Screening Criteria — Weighted Scoring

screening_criteria:
  traction:
    weight: 0.30
    signals:
      strong:
        - Revenue > $500K ARR
        - 100+ paying customers
        - Clear growth trajectory (>20% MoM)
      moderate:
        - Revenue < $500K but growing
        - 10-100 customers
        - Pilots with named enterprises
      weak:
        - No revenue
        - Only beta users
        - No named customers

  team:
    weight: 0.25
    signals:
      strong:
        - Prior exits
        - Domain expertise (5+ years)
        - Technical co-founder
        - Full-time commitment
      moderate:
        - Relevant industry experience
        - Strong advisory board
        - Young but executing fast (YC-validated)
      weak:
        - First-time founders with no domain expertise
        - No technical co-founder
        - Part-time

  market:
    weight: 0.20
    signals:
      strong:
        - TAM > $1B
        - Clear macro tailwind
        - Regulatory advantage
      moderate:
        - TAM $100M-$1B
        - Growing market
      weak:
        - Niche market
        - Declining sector

  differentiation:
    weight: 0.15
    signals:
      strong:
        - Proprietary tech/IP
        - Network effects
        - Data moat
        - Hardware moat (manufacturing relationships, supply chain)
      moderate:
        - Execution advantage
        - Unique positioning
      weak:
        - Commodity space
        - Many competitors

  stage_fit:
    weight: 0.10
    signals:
      strong:
        - Stage matches fund thesis
        - Check size appropriate
        - Geography aligned
      weak:
        - Too early or too late
        - Check size mismatch