Answer 16 questions across traction, team, market and financials. Get a VC-perspective readiness score with actionable insights — in 3 minutes.
Funding readiness measures how prepared your startup is to raise external capital from venture capital firms, angel investors, or accelerators. It's not just about having a product — it's about demonstrating traction, having the right team, operating in a large enough market, and showing financial discipline. A high readiness score doesn't guarantee funding, but it significantly increases your chances of getting meetings and term sheets. Conversely, approaching investors too early without sufficient traction can burn relationships and make future raises harder.
Venture capitalists assess startups across four core dimensions. Traction is the most weighted — VCs want proof that customers pay or users grow. Team matters because early-stage investing is largely a bet on the founders' ability to execute and pivot. Market size determines the upside — a $50M market can't produce a unicorn. Financials reveal whether the team understands unit economics, burn rate, and capital efficiency. This checker scores each dimension and gives you a composite readiness number.
Imagine a Berlin-based HR SaaS: 2 co-founders (one ex-HR director, one CTO), €5,000 MRR growing 15% month-over-month, 45 paying customers, a $5B TAM, clear differentiation from legacy HR systems, 14 months runway, and LTV/CAC of 3.5x. This startup scores 88/100 — Very Ready. The VC narrative is compelling: domain-expert founders, proven traction, large market, healthy unit economics. The ideal raise: €750k at a €5M pre-money, extending runway to 30 months and funding a sales hire to accelerate growth.
A funding-ready startup typically has paying customers or strong user growth, a complete founding team with technical capability, a TAM of $1B+, and 12+ months of runway with positive unit economics.
A score of 65+ (Ready) generally indicates a strong position for seed funding. Scores below 50 suggest you should focus on improving traction or team before approaching investors.
Yes, but it's harder. Pre-revenue startups need exceptional team credentials (previous exits, top accelerator), a very large TAM, and strong user waitlist numbers to compensate for the lack of revenue.
VCs assess four key areas: traction (revenue, growth, user base), team (founder experience, technical capability, domain expertise), market (TAM, competition, differentiation), and financials (runway, unit economics, previous funding).
Traction is the single most important factor — VCs want to see that customers are paying or users are growing. However, a strong founding team with relevant experience can compensate for early-stage traction gaps.