Course Overview

The phase before the Series A is defined by an effort to de-risk the question of whether or not the company has an ability or capability to scale.

Investors in this stage are often taking a long list of risks: but mostly product risk, engineering risk, market risk, and — often — tons of team and execution risk. Because of the myriad of risks, this “pre A” early stage of investing often takes a long time, and often involves a range of financing options.

In the enterprise context, this means the company is still lining up the evidence and traction it needs to justify the Series A & B financing: building product, deploying product with clinical testing and traction, early customers, demonstrating product/market fit, proving out the sales dynamics that will support efficient growth, and making sure that the team is in place to execute.

Investors here can include angel investors, high net worth investors, micro VC firms, incubators, and possibly early investments from corporate venture capital (CVC), strategic companies and family offices.

You’re in this stage if you’re: