Investment Readiness Grid
Village Capital VIRAL diagnostic — shared by John Furukawa, OEN
StatusDoneIn progressNot yet
| Stage | Team | Problem | Customer | Product | GTM Strategy | Model | Market | Exit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Establishing the Founding Team Funding stage
| Strong founding team, at least 2 people with differentiated skills | Team has identified a specific, important, and large problem | Team has hypothesis for target customer who has problem and wants solution | Team has ability to make low-fi prototype, not blocked by patents | Team can articulate TAM, the percentage they will capture, and initial target market | Team has outline of revenue model | Team has identified multiple possible markets or segments and has aspiration to scale | Team understands what exit is and has a vision for investor ROI |
2Setting the Vision Funding stage
| Team has senior members with experience of the problem or deep understanding of customer's problem | The team can solve the problem and can articulate its vision at scale — what does the world look like when it succeeds | Team has potential customers who provide evidence that solution solves key pain point | Team has basic low-fi prototype that solves the problem | Team understands and has a strategy for any regulatory hurdles for entering the market | Company can point to pricing and similar business models for industry products to validate assumptions | Initial evidence that multiple markets experience this problem | Vision for growth has company solving large piece of global problem in 10 years |
3Solidifying the Value Proposition Funding stage
| Team has ability to build fully functional product, clear understanding of value chain and cost structures | The company can articulate why they're the best ones to solve this problem | Evidence that customers will pay the target price (100x B2C, 5x B2B), multiple convos | Team has built a working prototype and a product roadmap | Initial evidence through sales that team can capture initial target market | Team can articulate projected costs along the value chain and target cost points to reach positive unit economics | Clear strategy to move to multiple markets | Initial evidence that the solution already solves the problem better than incumbents |
4Validation an Investable Market Funding stage
| Team has clear understanding of how target market operates and has strong industry contacts | The company can articulate system-level change — how this solution will transform the industry | Evidence of differentiation through customer feedback that solution is significantly better than competition | Team has a clear understanding of product dev costs and how to build initial product cost-effectively | Evidence of a $1B+ TAM | Team has financial model with cost and revenue projections and strategy to achieve them | Initial evidence that multiple customer types value the solution or something company can do well | Evidence of growth trajectory that could lead to IPO, acquisition, or self-liquidating exit |
5Proving a Profitable Business Model Funding stage
| Team has clear sales/ops understanding and strategy | Evidence of impact tied to solution; the company has evidence that growing the company will solve the problem | Target customers love the product and want to keep using it | Fully functional prototype with commercial product completion in sight | Team conversing with strategic partners to capture their market faster/cheaper than competition | Financial model with evidence of valid projections to reach positive unit economics | Vision and initial evidence of positive unit economics in two markets | Inbound interest from large strategics |
6Moving Beyond Early Adopters Funding stage
| Team has proven sales, product dev skills, and management ability to support a growing team for scale | Sales validate impact tied to solution and grow as solution scales | Sales beyond initial target customers; customers referring product to others | Complete product with strong user experience feedback | Supply/distribution partners see their success aligned with the company's success | Sales map to projections; evidence of decreasing CAC with growing customer base buying at target price | Company has cleared regulator challenges and implementing strong IP strategy | Team has identified specific acquirer or other exit environment |
7Hitting Product-Market Fit Funding stage
| C-suite as good or better than founding CEO and can stay with company through growth and exit phase | Impact is successfully validated | Majority of first sales in market are inbound | Product is built for scale and additional offerings in progress | Sales cycles meet or exceed industry standard | Business model validated; validation of strong unit economics | Evidence of strong unit economics across multiple markets | Team has strong relationships with multiple acquirers |
8Scaling Up Funding stage
| Team is recognized as market leaders in the industry | Systems-level change validated | Multiple low-effort renewals; customers in multiple markets love the product | Strong customer product feedback in multiple markets | Brand established; hard-to-beat partnerships for distribution, marketing, and growth | MOM revenue meets industry standard | Growth of customer base accelerates month-on-month | Team has turned down acquisition offer |
9Exit in Sight Funding stage
| Team positioned to navigate M&A, IPO | Global leader in stated vision | Cited as top solution in the industry solving this problem | Product recognized as top in industry | Clear line-of-sight to industry dominance | Minimum 2x revenue growth for multiple years | Strong unit economics for multiple customer segments | Growth with exit |