Founders · Preparation

Preparing your pre-seed fundraising dossier: what an investor checks

A deck is a document of claims. When an investor reads it, each piece of information lands in one of three boxes: what is consistent with a register source, what you declare without a document, what is inferred. This page lists, claim by claim, the document that lets your counterpart check it for themselves, what they do with it, and what is realistic to bring depending on your stage. It is written from the investor's reading, based on the Flaynn provenance grid and the pre-diligence methodology.

By Sirven Flaynn Ouamba, founder and president of Flaynn

Published on 18 September 2026 · Updated on 5 November 2026 · Version 1.1

One thing to keep in mind: preparing a document does not make your figure verified at Flaynn, where that word refers only to consistency with a register source. It makes it verifiable by the person reading your dossier, which is exactly what you are aiming for.

In brief

Five observations before you start.

At pre-seed, most of the information in a dossier is declared. That is normal, and it is not disqualifying.
What is costly is not knowing which of your claims stand on their own.
A missing document gets noticed more than a modest figure.
What is expected of you depends on your stage: Traction weighs 5 out of 100 at idea stage, 25 at seed stage.
An inconsistency between two documents in the same dossier is spotted straight away, and it gets asked about on a call.

Twelve claims

The documents to gather, claim by claim.

Take your deck. For each line that applies to you: the document to prepare, what your counterpart does with it, and what to say if you do not have it yet.

Documents to prepare for a pre-seed fundraising dossier
What your deck says	Document that makes it verifiable	What the investor does with it	If you do not have it yet
« €18k MRR »	Billing export month by month, or bank statements over the same period	They recalculate your revenue and check that it matches the slide	Give the exact period and the calculation method, and say that the document is on its way
« Growth of 40% per month »	The same export over at least six months, with the gross amounts	They look at the starting base and the regularity, not the percentage	State absolute amounts rather than a rate
« Three signed customers »	Signed contracts or purchase orders, with dates and amounts	They check that the contract is signed, paid and still active	Distinguish between a free pilot, a commitment of intent and a paid contract
« A €400k pipeline »	Export from your sales tracking: stage, amount, date of last conversation	They weight the pipeline by actual stage, often far lower than you do	Give the number of conversations held rather than an overall amount
« Our customers stay »	Retention tracking by cohort, or simply the list of customers by month	They look for departures, not arrivals	With few customers, name those who left and say why
« 14 months of runway »	Monthly cash plan and latest bank statement	They divide cash by actual burn and compare the result with your figure	Recalculate before sending: it is the most common inconsistency
« Acquisition cost of €80 »	Acquisition spend over the period and number of customers won	They check that the cost really does include salaries and tools	Say what the calculation includes and what it excludes
« Full-time team »	Employment contracts or articles of association, and how each person's time is split	They look at who is really available and since when	Disclose the part-time roles: they always come to light
« Capital split between the founders »	Up-to-date cap table, shareholders' agreement, option plans	They check the voting rights, the vesting and the investors already on board	An approximate cap table worries more than an unbalanced one
« The technology is ours »	Assignment of rights in the code, trade mark filings, contractor agreements	They check that the rights belong to the company, not to individuals	If an assignment is missing, say so and give the planned date
« Registered company »	Registration extract and SIREN number	They cross-check the incorporation date, the legal form and the filed accounts	The SIREN number is enough for your reader, who can cross-check it in a few seconds. At Flaynn, it links the company to the register only when entered in the form, with a declared name that the company's name in the register contains
« We are raising €500k »	Use of funds line by line, with the target milestones	They reconcile the amount with the milestones and the stated duration	Three lines with figures are worth more than a pie chart

Depending on your stage

What is expected of an idea is not what is expected of a seed.

The weights below are those of a Flaynn reading, published on the methodology page. They say what matters most at each stage, and therefore what is worth preparing first.

What is expected depending on the stage of the dossier
Stage	What weighs the most	Realistic evidence at this stage	Common mistake
Idea	Team weighs 35 out of 100, Traction 5	Dated customer interviews, mock-up, founders' time commitment	Presenting three-year projections as evidence
Pre-seed	Team 30, Market 25, Traction 10	First users, letters of intent, prototype in use	Talking about retention when there are eight users
MVP	Product rises to 22, Traction to 15	Measured actual usage, first paying customers, production cost	Showing features rather than usage
Seed	Traction weighs 25, level with Market	Recurring revenue, retention by cohort, measured sales cycle	Reusing the pre-seed dossier without changing the evidence

Inconsistencies

The differences that show up first.

An inconsistency is not a moral failing: it is a reading signal. It is named, and it gets clarified on a call. You might as well fix it beforehand.

The headcount stated in the deck does not match the figure in the form or in the contracts.
The revenue stated does not match the accounts filed with the register, where they exist.
The runway does not match cash divided by the monthly burn.
The amount sought does not appear in the use of funds, or finances milestones that run longer than the stated duration.
The dates of incorporation, first customer or first revenue differ from one document to another.

Before you send

Reread your own work like an investor, in seven passes.

Highlight every figure in the deck. Next to each one, write the document that supports it, or nothing.
For each « nothing », decide: I prepare the document, or I state that it is an estimate.
Recalculate your runway by hand, using the latest statement.
Check that the same number appears everywhere, in the deck, the form and the appendices.
Enter your SIREN number in the dedicated field of the form, with the company name exactly as it appears in the register: it makes the company cross-checkable in a few seconds. Written only in the deck, it confirms nothing at Flaynn, no more than a company found by its name alone does.
Put the documents in a single folder, named for what they prove, not for their export date.
Reread the first page as if you did not know the project: what is the strongest evidence, and does it appear?

Questions

What founders ask.

Which documents should I prepare for a pre-seed raise?

The ones that let an investor recalculate your key figures themselves: billing statements or exports for revenue, signed contracts and purchase orders, monthly cash plan, up-to-date cap table, articles of association and registration extract, assignment of rights in the code and the trade marks. A document is worth more than a slide that asserts it.

Is it a problem if most of my figures stay declared?

No. At pre-seed, almost everything is declared, because there is little that can be proven. What is costly is not knowing which of your claims stand on their own. A founder who states what is proven and what is not yet inspires more confidence than a uniformly assertive dossier.

Does attaching my exports make my figures verified?

They become verifiable by your counterpart, which is already the main thing. At Flaynn, verified status is reserved for consistency with a register source; a figure read in a document or in the deck is declared, with its page, like a figure entered in a form.

What does an investor look at when there is no revenue yet?

The team and its ability to execute, the reality of the problem shown by dated interviews, the first signs of adoption such as pilots or letters of intent, and the consistency between the amount sought and the target milestones. The weight of Traction in a Flaynn reading is 5 out of 100 at idea stage, against 25 at seed stage.

Which inconsistencies come up most often?

A headcount that differs between the deck and the form, revenue that does not match the filed accounts, a stated runway unrelated to the monthly burn, and an amount sought that cannot be found in the use of funds. They do not disqualify a dossier, but they show, and they get asked about on a call.

Does this page give access to investors?

No. Flaynn does not put founders in touch with investors, forwards no dossier and guarantees no outcome. This page describes what an investor checks, so that you can prepare for it.

What this page is not.

It describes a reading practice, not a guarantee. Preparing these documents does not guarantee a funding round, gives no access to any investor and is not investment advice. Flaynn puts no one in touch with anyone, forwards no dossier and gives no legal, accounting, tax or financial advice.