Founders ask us all the time: "Am I ready to raise?" It's the right question and most of the time the honest answer is somewhere between yes and not quite yet. What separates those two is usually a small number of things—not a long list of milestones, but a handful of questions that either have compelling answers or don't.
We put this checklist together based on what we actually look for when we evaluate pre-seed companies. It's not a rigid gate. Every company is different, and there are founders who've raised from us with a few of these boxes unchecked. But if most of these are blank, you're probably raising too early—and burning goodwill with investors you'll want to revisit when you're further along.
Team
- Can you explain why you, specifically, are building this? Not why the problem is important. Why you are the person to solve it. Relevant experience, personal insight, industry access—there should be something that makes your answer specific to you.
- Do you have a cofounder, or a clear explanation for why you don't? Solo founders can absolutely raise at pre-seed. But you need to have thought about the risk and have a credible plan for where the second key person comes from.
- Are there any cofounder equity or commitment issues that need to be resolved before a term sheet? Unequal sweat, someone who isn't fully committed, equity that isn't vested—clean these up before you fundraise. They will come up in diligence.
Problem and Market
- Have you talked to at least 20 potential customers about the problem? Not about your solution. About the problem. What are they using today? How much does it hurt? What have they tried? The answers should have shaped your thinking, not confirmed it.
- Can you articulate a specific customer segment—not a broad demographic, but a specific kind of person or company that feels this problem acutely? "Small businesses" is not a segment. "Independent HVAC contractors doing $500Kâ$2M in annual revenue who currently manage scheduling in spreadsheets" is a segment.
- Is there evidence of a behavior people are already doing that signals they want what you're building? Workarounds, hacked-together solutions, tools used for purposes they weren't designed for—these are signals that the problem is real enough that people are already trying to solve it imperfectly.
Product and Traction
- Do you have something that someone can use, even if it's rough? It doesn't need to be polished. An MVP, a prototype, a mockup that you've walked potential customers through and gotten genuine reactions to. Something that isn't purely theoretical.
- Have any of those potential customers expressed willingness to pay, or actually paid? Even one customer who pulled out a credit card or signed a letter of intent tells us more than ten customers who said "that sounds great."
- Do you have 3–5 specific things you'll learn or prove with this round? "Build the product and go to market" is not a use of funds plan. The milestones this capital gets you to should be specific enough that both you and your investor will know, 18 months from now, whether you hit them.
Legal and Corporate
- Is the company incorporated and the cap table clean? Delaware C-corp if you're planning to raise institutional capital. No complicated side agreements, friend-and-family equity deals without documentation, or intellectual property that lives outside the company.
- Do founders have IP assignment agreements in place? Everything built before and during the company needs to be clearly assigned to the entity. This is one of the most common early diligence surprises and it slows down or kills deals that were otherwise going fine.
The Funding Ask
- Do you know how much you're raising and why? The amount should be tied to specific milestones. Enough to hit the next meaningful proof point with 3–4 months of buffer. Not the maximum amount you think you could get, not a round number that sounds conventional.
Twelve items. You don't need perfect answers to all of them. But you should have thought seriously about all of them, and your answers should reflect genuine work—not optimism dressed up as evidence.
One More Thing
The checklist doesn't capture everything. It won't tell you whether you're the kind of founder we want to work with over a multi-year relationship. That part only comes from talking. If you've been through this list and you think the answers hold up, reach out: [email protected]. Tell us what you're building and why now.
