Answer
Before raising a pre-seed round, you should have:
* A concise pitch deck (10-15 slides) covering your story, problem, solution, market, team, and high-level business model [2].
* A strong verbal pitch demonstrating passion and knowledge [2].
* Clear, specific milestones you will achieve with the pre-seed money, such as launching an MVP and acquiring users or customers [3].
* A detailed understanding of your burn rate and how long the capital will last [2, 3].
* A theory of how you will make money, rather than complex financial projections [2].
* An articulation of a massive, urgent problem for a well-defined customer, with qualitative proof that people will pay to solve it [1].
* A complete, credible founding team with the necessary skills [1].
* An understanding of the Total Addressable Market (TAM) and why your timing is right [2].
* Legal documents like a SAFE or convertible note for any investment [2].
