Startup Fundraising FAQ & Knowledge Base

Upload your pitch deck as a PDF and our AI analyzes it across 12 dimensions including market opportunity, team strength, business model clarity, and competitive positioning. You get a detailed scorecard with actionable feedback in under 60 seconds, completely free.

We accept PDF files up to 50MB. Most founders upload a 10-15 slide deck. The AI extracts text and evaluates structure, content depth, and storytelling quality. Google Slides or PowerPoint files should be exported to PDF before uploading.

Your deck receives a composite score from A (exceptional) to F (needs significant work) based on weighted tiers: market narrative, business model clarity, traction evidence, team signals, and financial projections. Each tier shows green/yellow/red health indicators so you know exactly where to improve.

Yes. Upload your updated PDF and the AI will generate a fresh analysis. We cache results by file hash, so if you upload the exact same file you'll get the cached score instantly. Any changes to the deck trigger a new full analysis.

The top issues we see: no clear problem statement (jumping to solution), missing traction slide or vague metrics, unrealistic TAM/SAM/SOM calculations, no competitive landscape analysis, and burying the ask. Our AI flags all of these with specific fix suggestions.

Your deck is processed by our AI and backed up to a private Google Drive for your records. We never share your deck with investors without your explicit permission. The analysis results are only visible to you and our admin team.

Most pre-seed founders should start when they have a clear problem-solution fit, early validation (waitlist, LOIs, or pilot customers), and a 12-18 month runway plan. Starting too early without traction wastes your most valuable asset: time. Our financial model calculator can help you determine your runway needs.

Plan for a funnel: you'll typically need 80-100 investor conversations to close a pre-seed or seed round. Expect roughly 30% response rate on cold outreach and 5-10% conversion to term sheet. Warm intros double those rates. Our investor matching helps you focus on the highest-probability targets.

A SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) is a lightweight investment instrument where investors give you money now in exchange for equity later, typically at your next priced round. SAFEs avoid setting a valuation, are faster to close (often a single page), and have lower legal costs. Most pre-seed rounds use SAFEs; seed and beyond often use priced rounds.

Pre-seed valuations typically range from $2M-$8M depending on market, team experience, and traction signals. Factors that increase valuation: repeat founders, technical co-founder, paying customers, large market. Avoid overthinking the number; focus on raising enough to hit your next milestone. A fair SAFE cap that lets both sides win is better than optimizing for valuation.

At pre-seed/seed, investors primarily evaluate: team (domain expertise, co-founder dynamics, execution speed), market (large TAM with clear timing advantage), traction (even small signals like waitlists, pilots, or LOIs), and insight (a unique perspective on why now and why you). Revenue helps but isn't required at pre-seed.

Plan for 3-6 months from first outreach to money in the bank. The timeline breaks down roughly: 4-6 weeks building pipeline, 4-8 weeks of meetings and follow-ups, 2-4 weeks of due diligence and legal. Having materials ready (deck, data room, financial model) before you start compresses the timeline significantly.

A strong data room includes: pitch deck, executive summary, financial model with 3 scenarios, cap table, incorporation documents, key contracts or LOIs, product demo or screenshots, team bios, and customer testimonials if available. Organize it clearly in a shared drive and have it ready before investor meetings.

Focus on leading indicators: user signups/waitlist growth, activation rate (users who complete key action), weekly active usage, and qualitative feedback loops. Revenue metrics matter more at seed stage. Track burn rate and runway religiously. Our financial model dashboard shows you which metrics are green, yellow, or red for your stage.

The benchmark is 3:1 (lifetime value should be 3x customer acquisition cost). Below 1:1 means you're losing money on each customer. At pre-seed, you may not have enough data for reliable LTV, so focus on payback period instead. If you recover CAC within 6-12 months, you're in healthy territory.

Monthly burn rate = total monthly expenses minus monthly revenue. Runway = cash in bank divided by monthly burn. If you spend $30K/month and earn $5K, your net burn is $25K. With $250K in the bank, you have 10 months of runway. Start fundraising when you have 6+ months left.

