Editorial prompts, not a required progression. Business model and evidence should determine the emphasis.
A round label gives a reader some context, but it cannot tell you which claim your company is ready to support. Two seed companies can have very different evidence: one may have paid renewals, while another has completed a difficult technical test.
Start with the most consequential uncertainty in the business. Show what you have learned, what remains unresolved and what the proposed round lets you test next.
Use the stage as a starting point.
The questions below are useful prompts, not fixed investment criteria. A regulated product, a marketplace and subscription software may need different evidence at the same named round.
Pre-seed
Why this team, and why this opportunity?
Show the insight behind the company and what you have done to test it. Relevant experience, customer discovery, a prototype or technical progress may help establish that the team can make progress. Explain which assumption the next phase addresses.
Seed
What evidence suggests people want this?
Show the strongest available signs of demand: paid experiments, repeated use, pilots with a defined outcome or early customer retention. Keep commercial status clear. A trial and a renewal support different conclusions.
Series A
What suggests growth can repeat?
Examine acquisition, retention and the economics of serving customers. Explain how much of the result depends on a founder, one account or a temporary campaign. Choose the measures that fit the business model rather than collecting every metric you can export.
Series B and beyond
What changes as the business grows?
Show how the operating model behaves at greater volume. Depending on the company, relevant evidence may include margins, acquisition efficiency, delivery capacity or expansion within accounts. Make the next constraint and the resources required to address it visible.
Let the evidence change the emphasis.
A company with strong retention and uncertain acquisition should make that distinction clear. A company with a promising technical result and no commercial deployment should explain what the result proves, and what a customer test must still establish. Sequoia’s product–market fit questions offer another way to examine customer need, commercial value and competitive advantage. They are questions to revisit, rather than a linear checklist unlocked by a round label.
Write three lines before editing the deck: what we know, what we are assuming, and what the next phase will test. Attach a source or an explicit assumption to each material statement. This gives the reader a better basis for judging the plan than a generic list of stage expectations.
Connect the deck to the operating plan.
Choose a measurable milestone for the next phase. Then check that the budget, team and timing support an attempt to reach it. Keep actual results and projections visually distinct. Moving to a new round label does not by itself establish progress.
Use the traction guide to make current evidence readable and the ask guide to explain the next test. If a metric is not yet available, say what you can observe today and how you plan to learn more.
Put it to work / TPD exercise
Choose a claim your evidence supports.
- Separate what you know from assumptions.
- Find the consequential uncertainty.
- Define the next test.