seattle venture capital startup toolkit

So. Much. Content. The web is so loaded with tips and tricks, it can be overwhelming for the earliest stage founder.

Which pitch deck tips should you pay attention to*? How do you prepare for diligence from a lead investor**?

In an era where every third person on LinkedIn includes “angel investor” in their profile, it’s incredibly difficult to sort out who is actively writing checks, let alone what kinds of companies they get excited about.

Seeking VC investment? It's tough to identify active funds, the right partners to approach, and their preferred investment areas.

Add in legal, HR, hosting, and other service providers, and it’s a dizzying amount of work just to figure out who to talk to about actually doing the work.

The below is a work-in-progress — and by no means comprehensive — meant to shed light on some of these topics for Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, and other Pacific Northwest founders. Feel free to HMU with feedback or additions!

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*The deck to the right is also a work-in-progress — it’s my take on the essential 13 slides for raising your pre-seed venture capital round.

**Scroll to the bottom of this page for the due diligence checklist I use with our startups at Ascend.

#Shouts to Mateo Hernandez-Ysasi for turning this page into a highly useful Airtable

From the below-referenced Docsend study

From the below-referenced Docsend study

must-read content

The Pre-Seed Round Defined: How to Succeed as an Early Stage Startup: Docsend studied the fundraising process of 174 startups at the pre-seed stage in 2019 and analyzed data to understand which pre-seed startups were successful in fundraising and why.

How to Raise Money Before Launch: Delian is a Thiel Fellow and VC at Khosla. Not only are there seed decks from Opendoor and other companies KV funded, there is a wealth of knowledge here about storytelling in deck form.

How to Raise Your Seed By Reading the VC’s Mind: Erik Torenberg’s epic tweetstorm is one of the best ways to understand the mindset of investors, and take advantage of it in your pitch process.

30 Legendary Startup Pitch Decks and What You Can Learn From Them: I literally downloaded my favorite decks here and Frankensteined them together to build the template for our first deck at Dwellable.

The Early Pitch Decks of 29 Startups Before They Became Billion-Dollar Companies: Courtesy of CB Insights.

50 Startup Decks from YC and 500 Startups: Slickness.

150 Startup Pitch Decks: Paywalled, but searchable by stage and category, including Uber, Airbnb, Brex, Postmates, and a ton of other great examples.

How to Create an Effective Pitch Deck: Highly actionable, data-driven analysis from Matt Rubright (SVB) and Randall Lucas (Voyager).

What you really need to communicate to get a VC to write a check at the early stage: $ thread from one of twitter’s finest startup anons.

The Handshake Deal Protocol: We strongly recommend every startup use the YC Handshake Protocol to confirm investor commitment to their rounds. It's the best way to get people off the fence!

A decent pitch vs a great pitch

Investors are investing in you and your vision, not just what your startup does

How to Get Pre-empted: A Masterclass in fundraising from Superhuman founder Rahul Vora.

10 VC Blogs You Should Read: To be honest, if you have a question about building a startup, from day one through series A and beyond, the answer is almost certainly contained on one of the blogs listed here. For the earliest stages, Brad Feld, Mark Suster, Hunter Walk, and Fred Wilson are all simply outstanding resources. Also, follow Elizabeth Yin on Twitter. Everything she posts is startup gold.

VC Blog Search Engine: Directed crawls against top VC blogs for answers to any startup founder question.

On Presentations and Storytelling: Sometimes you can break the 12 slide rule. It’s not for everyone but when you pull it off it creates a sense of inevitability.

Never Ask Anyone to be Your Lead Investor: Timeless post from Techstars cofounder David Cohen. Although I’d quibble with some details (set your own terms early to get true commitments, etc), you definitely don’t want to ask for a lead.

