As of today, Cascade Seed Fund is now Long Way Ventures.
So, why the change?
After more than a decade operating under the Cascade name (first as Cascade Angels then as Cascade Seed Fund), our strategy, investments, and opportunities have moved beyond a regional brand.
We continue to prioritize investments in the greater Cascade region anchored by the cities of Portland and Seattle but over the last few years have added investments in cities like Nashville, Austin, New York, Los Angeles and beyond. Our current fund is roughly 40% Pacific Northwest and 60% rest of US investments. Our network, founders and fund investors bring us opportunities throughout North America and we felt a refreshed brand would best reflect that reach. We are very much guided by opportunity, not geography.
The word “seed” has also grown less relevant to us as a label. The definition keeps shifting increasingly toward a later stage profile of company and larger rounds. We are more frequently part of pre-seed rounds of financing and often as part of the first money into a company.
The name Long Way Ventures reflects the long journey we are all on as early believers – ourselves as fund managers, the investors in our funds, and the founders we partner with from the beginning.
That journey has many twists and turns, ups and downs, and moments of elation and despair. Building a company is hard. Building a category defining company is even harder. We know this and have found being calm in the face of chaos a somewhat rare trait in early stage investors.
Rarely is it a straight line unfolding neatly over a short period of time. We sign up to take the long way with our founders, our investors, and our community.
The “long way home” is often the most difficult but most rewarding path and we look forward to this next chapter
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