fundraising-faq

Fundraising FAQ Skill

Founders lose rounds in Q&A, not on the deck. This skill surfaces the questions a sharp investor will ask, then drafts the answer that holds up — honest, specific, and confident.

Working from a brief

Given a short company description, generate the full Q&A anyway — infer the likely concerns from the stage, market, and model. Mark any assumed metric (assumed — replace). Never leave placeholders; show a strong model answer the founder can adapt.

Required Inputs

Ask for (if not already provided):

• What the company does, stage, and how much they're raising
• Known soft spots (weak metric, crowded market, regulatory risk, single big customer)
• Traction and team facts the answers can stand on

Output Format

Group questions by theme. For each question give: Q, the strongest honest answer (2–4 sentences, specific), and ⚠️ the trap (the weak/defensive answer to avoid).

1. Market & why-now

• How big is this really? Why hasn't it been done? Why now?

2. Traction & metrics

• Is the growth real or a one-off? What's churn / retention / payback? What happens if your top customer leaves?

3. Moat & competition

• Why can't [incumbent] just do this? What stops a fast follower? What's your unfair advantage?

4. Business model & unit economics

• Do the unit economics work at scale? What's CAC, LTV, gross margin? When are you default-alive?

5. Team & execution

• Why this team? What's the biggest risk to execution? What have you learned that others haven't?

6. The raise

• Why this amount? What does it buy? What milestones get you to the next round? What's your valuation rationale?

End with:

• The 3 questions you're most afraid of — name them, and give the answer that turns each into a strength.
• Red flags to never say — defensive tells ("we have no competitors", "we just need marketing", "the market is so big we only need 1%").

Quality Checks

• [ ] Answers are specific and honest, not spin
• [ ] Each weak spot the founder named has a prepared, non-defensive answer
• [ ] The "afraid of" section confronts the real risks, not easy ones
• [ ] No placeholder metrics left un-flagged

Anti-Patterns

• Dodging the hard question instead of answering it
• "No competitors" and "we only need 1% of the market"
• Over-long answers that sound rehearsed and evasive
• Pretending a real risk doesn't exist instead of framing how you'll manage it