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🚀 Venture Capital Weights

Adjust section and question weights. Changes affect future evaluations only.

Section Weights
Founding Team & Leadership
18%
Market Opportunity
16%
Product & Technology
14%
Traction & Metrics
12%
Financials & Valuation
12%
Competitive Landscape
8%
Exit Potential
8%
Key Risks & Red Flags
6%
Due Diligence & Legal
6%
Total Section Weight 100%

Section weights are relative — they'll be normalized to 100% during scoring.

Founder's domain expertise and track record
%
Prior exits? Deep industry knowledge? Years in the space?
Team completeness and complementary skills
%
Do they cover tech, product, sales, and ops? Any critical gaps?
Founder resilience and coachability
%
How do they handle pushback? Open to feedback? Survived adversity?
Ability to recruit and retain top talent
%
Have they attracted strong early hires? Culture that draws A-players?
Relevant industry network and relationships
%
Can they open doors to customers, partners, and follow-on investors?
Founder commitment and skin in the game
%
Full-time? Meaningful personal investment? Standard vesting?
Storytelling and fundraising ability
%
Can they pitch compellingly? Will they attract follow-on capital?
Integrity and transparency in due diligence
%
Forthcoming with data? Any yellow flags in reference checks?
Speed of execution — how fast do they ship?
%
Cadence of product releases, hiring, customer wins to date.

Question weights are relative within the section.

Total addressable market (TAM) size
%
Is this a $1B+ market? How is TAM calculated — top-down vs. bottoms-up?
Market growth rate
%
Growing 20%+/yr? Accelerating or decelerating?
Macro tailwinds and timing
%
Regulatory, tech, or behavioral shift driving demand NOW?
Market readiness for disruption
%
Are incumbents complacent? Is the buyer in pain?
Timing — not too early, not too late
%
Is the market ready, or are they educating buyers? Any competitors already scaled?
Winner-take-most dynamics
%
Network effects, data moats, or platform dynamics that reward the leader?
Regulatory and policy environment
%
Favorable regulation? Risk of hostile regulation killing the market?
International expansion potential
%
Can this scale globally, or is it geo-locked?

Question weights are relative within the section.

Product-market fit evidence
%
Are users pulling the product? Organic growth? Low churn?
Differentiation vs. alternatives
%
10x better, cheaper, or faster? Or incremental improvement?
Technical defensibility (IP, moat, network effects)
%
Patents? Proprietary data? Network effects that compound?
Scalability of the tech architecture
%
Can it handle 100x users without a rewrite?
Product roadmap clarity and vision
%
Do they know where they're going? Sequenced well?
User/customer NPS and satisfaction
%
What do actual users say? Reference calls positive?
Switching costs once adopted
%
How painful is it for a customer to leave? Data lock-in? Workflow dependency?
Platform vs. point solution potential
%
Can this become a platform or is it a single-feature tool?

Question weights are relative within the section.

Revenue or user growth rate
%
MRR growth? User growth? 3x YoY is strong for early stage.
Retention and engagement (NDR, DAU/MAU)
%
Net dollar retention >100%? Users coming back daily?
CAC payback and LTV/CAC ratio
%
LTV/CAC > 3x? Payback < 12 months?
Unit economics and gross margins
%
Gross margins >60%? Clear path to contribution margin positive?
Notable customers or partnerships
%
Logos that validate the product? Strategic partnerships?
Sales pipeline and conversion rates
%
Healthy pipeline? Reasonable close rates? Shortening sales cycles?
Viral or organic growth component
%
Any word-of-mouth? Referral loops? Or 100% paid acquisition?
Month-over-month momentum trajectory
%
Accelerating, steady, or slowing? Last 6 months trend?

Question weights are relative within the section.

Valuation relative to stage and traction
%
Reasonable multiple of ARR? Or priced for perfection?
Deal structure and terms
%
Participating preferred? Anti-dilution? Pay-to-play?
Financial projections realism
%
Bottom-up model? Assumptions reasonable vs. actuals?
Burn rate vs. runway
%
18+ months runway post-raise? Burn manageable?
Cap table health
%
Clean? No excessive early dilution? Option pool sized right?
Our specific terms (pro rata, board, info rights)
%
Board seat or observer? Pro rata for follow-on? Quarterly reporting?
Use of proceeds clarity
%
Clear plan for the capital? Hiring, R&D, GTM well-allocated?
Follow-on funding likelihood
%
Will top-tier VCs want the next round? Signal risk?

Question weights are relative within the section.

Position vs. direct competitors
%
Ahead, behind, or neck-and-neck? On key metrics?
Barriers to entry for new competitors
%
Tech moat? Data advantage? Brand? Regulatory?
Big-tech / incumbent risk
%
Could Google/Amazon/Microsoft build this in 6 months?
Sustainable advantage over 3-5 years
%
Will the moat widen or erode? Compounding advantage?
Competitor funding and momentum
%
Are competitors well-funded? Growing faster?

Question weights are relative within the section.

Clarity of path to liquidity event
%
IPO-able at scale? Obvious strategic acquirers?
Number and quality of potential acquirers
%
3+ strategic buyers? History of M&A in the space?
Realistic return potential (target MOIC)
%
Can we see 10x+ from here? What has to go right?
Time horizon to exit
%
5-7 years reasonable? Or could take 10+?
Secondary market liquidity
%
Could we sell shares on secondary before a full exit?

Question weights are relative within the section.

Regulatory or legal risk
%
Operating in a regulated space? Compliance burden?
Key-person dependency
%
What happens if the CEO leaves? Bus factor?
Downturn resilience
%
Would customers cut this in a recession?
Technology and execution risk
%
Major tech challenges ahead? Can they ship on time?
Customer concentration risk
%
Top customer >20% of revenue? Single industry?
Ethical / reputational risk
%
Controversial space? ESG concerns? Data privacy issues?
Capital efficiency risk
%
Will they need endless capital? Or can they reach profitability?
Geopolitical or supply chain risk
%
International dependencies? Tariff exposure?

Question weights are relative within the section.

Quality of data room and disclosure
%
Organized? Complete? Responsive to requests?
Legal structure cleanliness
%
Standard Delaware C-Corp? No messy early deals?
IP ownership and assignment
%
All IP properly assigned to company? No contractor issues?
Background and reference checks
%
References check out? No skeletons? Prior lawsuit history?
Tax structure and efficiency
%
QSBS eligible? R&D credits? Clean tax history?

Question weights are relative within the section.

Overall excitement about this deal
%
On a visceral level, does this fire you up? Or feel like settling?
Trust in the people across the table
%
Would you want to be in a foxhole with these people? Eye contact, handshake feel.
Would this be your only investment this year?
%
If you could only make ONE bet, would it be this one?
Portfolio fit and strategic alignment
%
Does this complement our existing investments? Fill a gap?
LP/partner explainability
%
Could you confidently explain this to investors at the next meeting?
Too-good-to-be-true meter
%
10 = no suspicion at all. 1 = something feels off. Trust your spider sense.
Timing and urgency — is the window right?
%
Right time in the cycle? Market conditions favorable? Or are we chasing?
Differentiation vs. other opportunities
%
How does this compare to other deals you've seen recently?
Sleep-at-night factor
%
Can you sleep well after wiring the money? Or will it keep you up?
Regret minimization — would you regret passing?
%
In 5 years, would you kick yourself for not doing this deal?
Information quality — do you know enough?
%
Do you feel well-informed? Or are there big unknowns?

Question weights are relative within the section.