Pre-seed

Early-stage VCs treat founder-led sales as proof that a founder can sell conviction, not just product. If you haven't closed your first 10–20 customers yourself, you don't yet know who buys, why they buy, or what kills the deal — and investors know it. Demonstrating that hands-on sales motion is often the difference between a term sheet and a pass.

A non-contributing spouse on the cap table is a governance red flag that will surface in every future fundraise. The cleanest structure is 40/40 for both founders with the remaining reserve requiring mutual written approval — not unilateral allocation rights for one founder. Fix this before you have revenue worth fighting over.

Most traditional seed VCs expect at least $10-20K MRR or exceptional user growth, making $500/month 'too early.' Founders with initial traction should focus on scaling their proven model, understanding key metrics, and targeting pre-seed funds or angel investors specializing in their vertical.

With a post-money SAFE, each angel's ownership is simply their check divided by the cap — order of investment does not matter and earlier angels are not diluted by later ones. The dilution falls entirely on founders, so stacking multiple SAFE checks at the same cap can silently erode founder ownership before a priced round ever closes.

Cold outreach to investors almost never works. The highest-leverage move is to build a specific list of 30–50 target investors, then ask recently funded founders, existing cap table members, and credible advisors to make direct introductions using that list. Specificity is what converts a vague favor request into a real intro.