Costs & Fundraising
What metrics do investors expect from a SaaS startup before a seed round?
Answer:
It depends on the stage, but investors typically look for: a clear ICP, growth signals, retention, and a path to revenue. For SaaS, common metrics include MRR/ARR, activation, churn/retention, CAC signals, and pipeline quality. If revenue is in its early stages, show leading indicators: demos booked, pilot conversions, usage frequency, and strong customer quotes linked to measurable value.
Related Costs & Fundraising Questions And Answers
- How can I estimate what my MVP will cost to build without being technical?
- How can we keep cloud and infrastructure costs under control as we grow?
- How can we prepare our engineering and product setup for investor due diligence?
- What’s a realistic monthly budget for a startup dev team building an MVP?
- Should I raise money before building the MVP or bootstrap first?
- How do I decide between hiring employees vs contractors when runway is tight?
- What costs do founders usually forget when planning a fundraising runway?
- How do I price my SaaS if we’re still early and don’t know the final scope?
- How do I calculate runway and burn rate in a simple way?
- What is staff augmentation cost vs hiring in-house, and how do I compare properly?
- How much equity should I give a technical co-founder vs hiring a CTO later?
- What should a startup prepare for technical due diligence in fundraising?
- How do I avoid over-hiring engineers after raising a seed round?
- What’s a sensible funding ask if we need to build and sell for the next 12–18 months?
- How do I show investors that our development cost is efficient and controlled?
- What’s the best way to negotiate developer rates with remote teams without hurting quality?
- How do we avoid building features that waste budget before product-market fit?
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