A few years ago, before seed investing was as well defined as it now is, I co-hosted a bean bag sitting circle at The Lobby on the topic of “the seed round.” While I assumed the topic would appeal primarily to founders thinking about their next startups, we had a surprising number of industry players — the large monolithic cash hoarder and sizzle brands that buy so many startups, early and late. Their comments on seed investing ran to “you seed guys should fund more companies, because even if they don’t work out we’re going to buy them and you’re going to get your money back.”