Raising VC As the .0006%: It’s a Webinar, but Tiffany Dufu breaks down the experience of raising VC as a black woman in a way that can resonate with not only underrepresented founders, but anyone working the process. And if you’re looking for more focused resources, Valence is an incredible community for black professionals, with a strong VC/startup bent; GoPaladin provides education and resources for underrepresented founders; FounderGym (backed by MSFT and Google) is built specifically to help underrepresented founders; the Black American Startup Resource List is comprehensive to say the least; and there are a number of other great resources listed here.

Still struggling to raise?: Alex Iskold from 2048 has incredibly useful advice for entrepreneurs who have been raising a round and aren’t seeing traction.

Already raised?: Segment co-founder Calvin French-Owen shares surprisingly simple yet essential best practices for early stage founders.

Build a Team That Ships: AngelList’s Naval Ravikant on the north star for the earliest stages.

GTM Nirvana: Caroline Clark from Atlassian built this amazing deck on how to scale out your B2B SaaS go-to-market. Read it, internalize it, customize it, and distill your version into a powerful pitch deck slide.

Required reading for marketplace startups: the 20 best essays, curated by marketplace investing titan Andrew Chen of a16z.

Doug Grady says: “Please get trademark clearance well before you use your company name to identify your goods/services to the public -- that way you don't get a TM cease-and-desist letter from some far-off trademark owner the moment you launch (yes, this happens way too often).” And finally, please, please, please file your 83(b) election.

Saba Karim’s list of investors and other resources.

NFX Signal - their list categorizes the deals that individuals and firms have done previously.

incubator list - compare programs and timelines for accelerators.

Samir Kaji’s list of active micro VC funds.

Lolita Taub’s investor matching tool.

Stonks holds a Demo Day for startups who have gotten off the ground and have demonstrated strong initial traction.

The DocSend Fundraising Network

Mercury Bank’s network of early stage investors.

Hiten Shah’s never-ending twitter thread for content and resources for early stage startups.

A must read for founders selling their companies.

Matt Mochary’s open-sourced founder coaching course (with templates).

How to Give a Presentation with Vinod Kholsa (Kholsa Ventures) and Notes from Mike Knapp

How to Raise Millions - Hustle Fund wrote the ultimate guide to fundraising for first-time founders.

Local venture investors

Madrona

is investing out of its $430M Fund 9 as of September 2022.

  • Focus: Applied AI & ML, intelligent SaaS applications, modern data stack, DevOps, cybersecurity, consumer software and markeplaces, digital biotech and the intersection of life and computer/data sciences.

  • Check size: $200K - $7M

Madrona also raised a third $260 “acceleration” (growth) fund in September 2022. Check size: $5M - $15M.

Tim Porter is THAT DUDE.

fuse

is investing out of its $250M Fund II as of September 2023.

  • Focus: General

  • Check size: $500K - $10M

Cameron Borumand is a rising star.

Tola

is investing out of its $230M Fund III as of November 2023.

  • Focus: AI/ML Tooling, AI-native SaaS Applications, AI Compliance and Governance, AI Security tools, and Computer Vision

  • Check size: $1M - $4M (Seed), $5M - $15M (Series A and B)

Sheila Gulati led the enterprise IT strategy for Microsoft and launched Microsoft Azure.

Maveron

is investing out of its $225M Fund 8 as of May 2022.

  • Focus: Consumer

  • Check size: $500K - $8M

Jason Stoffer invested in my last startup god bless him.

PSL Ventures

is investing out of two active funds: $80M Fund I and $100M Fund II.

  • Focus: General

  • Check size: $500K - $3.5M

Julie Sandler got next.

TriloGY equity partners

is Investing out of a new $150M fund as of mid-2022

  • Focus: leading Seed rounds for enterprise and consumer software startups

  • Check size: $2.5-5M

Trilogy is an early stage VC firm, originally sprung from the roots and fortune of wireless pioneer and (we hope) the owner to return the Seattle Mariners to their rightful place as a wildcard contender, John Stanton. We love working with Amy McCollough on the venture team.

Bison Ventures

is investing out of its $135M Fund I as of November 2023.

