Key takeaways
- Pre-seed backs a team and an insight before there is much data.
- SAFEs and convertible notes are common because pricing the company is hard.
- Expect many unknowns. Treat them as questions, not as failures.
What investors look for at pre-seed
- Why this team: earned insight into the problem and the ability to build.
- A sharp problem with named customers who feel it.
- Early signals: design partners, waitlists, pilots, letters of intent or first revenue.
- A plan for what the money proves before the next raise.
An example pre-seed round
Two fictional founders with a working prototype and five design partners raise $600,000: $400,000 from a pre-seed fund and the rest from four angels, all on post-money SAFEs with the same cap. The plan is to reach paying customers within 18 months.
How pre-seed deals look in a fund's process
Pre-seed decks are thin on data, so a screening tool that fails anything missing will reject most of them. Delsivo's screening is designed to mark missing facts as Unknown and turn them into questions; its live AI founder interviews, planned for the first release, let founders pitch and answer the fund's questions before any call, with a text interview always available. Only the transcript is assessed, on substance and evidence, never accent, fluency or polish.
Common confusions
- Pre-seed versus seed: seed usually comes with more evidence and a larger round, but the line moves by market.
- Pre-seed versus friends and family: friends-and-family money is often earlier still and less structured.
- Round labels are conventions. Look at the evidence and terms, not the name.