Fundraising Stage Selector

Demo

Click to play with sound.

---
name: fundraising-stage-selector
description: Use when a founder is deciding whether and how to raise. Triggers on "am I pre-seed or seed", "how much should I raise", "what stage am I", "what valuation can I get", "should I raise now or wait", "is my round too big". Sets the round, amount, and valuation envelope that every later step depends on.
---

# Fundraising Stage Selector

Every later step — deck, targeting, terms — is wrong if the stage is wrong. The
most common founder error is raising at the stage they wish they were at, not
the one their evidence supports. This skill fixes the stage first.

## When to use this skill

Reach for it before writing a deck or emailing an investor, whenever the
founder asks how much to raise, what valuation is realistic, or whether to raise
at all yet. It produces the envelope; everything downstream is calibrated to it.

## Read the stage off evidence, not ambition

Place the company by what is *proven*, not what is hoped:

- **Pre-seed**: a team and an insight, maybe a prototype or design partners. You
  are selling the founder and the bet. Typical raise $250k-$1.5M.
- **Seed**: a shipped product and the first signal of pull — early revenue,
  retention, or week-over-week usage growth. Typical raise $1.5M-$4M.… install to load the full skill