A checklist can help ensure you are ready to take the next steps with your company.

Now that you've familiarized yourself with the introductory information in our playbook and started creating your company and its narrative, you should ensure you have a solid foundation. Use the startup checklist as an outline to assess how ready you are to begin a fundraising process.

Team

1. Is your founding team in place and fixed? 
   
2. If an academic PI is involved, are you happy with their current level of involvement?
   
3. Have you identified key first hires?
   
4. Do you have JDs for the key hires? 
   
5. Do you need an advisory board at this stage? 
   
6. Have you defined your advisory board?  
   
7. Do you know or have you reached out to the KOLs and SMEs in your space?
   
8. Will you be all working in person, remote, or hybrid?  
   
9. Do you have a sense for what kind of a culture you want to build as a company?
   

Commercial Validation

1. Do you have a well-defined product profile or product concept?
   
2. Do you have a strategy for commercializing your product/know the types of partners that you need to get there? 
   
3. Who or what is your market?
   
4. How big is the total addressable market (TAM)? Are you pitching to investors who are primarily interested in US/EU markets or global markets? 
   
5. Have you thought about the business model (i.e., how far will you take your product, what is the go-to-market strategy, who is the “customer” that provides your initial investors their exit and ROI)? 
   
6. Have you signed any NDAs with potential partners that will need to be involved in manufacturing/distribution/marketing/etc.? ​
   

Science, IP & Regulatory

1. Do you have any research papers that point to the science you are using?
2. Do you have any POC data at this stage?
3. Do you have any IP at this stage? 
4. What is your IP strategy moving forward?
5. Have you secured a license for your IP if needed?  
6. If you must do Technology Transfer Office negotiations, what is the status?  
7. Have you connected with IP lawyers? 
8. Do you know the regulatory pathway for bringing your product to market? List the regulatory hurdles for commercialization.
9. Do you have regulatory advisors lined up?

Lab Space

1. Do you need lab space? 
2. Have you identified lab space already?
3. Have you defined the specs and equipment list + pricing? 
4. Have you signed a lease agreement? ​

Financials and Roadmap

1. Do you know what inflection points or milestones you want to hit in your first year? Over the course of your lifecycle as a company?
   
2. Do you have a budget defined for year 1?
   
3. Do you have a budget defined for year 2?
   
4. Do you have an idea of how much capital you want to raise at this stage and whether you are raising a pre-Seed or Seed or Series A?
   
5. Do you have a financial model or roadmap? If you are building a material sciences company, have you done a techno-economic analysis? 
   
6. Do you understand your capitalization table and are you happy with it?