  • Focus: Early-stage frontier technology companies

  • Check size: $1M - $10M

Ben Hemani launched Bison to address the persistent funding gap for science-based, deep tech companies with commercial promise.

WestRiver Group

is investing out of its $100M Technology Fund II.

  • Focus: B2B technology companies, AI-centric approach

  • Check size: $500K - $5M

Anthony Bontrager and I used to run digital media companies. How the mighty have fallen.

Voyager

is investing out of its $100M Fund V as of October 2019.

  • Focus: B2B

  • Check size: $1M - $5M

Erik Benson has deeper Washington roots than most local trees.

Argonautic

is investing out of its $100M Fund II

  • Focus: AI Infrastructure, Construction Tech, FinTech

  • Check size: $250K - $1M

You can find Viken Douzdjian getting lost in the Cascades.

Flying Fish

is investing out of its $70M Fund II.

  • Focus: AI

  • Check size: $500K - $2M

You probably already know Heather Redman… but whole team is $.

Unlock

is investing out of its $70M Fund II as of January 2022.

  • Focus: Early-stage tech companies based in seattle or LA

  • Check size: $500K - $2M

Andy Liu is a hell of a poker player and I would not bet against him.

Founders’ Co-op

is investing out of its $50M Fund 5 as of March 2020.

  • Focus: B2B / Vertical SaaS software

  • Check size: $1M - $2M

Chris Devore has done more for the Seattle startup ecosystem than any one person over the past 20 years. And Aviel is just a badass.

Version One

is investing out of its $45M Fund 3 as of October 2018.

  • Focus: Smart SaaS, Marketplace

  • Check size: $500K - $750K

Version One is also investing out of its first ($17.4M) opportunity fund as of March 2020.

Boris Wertz sold his startup to Amazon in 2008 and is based in Vancouver BC. Angela Tran Kingyens has leveled up their game in SF. Both were superstar investors for Dwellable.

Elevate VC

is investing out of its $40M seed Fund

  • Focus: Specifically targets investments in underserved entrepreneurs such as women and BIPOC founders in the technology and healthcare sectors. 

  • Check size: $200K-$1.5M 

Essence VC

is investing out of its $25M Fund III.

  • Focus: pre-seed and seed

  • Check size: $250-750K

Tim Chen is on a mission to help highly technical founders go from zero to one.

graham & Walker

is investing out if its $10M Fund I as of October 2021.

  • Focus: Industry agnostic, software/tech-enabled companies with female/non-binary founders.

  • Check size: $25K-$400K

Leslie Feinzaig ran the Female Founders Alliance and built G&W to bring funding to women. With the mission to activate the potential of all women in business for the benefit of all humankind, this team is fire.

BREAKERS

is investing out of its $10M Fund I.

  • Focus: Pre-seed/Seed generalist with a lean towards SaaS, Data & Infra, Commerce Tools, & Consumer 

  • Check size: $250K

Annie Luchsinger brings the energy of a thousand suns to the rainiest corner of the US. 

Startup Haven Ventures

is investing out of its $10M Fund I as of January 2021.

  • Focus: Accelerator and direct investments, capital-efficient models, software, SaaS, platforms, marketplaces, IoT, AI

  • Check size: $100K-$300K

Bob Crimmins created the platform.

Tacoma Venture Fund 

is investing out of its $10M Fund I.

  • Focus: Early stage, venture scale companies throughout the PacNW.

  • Check size: $100K-$300K

Dennis Joyce is an experienced angel, and has been intentional about meeting with diverse founding teams since before it was cool.

Pack Ventures

is investing out of its $30M Fund II

  • Focus: Early stage, AI, robotics, computational biology, enterprise software from the University of Washington network and beyond

  • Check size: $50-200K

Ken Horenstein has a great eye and a strong equity lens when it comes to founders.

MELiorate partners

is investing out of Fund III.

