Audits whether a seed-stage company clears the Series A bar - benchmark metrics, narrative, team, and data room - and produces a red/yellow/green readiness scorecard with a 90-day gap-closing plan. Use when a founder asks "am I ready for Series A", "what metrics do I need to raise an A", "what goes in a Series A data room", "should I raise now or wait two quarters", or is deciding when to open an A process. Do NOT use for a general pre-pitch hygiene check at any stage - use fundraise-readiness-audit instead - or for choosing which round to raise at all - use fundraising-stage-selector instead.
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name: Series A Readiness
description: Audits whether a seed-stage company clears the Series A bar - benchmark metrics, narrative, team, and data room - and produces a red/yellow/green readiness scorecard with a 90-day gap-closing plan. Use when a founder asks "am I ready for Series A", "what metrics do I need to raise an A", "what goes in a Series A data room", "should I raise now or wait two quarters", or is deciding when to open an A process. Do NOT use for a general pre-pitch hygiene check at any stage - use fundraise-readiness-audit instead - or for choosing which round to raise at all - use fundraising-stage-selector instead.
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# Series A Readiness
The Series A bar is repeatability, not just traction. Seed proved someone wants the product; the A proves a scalable, predictable engine. The costly mistake this skill prevents: opening a process one quarter early, before the metrics support the story - that burns the exact investors you want, and word travels, so the only reset is waiting. This skill audits readiness across four pillars, builds the data room, and returns a go / fix-first / wait verdict with the milestones that would flip each red pillar green.
This is the Series-A-specific bar. For a stage-agnostic check of whether any raise will survive first meetings and diligence hygiene, use fundraise-readiness-audit; run that first, then this skill applies the A-specific benchmarks on top.
## Operating procedure
### Step 1: Gather inputs
Collect before scoring. Label any unreconciled number a guess and reconcile it to the bank or the billing system before it enters the scorecard - investors will.
1. ARR (or revenue run-rate) now, 12 months ago, and monthly for the trailing 12 months.
2. Net revenue retention, gross margin, CAC payback by channel, burn, and months of runway.
3. Cohort retention curves (logo and revenue).
4. Revenue by channel and the share coming from founder-led sales.
5. Cap table (fully diluted), IP assignment status, prior financing docs.
6. Leadership org chart and named gaps.
7. Target close date and current pipeline of investor relationships, if any.
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