Before you wire money into any early-stage deal — equity or token — run it through these fifteen questions. Most diligence failures aren’t from asking the wrong questions; they’re from not asking any of them out loud, because it felt awkward to interrupt the pitch.
Team & structure
- Who legally owns the IP the company is built on, and is that assignment documented?
- What’s the founder vesting schedule, and has anyone already vested and left?
- Is there a full-time technical co-founder, or is the core product outsourced?
- What’s the current cap table, fully diluted — not just the headline ownership?
Numbers
- What’s monthly burn, and how many months of runway does this round buy?
- What’s the actual retention curve, not the logo-retention headline number?
- Have any prior investors declined to participate in this round, and why?
- What are the last twelve months of bank statements showing, versus the deck?
Terms & token-specific
- What’s the valuation cap relative to the last priced round, and is it justified by actual progress?
- Is this a pre-money or post-money SAFE, and how many other SAFEs are already stacked?
- If there’s a token, what’s the vesting schedule for team and investor allocations?
- Has the smart contract (if any) been audited, by whom, and are the findings public?
Judgment calls
- What would have to be true for this to be a 10x outcome, specifically?
- What’s the founder’s plan B if the primary go-to-market channel doesn’t work?
- Would you invest at this price if you’d only just met the team today, with no prior relationship?
Fifteen questions is a floor, not a ceiling. Want a second set of eyes on a specific deal? Send it our way.