  • Focus: Founder to Pre-Seed Stage innovations transitioning the world from the Industrial Economy to the Environmental Economy

  • Check size: $100-250K

Brock Mansfield mentors students at Stanford GSB and Doerr School and is also heading up deal selection for EnVest.

First Row partners

is investing out of its $3M Fund I as of March 2021.  Also, Minda is a Venture Partner for 2048 Ventures (2048.vc) with the ability to lead pre-seed rounds.   

  • Focus: Marketplaces and Community platforms, enterprise SaaS, API-first businesses 

  • Check size: $50k - $150k | 2048 Ventures = $300-$600k

Minda Brusse and Yoko Okano are a welcome (ex-operator) addition to the ecosystem for founders at the earliest stage.

SWIZZLE VENTURES

is investing out of its Fund I as of Oct 2023.

  • Focus: pre-seed/seed stage in healthcare, caregiving, fintech

  • Value-add: growth marketing

  • Check size: $100K 

Jess Kamada can make flowers grow out of cement. 

Cercano (formerly Vulcan)

is investing out of its evergreen fund, sprung from the roots and fortune of the late, great savior of the Seattle Seahawks, Paul Allen.

YB Choi is the get-it-done man.

WRF Capital

is investing in early-stage Washington state companies out of a reserve fund pool set aside by the Washington Research Foundation.

  • Requirement: Washington-based.

  • Focus: life science (including agriculture), healthcare and enabling technologies. Of greatest interest are companies that are commercializing IP, or have founding teams, from one of the state’s research institutions. 

  • Average check size: $200K-$500K in initial financings but can be higher if WRF Capital leads; max investment of ~$3M, over several rounds, in select companies.

Loretta Little is the go-to for medical devices, digital health and instrumentation.  Will Canestaro for biotech.

Bezos Expeditions

is investing out of its evergreen fund, spring from the roots and fortune of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Melinda Lewison is quietly one of the sharpest investors in town.

Fortson VC

is investing out of its evergreen fund.

  • Focus: early stage, B2B software, data

  • Check size: $250K-$2M

Cole Younger is a super disciplined, experienced, value-added investor.

Two Ravens

Is investing out of its $20M inaugural fund as of January 2024.

  • Focus: Pre-seed and early-seed investments in diverse founders, immigrant founders, and founders based outside of the Bay Area, NYC, and LA (yes - 2R loves PNW founders)

  • Check size: $250K - $500K

Isaac Kato is a 3X exited founder/operator with extensive early-stage investment experience. Founders actually like him.

IA Ventures

Is investing out of its $165M Fund 4.

  • Focus: Pre-PMF post-launch companies

  • Check size: $500K-$5M+

Jesse and Brad are a tight-knit, two-person team that works directly with founders every step of the way. Since its founding in 2010, IA has backed more than 150 companies, including Datadog, The Trade Desk, TransferWise, DigitalOcean, Flatiron Health, Recorded Future, and Komodo Health.

Venture Us

Is investing out of their annual fund, often supplemented by sidecar opportunities for their members.

  • Focus: Pacific NW group investing in local seed and early stage, growth-oriented businesses

  • Check Size: $150-400k

Jenn was formerly a Starbucks PM, founder, and deal screener at Seachange Fund.

Out of town FIRMS who write checks in PNW

Anthos - Bryan Hale comes over from Ai2 Incubator to innovate in growth investing in Seattle for this $2B+ fund.

Aspenwood Ventures - Lars put up with my failed recap fundraise in 2010 and somehow remained a friend and mentor.

BAM - Brian founded LegalZoom, ShoeDazzle and Honest Co. And is possibly the nicest guy in LA VC.

Betaworks - startup fun.

Crosslink - Phil Boyer

Defy - Neil likes Seatown SaaS deals.

Eniac - Tim and crew are top flight b2b software seed investors, with an eye towards multiple time founders.

First Round - James Wu

Fuel - Chris went to b school with my sister so he is clearly smarter than me, and not afraid to make bets on PNW winners in consumer and cloud/infra seed rounds. And he made the Forbes Midas List!

