For pre-seed founders
Know where you stand before you raise.
A vertical-specific, investor-grade assessment built on firsthand venture capital investment experience.
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Free assessment
Get your investment readiness score
Answer questions across six pillars tailored to your vertical. Receive your score and know exactly what to fix before you raise.
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Work with a venture capital expert
Apply for personalised coaching with someone who has evaluated countless deals, prepared founders for funding and advocated for deals at Investment Committee level.
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Six pillars assessed
Founder & Team
25 pts
Problem & Market
20 pts
Product & Validation
20 pts
Business Model
15 pts
Go-To-Market
12 pts
Fundraising
10 pts
FAQ
Common questions covering the six investment readiness pillars.
Founder & Team
How do I know if I have founder-market fit?+
Founder-market fit means you have a genuine, defensible reason to be the person solving this problem. It could be direct industry experience, a personal experience of the problem, or deep technical expertise in the space. The clearest sign is that you can speak about the problem with specificity that an outsider could not replicate.
Do I need a co-founder to raise pre-seed funding?+
No. Solo founders raise pre-seed funding regularly. What matters more is whether the founding team, whether one person or several, has the domain expertise, technical capability, and execution ability to build the product and sell it. Gaps in the team can be addressed through advisors or early hires, but they should be acknowledged, not hidden.
What kind of advisors do investors expect at pre-seed?+
Investors look for advisors who are actively involved, not just names on a slide. The most valued advisors bring one or more of three things: direct domain expertise in the problem you are solving, investor or market networks that open doors, or technical or regulatory knowledge your team lacks. Two strong, engaged advisors are worth more than five passive ones.
Problem & Market
How many customer discovery interviews do I need before raising?+
The number matters less than the quality and what you learned. That said, most pre-seed investors expect evidence of systematic discovery, not just a handful of conversations. Fifty to one hundred structured interviews with your target customer, covering the problem, current solutions, willingness to pay, and buying behaviour, is a reasonable baseline.
What is the difference between TAM, SAM, and SOM?+
TAM (Total Addressable Market) is the total global demand for what you are building. SAM (Serviceable Addressable Market) is the portion of TAM you can realistically reach with your business model. SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market) is the share of SAM you can capture in the near term. Investors care most about SOM because it reflects how you actually plan to win business, not just how big the opportunity could theoretically be.
How do I build a bottom-up market size calculation?+
Start with your ideal customer unit, for example a single business, hospital, or user. Estimate how many of those units exist in your total addressable market. Multiply by what each one would pay annually. That gives you your TAM. Narrow to the segment you can realistically reach with your business model and that becomes your SAM. Lead with your bottom-up number rather than a top-down market report.
Product & Validation
Do I need a working product to raise pre-seed funding?+
Not always, but most pre-seed investors expect at minimum an MVP, early users, or strong founder-market fit. Idea-only raises still happen for repeat founders or exceptional AI teams, but first-time founders generally need some tangible evidence of progress. A working MVP with real user feedback is the most common starting point.
What counts as traction at pre-seed?+
Traction at pre-seed is evidence that someone outside your team finds enough value in what you are building to commit in some way. This includes paying customers, signed LOIs or pilots, active users with consistent engagement, or waitlist sign-ups with demonstrated intent. Contracted revenue, even at a small scale, is strong traction. Product usage with no external commitment is the weakest.
What is the difference between an LOI and a signed contract?+
A Letter of Intent (LOI) is a preliminary document outlining terms two parties intend to agree on. Most LOIs are non-binding on the obligation to close, but they often include binding provisions such as confidentiality or exclusivity clauses. A signed contract with defined payment terms is a legally binding commitment. Both carry weight at pre-seed, but a signed contract with revenue flowing is meaningful evidence of commercial traction.
Business Model
What unit economics do pre-seed investors care about most?+
At pre-seed, investors do not expect perfect numbers. They expect you to understand the concepts and show you are tracking the right things. The core metrics are Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), Lifetime Value (LTV), and Gross Margin. For Fintech, take rate, spread, and net margin per transaction are the key starting points. For HealthTech, payer and reimbursement strategy shape the economics before CAC and LTV can be meaningfully calculated.
What is the difference between gross profit and net profit?+
Gross profit is the revenue remaining after subtracting the direct costs of delivering your product or service, known as Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). It reflects how efficiently your unit economics work and whether your pricing is fundamentally viable. Net profit is what remains after all costs are deducted from revenue, including salaries, marketing, and other operating expenses. It reflects the health of the entire business.
Go-To-Market
How do I find my early adopters?+
Start with your customer archetype, a specific description of your ideal customer, their role, goals, behaviors, pain points, and buying patterns. Early adopters are usually people already trying to solve the problem with workarounds or actively searching for a better solution. Go where they already gather: communities, events, LinkedIn groups, or industry forums. Talk to them before you build, not after.
What is a go-to-market motion and which one should I choose?+
A go-to-market motion is the specific way you acquire customers. Common motions include sales-led growth, product-led growth, inbound or content-led, outbound, channel or partner-led, and community-led. The right motion is primarily determined by your average contract value and product complexity. The goal is not to pick the perfect motion but to test one at a time deliberately, measure what converts, and double down on what works.
Fundraising
What is the difference between a SAFE and a convertible note?+
A SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) is a contractual right to receive equity at a future priced round. It has no maturity date, accrues no interest, and converts when a qualifying financing event occurs. If no qualifying event occurs, the investor waits indefinitely with no right to repayment. A convertible note is debt. It accrues interest, has a maturity date, and converts to equity at the next financing event or must be repaid if no conversion occurs. SAFEs are simpler, faster to close, and account for the majority of pre-seed rounds.
How do I decide how much to raise at pre-seed?+
There is no universal formula. The right amount depends on what you need to build, prove, and validate. Raise enough to reach the traction and revenue milestones that justify a valuation step-up at your seed round. The progress you make between rounds is what earns you better terms at the next one. Generally, you should aim for 18 to 24 months of runway.
Work With Me
[Your Name]
Founder/CEO, FundingFit
Pre-Seed Investment Readiness Expert
For over 10 years, I've worked across multiple continents advising founders and strengthening entrepreneurship ecosystems, including a role as an international consultant with the United Nations and a career in venture capital.
Having reviewed countless pre-seed decks and evaluated hundreds of deals, including sponsoring the highest number of deals funded through a venture capital firm's pre-seed fund, I know what investors want to see and how you can be better prepared for your first institutional raise.
Building something that could change the world, improve how we live, work, and play, or even transform a small part of an industry, is genuinely awe-inspiring.
Every founder's story is different. I look forward to hearing yours.
Having reviewed countless pre-seed decks and evaluated hundreds of deals, including sponsoring the highest number of deals funded through a venture capital firm's pre-seed fund, I know what investors want to see and how you can be better prepared for your first institutional raise.
Building something that could change the world, improve how we live, work, and play, or even transform a small part of an industry, is genuinely awe-inspiring.
Every founder's story is different. I look forward to hearing yours.
If you completed the FundingFit assessment, add your score here.
Application received
Thank you for applying. I review every application personally and will be in touch within 3 to 5 business days if there is a good fit.
Select your vertical
Each vertical has its own tailored scorecard built from investor-grade criteria specific to that sector.
B2B SaaS
Software sold to businesses on a subscription model
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Fintech
Payments, lending, insurance tech, and banking infrastructure
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HealthTech
Healthcare delivery, patient engagement, and clinical operations
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Pillar Breakdown
Readiness Scorecard Notes
Next Steps
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