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"Some people are suggesting that the current funding climate for startups is similar to behavior at the time of the dot-com bubble \u2014 many startups are receiving a lot of funding. Notable recent seed funding rounds include Ark and Pair, which raised seed rounds of funding in excess of $4 million without giving up a board seat to investors \u2014 something never seen before.\nThis week saw some interesting developments in the current seed funding climate. First, Y Combinator founder Paul Graham warned companies about future seed rounds, warning startups to \u201Clower your expectations for fundraising.\u201D\nAt the same time, positive news came for early stage startups when angel investor Aydin Senkut raised a follow-on fund, and micro-VC True Ventures raised a third fund to invest in early-stage startups. Paul is extremely well respected in Silicon Valley, and what I would take from his advice is that now could actually be the perfect time for a lot of smaller individuals to consider investing in startups, especially if his prediction of dropping valuations comes to fruition.\nI\u2019m personally really passionate about inspiring entrepreneurship, and I know that this is a key motivation for a lot of startup founders. This week, my business partner and I discussed launching a micro-fund to attract app developers to our business, but I envision a lot of startup founders and individuals launching their own funds to invest in the next wave of up-and-coming startups.\nTools like AngelList make investing in seed deals accessible to absolutely anybody, and the platform quickly shows what startups are hot at any given time. In the future, if we manage to make Vungle a success, I would have aspirations to launch my own small investment fund \u2014 there are so many deals out there that I wish I could be involved in as an angel investor. \nIf I were to have a \u201Cfantasy portfolio\u201D of seed deals today, then the top five startups that I\u2019d invest in would be Dro.pt; Startup Genome; Embark; CodeNow and True &amp; Co. Nearly all of these companies worthy of prospective investments and are accessible on AngelList. The common attributes of all these companies \u2014 and what makes them appealing as an investment \u2014 is that they have amazing founders, huge visions and are in markets ripe for disruption. \nIf you were to start an investment fund right now, what would your dream seed portfolio look like? Tell us in the comments.\nImage courtesy of iStockphoto, Bluberries\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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