The Ask: How much and for what?

The final slide of your deck is "The Ask." This is where you stop being a storyteller and start being a fundraiser.

The Funding Round

State clearly what stage you are at:

• "We are raising a $2M Seed Round."
• "We're looking for $500k in Pre-seed funding."

Use of Funds (The Breakdown)

Don't just say "to grow." Be specific about your Growth Levers:

• Engineering/Product: "50% of the funds will go toward scaling our engineering team."
• GTM (Go-To-Market): "30% will be used to accelerate our sales and marketing efforts."
• Operations: "20% for general operations and legal."

The 18-Month Plan

Investors want to know where their money takes you.

• "This capital gives us 18 months of runway."
• "By the end of this period, we expect to reach $5M in ARR."
• "Our goal is to achieve profitability by Q4 of next year."

Key Phrases

• Capital-efficient: Spending money wisely. ("We are a very capital-efficient team.")
• Scale up: To grow the business significantly. ("We're ready to scale up our operations.")
• Deploy capital: To spend the investment money. ("We know exactly how to deploy this capital to drive growth.")

Alex's Tip: Always have a "Buffer" in your plan. If you think you need $1.5M, ask for $2M. Things always take longer and cost more than you expect in a startup!

• This round gives us 18 months of runway to reach $5M ARR and launch in two new markets.

The milestone should be ambitious but believable, given your traction. It tells investors what the next chapter looks like and when they can expect the next round or a path to profitability.

Seed versus Series A asks

The tone of the Ask differs by stage.

• Seed ask: smaller amount, focused on proving product-market fit. We're raising $750K to reach product-market fit and our first $200K ARR.
• Series A ask: larger amount, focused on scaling. We're raising $8M to scale our go-to-market and reach $10M ARR in 18 months.

A seed ask emphasizes learning and validation; a Series A ask emphasizes scaling a proven model.

Common mistakes

1. No specific amount. We need funding tells investors nothing. State the number.
2. No use of funds. Investors want to know how the money is spent.
3. No milestone. Money without a goal is not investable.

Practice

Write a complete Ask for your company (or a hypothetical one):

1. Amount: We are raising _
2. Use of funds: The funds will go to _
3. Milestone: This gives us _ to reach _

Example: We are raising $2M. The funds will go to hiring five engineers and launching in Europe. This gives us 18 months of runway to reach $5M ARR.

In the final lesson of this course, you will learn to handle Q&A, the moment investors test your pitch with sharp questions.