中投资逻辑的演变。

这两位嘉宾相知甚深。在Avante尚未产生显著收入的2023年末，Fuse就领投了该公司1000万美元的种子轮融资。卡特数年前初遇德索萨时建立的信任纽带，印证了创业者与风险投资人之间人际关系构筑的重要性。

根据Carta数据，今年一季度A轮融资中位数为790万美元。但CB Insights报告显示，三季度有九家企业A轮融资额突破2亿美元。"A轮融资的金额跨度正前所未有地扩大。"卡特指出。对于那些获得巨额融资的企业，他归因于其具备"突破性洞见"——这种清晰的认知能让投资者心甘情愿开出巨额支票。

CB Insights报告表明，风险投资已攀升至三年来的峰值，其中AI领域融资额占总额的51%，交易量占22%。卡特调侃道："如今商业计划书里必定出现AI，即便与AI无关。"对Fuse而言，评估项目的核心始终是找到解决客户问题的最佳方案——无论是否借助AI。

卡特强调投资者青睐具备领域专业知识，且比任何人更理解客户首要痛点的创始人。"这种洞见能让他们在与客户对话时建立可信度。"在AI重塑软件销售模式的当下，他更看重明显的渠道优势："制胜关键在于分销策略，而非产品本身。"他补充道："我们欣赏那些既拥有行业经验与独到见解，又能以更精巧独特的AI时代分销策略让我们眼前一亮的创业者。"

德索萨则指出，面向客户与投资者时，AI的表述策略应有所区别。客户可能对AI怀有"错失恐惧症"，但更深层的是"失误恐惧症"。创始人需要帮助客户理解AI是"开启全新生产力模式的钥匙"。而对投资者，则需清晰展示AI如何提升利润率——例如加速客户获取与入驻流程。

Avante今年正式推出旨在减轻企业HR行政负担、降低福利计划成本的软件产品。谈及A轮融资，德索萨认为引入资金的重要作用是为企业买家传递信心——有些客户会对偏居太平洋西北一隅的20人初创团队存有顾虑。"他们会担心：如果这些创业者消失怎么办？作为创始人，我考虑的是否应该积极充实资产负债表，明确传达我们拥有充足发展动力的信号。"

关于竞争态势，德索萨建议创业者减少对同类初创企业的关注，更多聚焦行业巨头："观察他们如何解锁功能模块？你如何更快实现突破？"卡特则表示Fuse会避开可能与微软、亚马逊、OpenAI或Anthropic直接竞争的项目："如果我们预判这些巨头可能推出同类产品，导致所有人不得不面对免费竞争或产品捆绑——那就是危险信号。"

曾任医疗自动化公司Olive AI产品主管的德索萨特别强调了与投资者保持透明度的重要性："必须明确规划时间节点。如果你需要三个月或六个月打磨产品核心，就要完全公开时间表。"他透露Avante特意未在2024年设定经常性收入目标，推行付费制的早期使用者计划，于2025年4月结束保密开发阶段，并将试点转化为多年合约。"我们通过早期使用者计划营造了稀缺性和紧迫感。"他总结道。

德索萨最后寄语创业者："聚焦于那个你能做得比别人好一百倍的核心优势。"

英文来源：

If you’re building an early-stage startup and trying to raise venture capital dollars to fuel your big ideas — focus on solving a specific problem, make sure you have strong conviction, and think hard about distribution in the age of AI.
Those were some tips shared during a recent Seattle AI Week panel discussion I moderated with Kellan Carter, founding general partner at Bellevue, Wash.-based firm Fuse, and Rohan D’Souza, CEO and co-founder at Seattle-based healthcare benefits startup Avante.
The pair know each other well. Fuse led Avante’s $10 million seed round in late 2023, before the company was generating meaningful revenue.
Carter initially met D’Souza several years earlier. “There’s so much trust that had been built,” Carter said, reflecting the importance of relationship-building between founders and VCs.
The title of the panel discussion, hosted by Seattle VC firm Ascend, was “The New Series A Landscape” — a nod to shifting expectations in the AI boom.
The median Series A round in Q1 of this year was $7.9 million, according to Carta. But there were also nine companies that raised more than $200 million for their Series A rounds in Q3, according to CB Insights.
“The variance for Series A is wider than ever,” Carter said.
For those companies raising massive Series A rounds, Carter said it’s about “unfair insight” that creates conviction and opens doors to capital.
“The insight is so clear it’s getting investors excited to cut that big of a check — because the prize is so big right now,” Carter said.
Venture funding has increased to a 3-year high, largely thanks to AI, which accounted for 51% of all funding and 22% of deals in Q3, CB Insights reported.
Carter joked that AI is “always in the pitch now — even if it’s not AI.” For Fuse, assessing a pitch is about determining the best way to solve a customer’s problem — with or without AI.
Carter said investors lean toward founders who have domain knowledge and understand a first- or second-priority customer problem better than anyone else. “They have insight that’s going to give them credibility in a customer conversation,” he said.
And in a world where AI is shifting how software is sold, Carter said he’s looking for a clear distribution advantage. “Product won’t win,” he said. “Distribution will win.”
He added: “We love founders that have the domain experience, that have the insight, and they can get us super excited about a distribution strategy that’s a little more clever or unique in an AI world.”
When it comes to talking about AI during a pitch, the conversation will differ depending on whether you’re talking to a customer or investor, according to D’Souza.
He said customers may have “FOMO” when it comes to AI — fear of missing out — but they probably actually have “FOMU”: fear of messing up. D’Souza said it’s the founder’s job to help customers understand that it’s about “unlocking a whole new way of productivity.”
For investors, D’Souza said it’s important to show how AI improves margins — for example, by speeding up customer acquisition and onboarding.
Avante officially launched earlier this year as it scales its software product that aims to help companies decrease HR administration workload and reduce overall benefits program costs.
As he thinks about raising a Series A round of funding, D’Souza said one advantage of bringing in fresh cash is that it acts as a signal to enterprise buyers — some who may be wary of an early stage, 20-person startup tucked away in the Pacific Northwest.
“There’s a little bit of that perception of, what will happen if these guys go away?” he said. “So as a founder, I’m like, OK, should we really aggressively start to pursue more money on the balance sheet? To send a clear message out that, we’ve got a lot more gas in the tank, even though we didn’t necessarily need it.”
As for competitors, D’Souza said founders should focus less on similar startups and more on incumbents. “What are they doing to unlock a feature set? And how do you get there much faster?” he said.
Carter noted that Fuse stays clear of companies that might directly compete with the likes of Microsoft, Amazon, OpenAI, or Anthropic.
“If we think that there is an inkling that they’re going to release a product and the next thing you know, everyone is competing against free or bundling — that’s a problem,” he said.
D’Souza, a former product chief at healthcare automation company Olive AI, stressed the importance of transparency with investors.
“Be very clear about your timelines,” he said. “If you need three months or six months to really build out the core of your product, be extremely transparent about it.”
D’Souza said Avante deliberately planned no recurring revenue for 2024, ran an early adopter program that wasn’t free, then came out of stealth in April 2025 and converted pilots into multi-year deals. “We created a little bit of scarcity and FOMO around this concept of an early adopter program,” he said.
D’Souza also advised his fellow founders to “focus on the one core thing that you do 100X better.”