fundraising ยท diff
git:20260807.975fe85 to git:20260807.fac9f85
47 added, 15 removed. Audit A to A.
---
name: fundraising
- description: Pressure-test a startup fundraising case and improve its narrative, deck, risks, investor fit, and meeting answers. Use when preparing to raise venture capital.
+ description: Assess venture fit, pitches, investors, round plans, meetings, and diligence. Use when founders are deciding whether to raise, preparing a raise, or improving an active fundraising process.
license: MIT
---
# Fundraising
- Help a founder decide what is fundable, what is merely interesting, and what evidence is missing. Build the narrative from company facts and current investor context; do not turn famous frameworks into unquestioned doctrine.
+ Separate storytelling problems from company-fact problems. Build the strongest defensible case without turning investor folklore into doctrine.
+ ## Choose a mode
+
+ - **Raise/no-raise:** test whether venture capital fits the company and alternatives.
+ - **Fundability assessment:** identify strengths, disqualifiers, and evidence gaps.
+ - **Deck or memo audit:** test narrative, claims, metrics, and consistency.
+ - **Narrative workshop:** develop a small number of defensible investment claims.
+ - **Round planning:** connect amount, runway, dilution, use of funds, and milestones.
+ - **Investor research:** verify firm and partner fit, conflicts, check size, and current activity.
+ - **Meeting/diligence prep:** objections, data room, difficult questions, and follow-up.
+
+ Use only the modes needed.
+
## Workflow
- 1. Establish stage, amount, runway, use of funds, market, customer, traction, growth, retention, economics, team, competition, and the milestone this round should reach.
- 2. Inspect existing material before interviewing: deck, memo, metrics, product brief, customer evidence, and prior investor feedback.
- 3. Research relevant firms and partners using current primary sources. Verify thesis, stage, geography, check size, portfolio conflicts, recent investments, and partner writing.
- 4. Pressure-test the core case: important problem, credible wedge, market expansion, product advantage, distribution, evidence of pull, durable economics, timing, and founder-market fit.
- 5. Separate a weak story from a weak company fact. Rewrite the former; flag the latter as an evidence gap or operating priority.
- 6. Build the pitch around a small number of defensible claims. Tie each material claim to a metric, customer fact, product mechanism, or sourced market observation.
- 7. Produce deck headlines and supporting evidence before polishing slide prose. Cover problem, insight, product, proof, market, competition, model, distribution, team, ask, and use of funds as appropriate to the stage.
- 8. Prepare difficult questions, honest answers, risks, disqualifiers, and follow-up material. Never invent traction, logos, market size, customer quotes, or investor interest.
+ 1. Inspect existing deck, memo, metrics, product/customer evidence, cap table, financial model, prior feedback, and repository context before interviewing.
+ 2. Establish stage, amount, runway, use of funds, milestone, market, customer, traction, growth, retention, economics, distribution, competition, team, geography, and financing constraints. Ask only blocking questions.
+ 3. Test whether venture return expectations and financing dynamics fit the business. Present bootstrapping, revenue financing, debt, grants, angels, or a smaller round when materially relevant.
+ 4. Map every important claim to a metric definition, cohort, customer fact, product mechanism, or sourced market observation. Flag unsupported claims and inconsistent periods or denominators.
+ 5. Pressure-test problem importance, wedge, market expansion, product advantage, distribution, evidence of pull, economics, timing, founder fit, and round-specific risks.
+ 6. For investor research, use current official firm/partner sources and recent primary evidence. Verify thesis, stage, geography, check size where published, portfolio conflicts, partner involvement, and retrieval date. Do not infer active interest.
+ 7. Build headlines and evidence before slide prose. Adapt length and order to stage, format, and audience; do not force a fixed slide count.
+ 8. Red-team market sizing, cohort metrics, financial consistency, dilution/runway math, competitive claims, and the milestone the round buys.
+ 9. Prepare honest answers, disqualifiers, requested follow-up material, and next actions. Never invent traction, logos, quotes, market size, investor interest, or commitments.
- ## Load deeper guidance
+ ## Load conditional references
- - Read [pitch workshop](references/pitch-workshop.md) for Khosla-style lures, risks, slide construction, and founder coaching.
- - Read [founder frameworks](references/founder-frameworks.md) for Andreessen-derived questions on product-market fit, fundraising, hiring, and large-company dynamics.
+ - Read [pitch patterns](references/pitch-workshop.md) for claim design, risk handling, deck headlines, and partnership-summary tests. Treat named historical frameworks as optional lenses, not current investor consensus.
+ - Read [founder frameworks](references/founder-frameworks.md) only when a market-pull, risk-reduction, dependency, or founder-reality lens helps. The reference states limitations.
- ## Output
+ This file remains authoritative for interaction, evidence, output, and verification.
- Return a candid fundability assessment, the strongest defensible narrative, evidence gaps, investor-fit shortlist, slide headlines, objection handling, and next actions. Cite time-sensitive research.
+ ## Output contract
+
+ Return the sections required by the selected mode, such as:
+
+ - candid fit/fundability assessment and financing alternatives;
+ - strongest defensible narrative and claim-to-evidence map;
+ - metric, market, and operating evidence gaps;
+ - round amount/use/milestone/runway logic;
+ - investor-fit shortlist with sources and conflict notes;
+ - slide headlines or memo outline;
+ - objection handling, diligence requests, and next actions.
+
+ ## Verify
+
+ - Metric definitions, periods, cohorts, and denominators are consistent.
+ - Market sizing is triangulated and assumptions are visible.
+ - Round amount, use of funds, runway, dilution, and milestone agree.
+ - Investor-fit claims come from current primary evidence and do not imply interest.
+ - Every material pitch claim has support or is labeled as a hypothesis.
+ - Risks, disqualifiers, counterarguments, and financing alternatives are explicit.