# Deedy updates the founder signals that predict top-tier VC seed and Series A investment

> Original title: I redid the startup founder signals that lead to top tier VCs investing in the seed / A, after incorporating some feedback.

- Source: Deedy
- Published: 2026-10-31T23:11:32.000Z
- Bad Influence: https://badinfluence.news/items/dazpbwma9la4x7zunwlvstw1b
- Original: https://x.com/deedydas/status/2116669429866275148

## Summary

Deedy redid his founder signals for predicting top-tier VC seed and Series A investment after feedback, extending the founding years to 2019–2026 and roughly doubling the startup sample. He added ex-frontier-lab and cybersecurity backgrounds near the top, treats IIT as a positive signal, and counts education in China as a negative. The full list of new signals appears in an image attached to the post.

## Post

I redid the startup founder signals that lead to top tier VCs investing in the seed / A, after incorporating some feedback.

This added ex-frontier lab and cyber security near the top, IIT as a positive, and educated in China as a negative.

The main changes were;
- extended founding year to 2019-2026, ~2x'd the number of startups
- unified and added some signals

Here are the new signals:

![](https://badinfluence.news/api/img-proxy?u=https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.twimg.com%2Fmedia%2FHV_roSbb0AAFTUK.jpg&mode=thumb&exp=1793750400&sig=e63ff6bfe842b055)

## Quoted post @deedydas

> Which startups are most likely to get an investment from top tier VCs?
> 
> I looked at ~60 attributes across 5000 startups and these were the 15 strongest.
> 
> #1 is being from a top tier fund. MBA is a negative signal
> 
> Full list of signals below:

https://x.com/deedydas/status/2116577618816577767