GGV - Jeff Richards is a good friend, mentor and amazing series A investor.

Greycroft - I went to high school with Dana, she co-founded Greycroft and has done multiple deals in the 206.

Haystack - Semil is the gold standard for micro VC. So much so he’s moving toward macro.

Headline - Matt Brown

Illuminate Ventures - Jennifer, ex-DocuSign and Smartsheet, lives here and is particularly interested in local B2B founders

Lightspeed - Arif Janmohammed

Liquid2 - Mike is a nuclear physicist and you can literally see his brain slow down to talk to me.

MHS - Mark is my VC idol. Thoughtful, measured deployment and AUM growth.

NextView - Rob Go

Norwest - Priti has deep operating experience.

OneSixOne Ventures - Christopher Kennamer is the Seattle partner and an active community builder.

Prota Ventures - Patrick Lowndes

Point72 - Sri is an AI engineer and community builder turned VC and runs the Seattle office.

Redpoint - Alex is a terrific coinvestor.

Roadster Capital - Ryan Else

Shasta - Rob co-founded Shasta, moved up here and is an incredible resource for founders who want a peek into Valley dynamics.

SK Ventures - Eric Norlin

SNØCAP - Jonathan Azoff is the Seattle partner.

Sound

Threshold (fka DFJ) - Bill saved my ass when I got battlefield promoted to CEO of the startup he’d put $10M into with DFJ, he is honest, loyal and a remarkable talent.

Trinity - Long history of investing in the Emerald City.

True - Fiona.

Two Sigma - AI shop is an investor in Ai2 Incubator and believer in the ecosystem.

Ubiquity Ventures - Nerdy and early capital for "software beyond the screen" startups

Vector Point Ventures - Jolene Anderson

LOCAL Angel Investors / groups

The right angels can catalyze a small financing round, add tremendous value to your business as advisers, signal momentum and endorsement to institutional investors, and be powerful advocates for you and your company to potential users, customers, and acquirers.

Here is a short list of active angel investors in Seattle (with their claim to fame OR current company in parens) - please email me with adds and removals (bonus points for investors in Oregon, BC, etc):

Sometimes it’s easier to work with an angel group, where members work together to evaluate opportunities, and invest larger syndicated amounts in those deals they choose. Here are the notable groups in the region:

LABS, ACCELERATORS, STUDIOS, incubators, co-working AND MORE

Allen Institute for AI Incubator - $10M from Kleiner Perkins, Two Sigma, Sequoia and Madrona to incubate and fund some of the most badass AI engineering and entrepreneurial talent on earth. Give me a shout if you’re interested, I have a desk there. And Jacob, Vu, Oren, and team are the OG AI crew in town.

CoMotion Labs - Provides a multi-industry incubation environment for early-stage startups from both the UW community and the broader Seattle region. We focus three sectors: life sciences, hardware, and technology.

9Mile Labs - No longer runs its own accelerator, rather invests $50K-$100K into pre-seed startups that have been accepted to other accelerator programs.

Kernel Labs - Startup studio in the U District focused on ML/CV/Security.

Pioneer Square Labs - Magic factory. Spins up and pressure tests ideas, then finds go to market CEO, usually from the vertical industry being addressed. They are the largest venture studio in the region based on total capital raised, total spinouts, full-time team size, and value of aggregate portfolio.

Madrona Venture Labs - Magic factory with a twist: CEO is often on board in parallel with idea validation. Mike Fridgen is a tireless advocate for founders, and brings a roomful of talent and experience to get you out the door faster.

Create33 - MVL’s downstairs neighbor.

VentureOut Startups - Sean Sternbach is doing yeoman work creating a community, programming and a launch pad for prospective startup founders and early employees to “venture out” from their jobs in big tech.

