Know when you're ready

So how do you know when you're ready to raise?

The very first round

Raise Preparation: You need to do your raise preparation and get this signed off by experienced investors and / or advisors. Pitch deck, dataroom, deal terms etc.
Product: You need to bootstrap to some kind of prototype, beta or MVP.
- Beg, borrow or whatever but get to some kind of product in customer hands
Traction: You need some kind of traction to get interest from investors
- Beta interview results
- Growth hacks showing demand
- Waiting lists
- Freemium customers
Prior funding: You need to show some kind of prior funding
- Founder sweat equity - as in founders working for free to GSD
- Family and friends support via cash or sweat equity
Be awesome: investors are backing you. Why are you awesome. Get used to talking about it and highlighting it without being arrogant. if you're not sure, get a coach or advisor to help you.

Seed and Series A

You need to do your raise preparation and get this signed off by experienced investors and / or advisors. Pitch deck, dataroom, deal terms etc. See the Investor Readiness section of the Step by Step guide.
Milestones for raising are clearer Seed and Series A. eg
- Seed - traction, happy users, customer learnings, product and team improving. Don't confuse this with a finished product or anything like that. Your MVP is probably crap but you can still have happy users! 😀
- Series A - fast growing traction, a line to expansion, maybe the magical $1m ARR.