The goalposts for raising a Pre-Seed, Seed and Series A round have changed since the Spring. Here are benchmarks that I would aim for as a founder of a SaaS or b2b fintech company in this current market

𝑛𝑜𝑡𝑒: 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑒𝑥𝑐𝑒𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑒 Pre-Seed: $750k - $1.5M round
Valuation: $5M - $10M post (*I would not go over $7M)

𝑇𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛:
• a working MVP
• indications of customer demand = have interviewed hundreds of potential customers or users
• 2-5 "Design Partners" (non-paying customers or users)

I swear I'm a blast at dinner parties too.

If you are building a b2b / enterprise / fintech company, then getting your SOC2 set up early (one of the most relevant compliance audits for tech companies) is a no brainer. This audit ensures an org’s service providers securely manage its data to protect the org’s interests and privacy of its clients.

As a startup, you will *need* SOC 2 compliance to close enterprise deals. At the early stage, this is the difference between life and shutting down

Even as early as the seed stage, an organized data room can make you stand out from the crowd.
 
Sharing a list below of items that I received this week from a founder who is ~2 months away from raising. Left me so impressed and eager to move fast on the deal Note: not all early companies will be able to provide what is on this list. That this company was organized enough to get ahead of the questions they knew I would ask (e.g. regulatory) and might not know to ask (e.g. science primer) is what really stood out.