NRR measures how much revenue you keep and expand from existing customers over a period. NRR above 100% means expansion revenue exceeds churn. Top SaaS companies achieve 120-140% NRR. For early-stage, even tracking gross retention (are customers staying?) is a strong signal to investors.

The benchmark for seed-stage SaaS is 15-20% month-over-month revenue growth. For marketplaces, look at GMV growth. At pre-seed, absolute numbers matter less than the growth trajectory. Going from $1K to $5K MRR in 3 months is a stronger signal than having $20K MRR with flat growth.

Our startup benchmarks tool compares your metrics against aggregate data from founders at the same stage, business model, and sector. Key metrics benchmarked include MRR, burn rate, runway, growth rate, churn, and LTV:CAC. Visit the benchmarks page to see how you compare.

Our system uses four independent matching algorithms analyzing sector overlap, investment thesis similarity, portfolio company patterns, geographic proximity, stage fit, check size alignment, and metric preferences. Results are combined via meta-ranking (RRF fusion) to produce a single ranked list. Each match includes a confidence score and explanation.

A complete founder profile dramatically improves matches. Key fields: sector, industry, verticals, funding stage, location (city matters for angel groups), revenue metrics, and a clear company description. Our data completeness indicator shows what percentage of your profile is filled in. Higher completeness means more relevant investor matches.

Free tier users see a preview of their top matches. Community members earn credits through participation (completing tasks, giving feedback, attending events) that unlock additional matches. Premium credits from purchases unlock the full ranked list with detailed rationale for each match.

Our matching algorithms require domain signal (sector, industry, or thesis overlap) to rank an investor highly. Stage and check size alone aren't enough. We also apply hard filters for geographic focus and DEI preferences to avoid irrelevant matches. The system improves over time as we incorporate human feedback on match quality.

TFG is a Discord-based community of pre-seed and seed-stage founders building startups together. Members get free pitch deck analysis, investor matching, mentorship connections, peer feedback, and accountability. The community tracks progress through a funnel system and rewards participation with credits toward investor matches.

Based on your startup profile, sector, and current challenges, we connect you with experienced advisors from our network. Mentors include angel investors, successful founders, and domain experts. The matching considers industry expertise, stage experience, and geographic overlap to find the best fit.

Credits are earned by completing community tasks: uploading your pitch deck, giving feedback to other founders, participating in pitch practice sessions, attending events, and reaching funnel milestones. Each completed task grants credits that can be used to unlock more investor matches.

The funnel tracks your progress through four stages: Roast (initial feedback), Bullpen (refinement), Lineup (pitch-ready), and Homeplate (actively fundraising). Each stage has specific milestones like completing your deck, practicing your pitch, and building your data room. Advancing through stages unlocks more resources and investor introductions.

We offer four free tools: Growth Ceiling Calculator (models your SaaS growth trajectory using the Jason Cohen formula), Investor Readiness Quiz (10-question assessment of fundraising preparedness), Term Sheet Red Flag Scanner (analyzes 12 common term sheet clauses for founder-unfriendly terms), and Financial Model Calculator (scenario analysis with sensitivity testing).

Based on Jason Cohen's formula, it models your growth ceiling from current MRR, growth rate, and churn. The tool shows when your growth rate equals your churn rate (the ceiling) and visualizes your revenue trajectory over 24 months. It helps founders understand why reducing churn by 1% can be more impactful than increasing growth by 5%.

The quiz evaluates 10 dimensions of fundraising preparedness: pitch deck quality, financial model completeness, market sizing, traction evidence, team composition, legal setup, data room readiness, competitive analysis, go-to-market clarity, and timeline planning. You get a score from 0-100 with specific recommendations for improvement.

Benchmarks aggregate anonymized data from founders in our network, grouped by funding stage, business model, and sector. You can compare your MRR, growth rate, burn rate, runway, churn, and unit economics against peers. Data uses IQR outlier trimming for statistical robustness. We require a minimum of 5 data points per benchmark to ensure reliability.

The piece contrasts how investors evaluate software (low CapEx) versus hardware/capital-intensive startups, highlighting different metrics, growth expectations, and cash-flow considerations. It emphasizes scalable growth and unit economics for software, and margins, working capital, and ROIC for hardware.