Startup Haven - Membership organization exclusively for venture-scale founders and investors. Headquartered in Seattle with 2,300+ members in chapters across the US. Pre-seed fund and accelerator, plus many useful program and networking events, including the popular Startup Poker 2.0.

GroundWork Accelerator - Curriculum focused on building cogent growth plans. $20k stipend plus $100k investment.

Creative Destruction Lab - Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) is a nonprofit organization that delivers an objectives-based program for massively scalable, seed-stage, science- and technology-based companies. Part of UW’s Foster School of Business.

Conduit Venture Labs - Hardware-focused startup studio with three target categories: “Enabling Technologies” (sensors and IoT devices); “Connected Planet” (ag-tech and water monitoring platforms); and “Human Health and Performance” (oral health and fitness tech).

Pienza - Ideating, funding, and building SaaS unicorns with high conviction and high time & capital concentration.

From the Culture is a unique startup studio that provides product development, strategic guidance, and marketing services to help innovative black founders build and launch successful tech companies. They build products and provide services centered in AI which results in our founder’s ability to capitalize early and find better deal flow.

WTIA Founder Cohort - This program helps 30-35 venture-scale, seed-stage startups grow and scale over the course of six months. They provide founders with a roadmap that will help guide them through their next milestones as they navigate increasing revenue, securing investment, and growing the team.

Mudita Studios Seattle: The multi-city startup studio has an office in Seattle, focusing on B2B software companies. The studio is led by Stephen Konig, a former Google product management leader based in Seattle.

Fellowships

1517 Fund - A worldclass venture fund backing “dropouts working on hard problems & sci-fi scientists at the earliest stages of their companies.” The “Invisible College” program gives founders $50,000 to “run experiments that might turn research in science and technology into products and services.”

Bling Capital - Up to $500,000 in funding and mentorship for first-time founders looking to find product-market fit.

Thiel Fellowship - Perhaps the most renowned entrepreneurial fellowship, the Thiel Fellowship “gives $100,000 to young people who want to build new things instead of sitting in a classroom.”

First, a killer MASTER AGENCY LIST FOR STARTUPS - not localized though.

Next, as Latifah said in Juice, “you local”:

Accounting: Russell Benaroya, Stride - ex-EveryMove CEO helping startups with bookkeeping, AR and more.

Advisory: Chris Manderino @ CM Advisory Group - My ex COO is helping startups get $#!+ done.

CFO (fractional): Robbie Rech has run, scaled and exited startups himself; he’s a strategic asset well beyond the numbers.

Coaching: Patrick Hayes, PHC - ex-MSFT GM with a heart of gold. | Janis Machala, Seattle’s go-to startup CEO coach.

Deck Design: Wondersauce is exactly that. | Can’t vouch personally for this link but worth a visit.

Fundraising CRM: Visible.vc - Build relationships, manage a fundraise and build your business.

Legal: Craig Sherman, WSGR | Justin Moon, Perkins Coie - Craig doesn’t sleep. Justin is the go-to guy for M&A. | Sonya Erickson, Cooley - Chair of the Global Business Practice and a friend of Ascend :-)

Marketing (Brand): Lindsay Pedersen, Ironclad - Lindsay has done some of Seattle’s best tech branding work. Katie Curnutte, KMG - Katie built Zillow’s brand and comms from 2008.

Marketing (PPC): Paul Uhlir, Add3 - Best digital agency in town plus Paul was the drummer for grunge legends Sweetwater.

Marketing (PR): Mark Petersen, Pointer PR - Mo Pete is Havre Montana’s finest.

Marketing (SEM): Ryan Burt at Lars Marketing

Real Estate: Jesse Ottelle, Newmark Knight Frank | Matt Christian, Cushman Wakefield | Dan Foster, Flinn Ferguson

Tax: Chris Morgan, Grant Thornton - Chris was a fellow Board Chair at Special Olympics Washington, and a great egg.

General finance: Matt Medlin, Clark Nuber - Income tax returns for companies and experienced founders, stock option plan set up, sales and B&O tax advice.

