// FIELD GUIDE 02
The Fundraise Readiness Diagnostic
Twenty questions, four groups. If you can answer all twenty out loud without flinching, open the round. Every "sort of" is a week of prep you should do now — before the clock starts.
01The story
- ☐Can you say what the company does, for whom, and why now — in two sentences a director's spouse would understand?
- ☐Does your narrative explain why THIS round unlocks THAT milestone, specifically?
- ☐Can you name the three things a skeptic will attack, and your answer to each?
- ☐Does the market size stand up if a bored associate rebuilds it bottom-up?
- ☐Is there one metric that proves the thesis — and is it moving?
02The numbers
- ☐Do you know your real runway to the week, under the plan you'll run?
- ☐Can you defend every line of the model's next 6 months — not the out-years, the next 6 months?
- ☐Do unit economics improve with scale for a reason you can articulate, or by spreadsheet magic?
- ☐Is the cap table clean — no dead equity, no surprise notes, no unresolved promises?
- ☐Do you know your walk-away terms before anyone anchors you?
03The machine
- ☐Is the data room built before the first meeting, not during diligence?
- ☐Are your customer references briefed, willing, and recent?
- ☐Do you have a target list of 30+ qualified investors, tiered, with warm paths to most?
- ☐Can your team run the company for six weeks while you run the process?
- ☐Is there a single narrative doc your team can answer questions from — consistently?
04The founder
- ☐Have you rehearsed the pitch against someone who has sat on the other side of the table?
- ☐Do you know which board seat(s) this round adds, and who you want in them?
- ☐Can you explain your last raise's promises and what happened to each?
- ☐Are you raising toward a milestone, or away from a balance sheet?
- ☐If the round takes nine months instead of three — what breaks, and what's the plan?
Coming up short? Bring your two weakest answers to a free intro call — we'll work them.