Ladder of Proof & Fundraising Copilot
Know your rung. Raise faster.
Find your rung on the Ladder of Proof, halve your milestones, move the big rocks and practice investor conversations.
Your rung
Not on the ladder yet
- 1. Team
- 2. Idea
- 3. Market
- 4. Advisors
- 5. Product
- 6. Users
- 7. Retention
- 8. Paying customers
- 9. Revenue
- 10. Scalable channel
- 11. Rapid revenue growth
There are investors for every rung. Match your raise to investors who back companies at your rung instead of pitching everyone.
Find investors who back your stage and sector on Signal by NFX.Ep 8 · Fundraising Speed
Team
Is there a committed founding team working on this full-time?
Idea
Can you explain the idea in one sentence a stranger understands?
Have target customers confirmed this is a top problem for them?
Market
Can you show the market is large and growing (bottom-up)?
Advisors
Are credible advisors or experts actively helping you?
Product
Is a working product live with real users?
Users
Do you have a growing group of active users?
Retention
Does a meaningful share of a cohort still use it after 4+ weeks?
Paying customers
Are customers paying you today?
Revenue
Do you have recurring revenue you can report monthly?
Scalable channel
Is there one channel you can pour money into with predictable CAC?
Rapid revenue growth
Is revenue growing ~15%+ month over month?