Looking for funding?
We're excited to learn about your startup! To help us make as informed investment decisions as possible, we would like to get answers to the questions below. We understand that your time is valuable, and every second you spend on answering the questions is away from building your company. However, we truly believe that thinking through these questions is beneficial for you as founders, prepares you for fundraising, and helps to sharpen your strategy. If the information is already covered on the pitch deck or other documents, you don’t have to repeat it. If you are running out of time or don’t want to disclose some information for some reason or another, we are happy to hear from you regardless.
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1. Describe your startup's background, including its name, founding date, location, current stage (e.g., idea, pre-seed, seed), and funding raised to date.
2. What core problem does your startup aim to solve, and how do you define your target customers (e.g., B2B vs. consumer, specific industries like defense or robotics)?
3. If your product has dual-use, defense tech, or miltech applications, explain the potential civilian and military uses, including any examples.
4. Outline your business model (e.g., SaaS, hardware-as-service, recurring revenue) and share details on your current traction, such as key metrics, customer engagements, or milestones achieved. -
1. Provide your estimates for the Total Addressable Market (TAM), Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM), and Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM) in €, along with the data sources used (e.g., Statista, SIPRI) and your reasoning for these figures. If you can elaborate on how many units you can sell to specific regions, even better.
2. What growth rate (CAGR) do you anticipate for your market, and what key trends or enabling factors (e.g., AI, geopolitical tensions) make this the right time for your startup?
3. What unique opportunity or insight in the market have you identified that others might overlook, and how do you plan to build dominance starting from a specific niche?
4. For dual-use or defense aspects: Describe potential pathways to government contracts, collaborations with Ministries of Defense (e.g., via SBIR, EDF), or acquisitions by larger players, including any steps you've taken so far. -
1. Who do you see as your top 5-10 direct and indirect competitors (including primes like Lockheed Martin or startups like Anduril), and how would you compare their approaches to yours in terms of strengths and weaknesses?
2. In what ways does your technology or business model differ from existing solutions, and what elements (e.g., IP, network effects) could help sustain that difference over time?
3. What competitive risks do you anticipate (e.g., regulatory hurdles like ITAR, market crowding), and how are you planning to address them? -
1. Share bios for your key team members, including their backgrounds in technical expertise, business experience, and any notable successes or challenges from prior roles. Why are you the right people to solve this particular problem?
2. Describe the CEO's leadership style and experiences that have shaped their approach to innovation and company-building, providing specific examples from their track record.
3. How does your team's composition balance technical and business skills, and what areas, if any, do you see as opportunities for strengthening the team? -
1. Walk us through your product's core features, underlying technology stack (e.g., AI, sensors), and its current development status (e.g., TRL score, prototypes built).
2. What evidence or metrics highlight your product's potential advantages (e.g., efficiency gains, patents), and how do you envision scaling it in the future?
3. For robotics or dual-use applications: Explain how your product addresses specific user needs (e.g., in surveillance or autonomy), and share any validation efforts, such as customer feedback or pilot results.
4. What are the biggest risks in further product development? -
1. What is your proposed pre-money valuation and investment amount (€), and how do you plan to allocate the funds toward specific milestones or goals?
2. Share your revenue projections, current burn rate, and strategies for reaching profitability or significant growth (e.g., 10x or 100x returns), including assumptions behind these forecasts.
3. How do the unit economics of your product work? If you are selling hardware, what are the component costs, and how does the economics of scale help you? -
1. What perspective or truth about your industry do you hold that seems uncommon or disagreed upon by most people, and why do you believe it's important?
2. Tell us about an insight or "secret" you've discovered that informs your startup's edge, and share a story of pursuing an idea that felt isolated but ultimately proved valuable.