The article outlines green flags VCs listen for in startup pitches, emphasizing specific traction data, real problem signals, rapid experimentation, market-entry sequencing, founder credibility, clear unit economics, proven sales, and a strong exit strategy as keys to securing venture investment.

The post walks through 12 VC term sheet clauses deemed high-risk for founders, with a focus on liquidation preference and anti-dilution. It uses a plain-language risk-scoring framework to help founders renegotiate terms and preserve upside and control, emphasizing that valuations can mask unfavorable terms.

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An investor AMA outlines how to design a winning business model, emphasizing patient customer discovery, the value of The Mom Test, and critiquing traditional Lean Startup advice. It guides founders to hunt or fish for ideas, validate with honest customer feedback, and then build a pitch deck, while noting advantages some startups have (pedigree, experience) that aren’t easily replicable.

An investor AMA discusses branding choice between a relatable product narrative and a world-changing platform vision. It advocates starting with a product MVP to fund future work, while considering accelerators, grants, and stealth bootstrapping (with transparent employment) as multi-path options, all guided by networking and time management to avoid burnout.

An investor AMA-style discussion on when founders should go full-time, advocating a de-risked path where founders stay employed until they have enough capital for a one-year runway or retirement comfort. It promotes building the startup while working a job, taking less money in the current role to gain flexibility, and being transparent with employers.

This investor AMA discusses macro trends for both public and private investing, emphasizing a disciplined traction-focused approach for private AI opportunities, skepticism about current valuations, and clear communication of crypto pitches. The author shares frameworks and indicators used across portfolios, including quant models and classic valuation metrics.

An investor explains the criteria they use to judge startups, emphasizing founder track record (exits and brand associations), proven demand (ARR or fulfilling sales with capital), strong margins, and a large, global market. The piece notes that few investments meet all criteria and invites founders to join a group for further discussion.

An investor AMA discusses exit strategy and the value of a focused product-led growth approach. The investor shares an unusual exit via pitching an acquisition, then cautions founders against early overreach, urging traction with one product and one customer before pursuing broader ecosystem ambitions.

An investor AMA discusses how founders should value their time, cautions against paying oneself strictly by the hour, and offers a framework for balancing personal needs with business health. The guidance cites Naval Ravikant on time value, emphasizes payroll priority, risk awareness, and selective outsourcing as key practices for founders.

This post shares startup hiring guidance from an investor AMA: hire incrementally (start with part-time or contract work), offer early equity with proper vesting, and emphasize culture and clear values. It also highlights expectancy theory as a framework for aligning what motivates employees with company goals.

An investor AMA discusses evaluating a dating-app market independent of falling public stock prices. The guidance emphasizes focusing on market growth, monetization shifts, and safety/trust features, with caveats about Gen Z sentiment, and recommends testing with real users rather than being derailed by stock moves.

The investor AMA discusses whether to hire a dedicated business development (BD) person. It argues that founders should handle BD initially, that a BD specialist isn’t strictly necessary early on, and that mentors or angels can help but typically aren’t reliable as the primary BD driver. The post also touches on founder roles and equity between technical and non-technical co-founders.

This investor AMA-style piece guides founders on choosing the right venture by emphasizing selecting the right market through identifying inefficiencies and evaluating co-founders with specific traits. It advocates a patient, listening-focused approach (the 'fishing' mindset) and highlights constructive, substantive disagreement as essential for strong partnerships and decisions.

An investor AMA-style discussion covers biggest capital-raising mistakes, KPIs for investing in emerging markets, and differences between family offices and VCs, plus guidance on building credibility for founders and aspiring investment consultants. The investor shares concrete rules of thumb on contingency budgeting, red flags, and relationship-driven approaches.

Investor insights on how to evaluate a founder, highlighting core traits (curiosity, coachability, commitment), speed of thought, and founder energy, along with signals like traction, pre-sales, and brand/industry knowledge. The piece outlines actionable habits for founders to demonstrate readiness and warns against waiting for investment before acting.

A young founder (age 13) shares a journey of exploring tech through multiple small projects, with PassGuard as a key effort. An investor responds with mentorship, emphasizing learning from failure, the power of compounded progress, intrinsic motivation, and the option to pursue funding if needed.