How to raise your first pre-seed round (without wasting six months of your life)
Most first-time founders approach their pre-seed raise the same way: they polish their deck, fire off a hundred cold emails, and wait. Six months later, they've had a lot of "interesting, keep us posted" conversations and nothing to show for it.
I've seen this play out more times than I can count, both as an investor and as someone who's been in the founder seat. The problem usually isn't the idea. It's that founders jump into fundraising before they're actually ready, and they approach it like a numbers game when it's really a relationships game.
This guide is my attempt to save you from both mistakes.
First, understand what pre-seed investors are actually buying
At the pre-seed stage, there's rarely much to evaluate objectively. Revenue is usually zero or negligible. The product might not exist yet. The market thesis is unproven.
So what are investors actually buying? You, and your earliest signals of momentum.
Pre-seed investors are making a bet on whether you're the right person to build this, whether the problem is real and painful enough that people will pay to solve it, and whether you've already started proving that — even in small ways.
This means your job in a pre-seed raise isn't to present a perfect business. It's to demonstrate that you've got traction on the things within your control: founder credibility, problem validation, and early evidence that something is working.
Before you approach a single investor, be honest with yourself about whether you can answer these three questions clearly:
Why are you the right person to build this?
What have you learned from talking to real customers?
What's changed (however small) since you started?
If those answers aren't solid, more preparation time will serve you better than a premature fundraise.
Get your fundamentals right before you start
The single most common mistake I see is founders raising before they're ready. The market is unforgiving: once you've had a conversation with an investor and they've passed, it's very hard to go back six months later with a fresh pitch. You've used up that relationship.
Before you start, make sure you can check these boxes:
Problem clarity. You can explain the problem in one sentence and people immediately get it. Not a paragraph, not a category, one sentence. If you're still working out how to articulate it, keep working.
Customer evidence. You've talked to at least 20 potential customers and you can quote what they said. Not paraphrase, actually quote. Specific words from real people are far more convincing than "customers told us they want this."
A signal of momentum. At least one thing has changed because of something you did: a waiting list, a paying customer, a pilot, a letter of intent. Investors want to see that you execute, not just plan.
A clear use of funds. You know how much you need, what you'll spend it on, and how long it will last. "We're raising $500K to give us 12 months of runway to reach X milestone" is a sentence every pre-seed investor wants to hear. Vague answers here kill deals.
If you're not there yet, the pre-seed readiness tool on this site will show you exactly which areas to focus on first.
Build the list before you build the deck
Most founders do this backwards. They spend weeks perfecting their pitch deck and then figure out who to send it to. The list should come first.
A targeted list of 30 highly relevant investors will outperform a spray of 200 cold emails every single time. The goal is to identify investors who:
Have backed companies at your stage (pre-seed, not Series A)
Have invested in your sector in the last 24 months
Are likely to care about your specific geography or market
AngelList, Crunchbase, and LinkedIn are your starting points. Look at who backed companies similar to yours at the pre-seed stage. Follow those investors. Read what they write. Understand their thesis before you ever reach out.
Once you have your list, prioritise it ruthlessly. Put your highest-conviction names at the bottom, not the top. Use the first few conversations to sharpen your pitch, then hit the investors you most want when you're at your sharpest.
Warm introductions are not optional
Cold outreach to investors has about a 1–2% conversion rate at the best of times. A warm introduction from a trusted founder in their portfolio converts at something closer to 30–40%.
This is the part of fundraising that can't be shortcut, and it's the part most first-time founders underestimate. The question isn't "how do I reach investors?" It's "who in my network can introduce me to the investors I want to meet?"
Work your way backwards from your target investor list. For each name, ask: do I know a founder they've backed? A mutual contact on LinkedIn? A community member who can make an introduction?
If the answer is no, you have two options: build that connection over time (follow them, engage with their content, meet them at events), or get warm to someone adjacent who can bridge you.
The founders I've seen raise the fastest are almost always the ones who spent months building investor relationships before they needed them. If you're reading this before you're ready to raise, start now.
The pitch itself: what actually matters
By the time you're in the room (or on the Zoom) with an investor, you have one job: make them believe in you and the problem, and leave them wanting to know more.
A few things I've learned from being on both sides of this table:
Lead with the problem, not the solution. Most founders spend 80% of their pitch explaining their product. Investors want to understand the pain first. If I'm not convinced the problem is real and urgent, I don't care about your solution.
Be specific about traction. Don't say "we've had a lot of interest." Say "we have 47 people on our waiting list, three of whom have pre-paid." Specificity signals credibility. Vagueness signals wishful thinking.
Know your numbers. How much are you raising? At what valuation or cap? What milestones will this capital help you hit? Why those milestones? If you stumble on any of these, you'll lose the room.
Handle the hard questions without flinching. Every investor will probe the biggest risk in your business. They're not trying to trip you up, they're testing whether you've thought it through. The founders who handle this best are the ones who've already interrogated their own assumptions.
Tell me why now. Why is this the right time to build this? What's changed, in the market, in technology, in regulation, that makes this moment the right moment? This is often the most underrated slide in any pre-seed deck.
The follow-up is where most deals are won or lost
After a meeting, send a concise follow-up email within 24 hours. Don't write an essay, send a summary of what you discussed, the key things they asked about, and your next suggested step. Make it easy for them to move forward.
Keep investors who've expressed interest warm with brief, infrequent updates. One email every four to six weeks with a specific milestone you've hit. "We just closed our first paying customer" or "we hit 500 weekly active users" is all it takes. You're not asking for anything, you're showing momentum.
The goal is that by the time you're ready to close, investors feel like they've been on the journey with you, not like you're asking them to make a cold decision.
A word on timing
Fundraising takes longer than you think and costs more energy than you expect. Most pre-seed rounds take three to six months from first conversation to close, often longer.
Start earlier than feels necessary. Build your list and your relationships before you need the money. And give yourself enough runway to raise without desperation. Investors can smell it, and it changes the dynamic in ways that are hard to recover from.
The honest version
The founders who raise successfully at the pre-seed stage aren't necessarily the ones with the best ideas. They're the ones who've done the work before they walk in the door. The ones who know their problem, their customer, and their numbers cold; who've built real relationships with investors before asking for anything; and who treat the process like a marathon, not a sprint.
If you're not sure where you stand, the honest answer is usually more preparation, not more pitching.
I offer free intro calls for founders who want a straight read on their readiness. No pitch required, no obligation. If that's useful, book a time here.
About the author
Chad Stephens is an angel investor and startup advisor at Kenobe Ventures. He works with pre-seed and seed stage founders on strategy, capital raising, and building the right foundations early.
