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Are you actually ready to raise?

Rate yourself on the seven things pre-seed and seed investors actually weight, weighted the way they actually weight them. You get a score out of 100, an honest band, and your single weakest link with the next step to fix it before you walk into the room.

Most pitch feedback is polite and useless. People tell you the deck looks nice and wish you luck. Investors do something different: they weight a handful of things, heavily, and decide fast. This scorecard makes you score yourself on those things before they do, with the weights tilted the way early investors actually decide. At pre-seed, that means team and evidence carry the most, because there is little else to underwrite. Be honest. A flattering score you cannot defend in the room is worth nothing. The point is to find the one thing holding you back while you still have time to fix it.

Rate yourself

Score 1 to 5 on seven dimensions

Use the anchors under each question. A 1 is not an insult and a 5 is rare this early, so resist the urge to round up. Score the company you have today, not the one in your projections. The tool weights your answers, scores you out of 100, and tells you where to spend your next two weeks.

1 = first-time team, no obvious reason it's you. 5 = repeat or deeply domain-native founders.

1 = a deck and an idea. 5 = clear, growing usage or revenue, or signed evidence of demand.

1 = small or shrinking market, no reason it's now. 5 = large and growing, with a credible why-now.

1 = slide only, easily copied. 5 = in market, working, with a real reason it gets harder to beat.

1 = no idea how this makes money. 5 = proven economics, or a credible path investors accept.

1 = a vague number, no plan. 5 = a specific raise tied to the milestones it buys.

1 = listeners can't repeat what you do. 5 = problem, why-now, and why-you land in one clean line.

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Get the full Pitch Readiness Breakdown

The companion to this scorecard: what a 5 looks like on every dimension, the questions investors ask behind each one, and a pre-pitch-competition checklist for the 48 hours before you present. Sent to your inbox, plus instant access.

No spam. The breakdown and an occasional essay on fundraising and pricing. Unsubscribe anytime.

Why these weights

Why team and evidence win early

At pre-seed there is almost no company to underwrite yet. No durable revenue, often no product in market, rarely a defensible moat. So investors underwrite the two things that exist: the people, and whatever real-world evidence those people have already produced. That is why team and traction carry the most weight here and business model carries the least. It inverts as you grow. By Series A the same investor wants unit economics and retention, and "great founder" stops being enough. This scorecard is tuned for pre-seed and seed. If you are further along, treat the lighter weights on model and economics as the thing that is about to get heavier.

A worked example. A two-person team building a B2B SaaS tool, prepping for a pre-seed pitch competition, rates honestly: Team 4, Traction 2, Market 4, Product 3, Model 3, Ask 4, Narrative 5.
  • Weighted score: 68 / 100. Band: Getting there.
  • Biggest weight-adjusted loss: Traction & evidence (13.2 points lost), so that is the weakest link, even though Product and Model have lower raw ratings.
The read: your story and team are not the problem, your evidence is. Before the competition, go get one design partner using the product weekly and one quantified result you can say out loud. That single move does more for this score than another deck rewrite.

Pitch competitions

If this is for a competition

Competitions reward narrative and ask clarity more than a real investor does, because judges decide in minutes without diligence. So if you are prepping for a competition, weight your prep toward the two dimensions this tool scores under narrative and the ask: a clean problem-to-why-now line, and a specific, defensible number with a credible use of funds. A real seed investor will forgive a rough slide. A judge will not forgive a founder who cannot say what they are raising and what it buys. One thing to know before you read your result: the headline score here is investor-weighted, so it deliberately scores narrative and the ask low. For a competition, do not read the headline number as your competition-readiness. Read your Narrative clarity and The ask sub-scores directly, because those are the dimensions a judge weights most.

Scores are directional, not diagnostic. Calibrate against investors who actually back companies at your stage and in your sector. More for founders: SAFE calculator · Term sheet decoder · Subscribe for essays

Before you walk in the room

Get a blunt read on your raise

If you have a pitch competition or a round coming up, I take on a small number of founder sessions, with a focus on immigrant and non-traditional founders raising without inherited networks. Tell me where you are and I'll tell you honestly whether you are ready and what to fix first.

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FAQ

Questions, answered

What pitch readiness score do I need to start raising?

There is no official cutoff, and the threshold below is internal to this tool, not an investor consensus number. As a working rule for this scorecard, below about 65 out of 100 you are usually spending warm intros faster than you can convert them. The score matters less than the shape: a high score with one weak dimension is fixable in weeks, while a flat, mediocre score across the board signals it is still early. Treat any score as a prompt to fix your weakest link, not as a verdict. Readiness also varies by sector and geography, so calibrate against investors who actually back companies like yours.

How do pre-seed investors actually weight a pitch?

Earlier the stage, the more weight sits on the team and on real-world evidence, because there is little else to underwrite: usually no durable revenue, often no product in market, rarely a moat. This scorecard reflects that by giving team and traction the most weight and business model the least. The weighting inverts as you grow. By Series A the same investor wants unit economics, retention, and a repeatable model, and a strong founder alone stops being enough. These are tendencies, not rules, and individual investors differ.

Is a pitch competition different from raising from investors?

Yes, and it matters for how you prep. Competition judges decide in minutes without diligence, so they over-reward narrative clarity and a crisp, specific ask relative to a real investor who can take weeks and dig into your evidence. For a competition, over-invest in a one-line story and a defensible number with a credible use of funds. Note that this tool's headline score is investor-weighted, so it scores narrative and the ask low on purpose. If you are prepping for a competition, read your Narrative clarity and The ask sub-scores directly rather than the headline number. For an actual raise, evidence and team carry more, and a rough slide is forgivable in a way a missing proof point is not.

My weakest link is traction. What should I do before I pitch?

Manufacture one undeniable proof point rather than rewriting the deck. The highest-leverage moves at pre-seed are a design partner using the product weekly, a signed letter of intent, or a single quantified result you can state in one sentence. One real piece of evidence moves your readiness more than ten polished slides, because it converts your claims into something an investor can verify. What counts as strong evidence varies by sector, so anchor to what investors in your space treat as a real signal.

Is this scorecard a guarantee I will or won't raise?

No. It is an educational self-assessment, not investment advice or a prediction. Fundraising outcomes depend on factors a self-rating cannot capture: the specific investors you reach, timing, the funding market, your network, and chance. Two companies with the same score can get different outcomes. Use it to find and fix your weakest link before you pitch, and for legal documents like a SAFE, priced round, or term sheet, always work with a qualified startup lawyer.