LeapSheep - a subscription service to support founders from idea to exit, with a track record of high startup success rates. Book a complimentary Startup Building(TM) Strategy session here to help you set a plan to reach Product Market Fit.

service providers*

*Most of whom I have known since high school, all of whom are great friends

tech stack

  • Dev Tools - GitHub, Statsig

  • Banking - Stifel 

  • Counsel - Wilson Sonsini

  • HR/Payroll - Gusto 

  • Cloud - AWS, Azure, Google Cloud

  • Marketing - Canva, Mailchimp, Type.ai

  • Creative Suite - Figma

  • CRM - Hubspot

  • Events - Luma

  • Internal Wiki - Notion

  • Communication - Superhuman

Back Office Guides for Startups

The Ultimate Back-Office Guide to How to Launch a Startup

Founder Resources Hub

Partner Marketplace: Web3 Builder Checklist

Podcasts

Ascend.vc Diligence List*

*Many of these will not apply for pre-seed stage. Do what makes sense.

The Deal

· Investment amount and type (e.g., convertible note or priced round)

· Description of milestones to achieve with targeted investment

· Term sheet (if available)

· List existing/prospective investors and their contact informatio

Financial Matters

· Year to date income statement and current balance sheet

· Three year financial projections: quarterly for two years; annual for one year

· Company Advisors with contact information

· Current shareholder, option and warrant lists, including issuance dates, original issuance price and vesting. These lists should include any party who owns securities of the Company or has any rights regarding securities of the Company. Also, all securities-related agreements.

· List of any guarantees of third party obligations, and debt or credit instruments.

· Any other agreements material to the business of the Company, or that are material or outside the ordinary course of business.

Corporate and Organizational Matters

· Legal name

· State of incorporation and date incorporated

· The Company’s current Articles of Incorporation, including any amendments thereto.

· The Company’s current Bylaws.

· Pro-forma organization chart

· Full resumes (LinkedIn will suffice) for key personnel including three (3) references for each person

· List of any and all legal actions taken by or against the company.

· Employee benefit and profit-sharing plans, including stock option, stock purchase, deferred compensation and bonus plans or arrangements

Product, Marketing, Sales, and Manufacturing

- Basic two year business model. Not looking for accuracy in forecasting, as much as I am looking for a model that shows how you think about the drivers in the business. Please include the actual underlying drivers in the spreadsheet. Ex: If revenue is driven by liquid supply and demand sides of a marketplace, include volume of each, cost to acquire, apply a conversion rate and AOV, and take rate.

· Marketing/go-to-market plan

· Major customers (over 10% of total revenues.)

· Describe channels of distribution (distribution, direct sales, sales reps, etc.)

· Forecast and pipeline to support revenue projections

· Product costs including costed bill of materials and cost-down projections over the next 24 months

· List of major suppliers and supply chain (are there any major geo-political or single-sourcing risks I should understand?)

IP and Technology

· Copies of issued patents

· Titles and filing dates for provisional patents

· Brief descriptions of key claims (for both issued and provisional)

· Technology licensing agreements with brief description of key components

· Data from relevant studies/experiments

· Form of Proprietary Information and Invention Agreements signed by past or present employees and consultants. Any documentation relating to the transfer to the Company or any employee of any technology or invention (Note: this has become something I look for with each investment)

· A list of employees or consultants who have not signed Proprietary Information and Invention Agreements, including a list of any periods of time where key employees or consultants performed services for the Company while not bound by such agreements.

· Any correspondence or documents relating to allegations of the Company’s infringement of the proprietary rights of others, or allegations by the Company of infringement of the proprietary rights of the Company.

· Any licenses or agreements of any kind with respect to the Company’s or others’ patent, copyright, trade secret or other proprietary rights, proprietary information or technology, other than licenses or agreements pertaining to “off-the-shelf” or standard products.

· A list of patents, copyrights and trademarks (existing and pending), and any searches relevant to such items that have been done.