What they are actually asking
Michael Seibel of Y Combinator boils an early pitch down to a handful of questions. Paraphrased:
- What do you do? In one or two plain sentences, starting with the company name.
- How big could this be? Ideally worked out from the bottom up: how many customers could want it, and what they would pay.
- What progress have you made? Relative to the time you have spent. Product and customers count for more than fundraising activity.
- What do you know that others don't? A specific insight, usually from customer conversations or your own experience.
- How will you make money? One simple model, not a menu.
- Who is on the team? Including whether you have a technical co-founder, and how long you have worked together.
- What do you want? Ask directly.
His sharpest advice is about clarity: drop the jargon and the word "platform", and say it more simply than feels comfortable.
Where a prototype helps
A non-technical founder at pre-seed often struggles with the progress question. You may have months of customer conversations and a clear plan, but nothing an investor can touch.
A clickable prototype changes that conversation. It does not prove the market, and it will not get you funded on its own. What it does:
- turns "imagine an app that..." into something on the table;
- shows you can make decisions and ship;
- gives investors something specific to argue with, which is how second meetings happen;
- makes your deck and your product tell the same story.
What it does not do is replace evidence from customers. If you have ten people who have said they would pay, that line in the deck is worth more than any screen.
The deck, in the order that works
- The company in one sentence.
- The problem, with a real example.
- The product, shown through the prototype.
- Why now, and what you know that others don't.
- Who pays, and how much it is worth to them.
- Progress so far: conversations, pilots, waiting list, anything real.
- The team.
- The ask and what it buys: the milestones the money gets you to.
Keep it short enough to send ahead of a meeting and readable without you in the room.
For UK founders: SEIS
The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme gives investors in very early UK companies up to 50% income tax relief on what they invest, up to £200,000 per investor per tax year. A company can raise up to £250,000 under SEIS, provided it is young, has fewer than 25 full-time employees and gross assets of no more than £350,000 before the shares are issued. Many UK angels expect a pre-seed company to have SEIS advance assurance from HMRC before they invest, so apply early. Check the current rules on gov.uk or with an accountant, because limits change.
What the market looks like
Carta's data on US pre-seed rounds shows most are raised on post-money SAFEs, and that 2025 saw more rounds under $1 million than the year before. In the UK, the equivalent is usually an advance subscription agreement or a small priced round with SEIS. The detail differs; the investor's questions don't.
A checklist before your first meeting
- Can you say what the company does in two sentences without jargon?
- Can an investor click through the product, even as a prototype?
- Do you have a bottom-up estimate of the market?
- Can you name the specific insight behind the idea?
- Do you know exactly how much you are raising and what it gets you to?
- If you are UK based, do you have SEIS advance assurance or an application in?