Anyway, this is the kind of “it depends” portion of the story. The answer is not as black and white as pre-launch = dream, post-launch = data. There are tangible components to a pre-launch fundraise and dream-like stories that should push a post-launch raise. Everything goes everywhere (all at once)… it’s not so black and white.

Pre-Launch Nuance

In many cases, fundraising pre-launch is better. It’s true there is an advantage of being able to sell a dream instead of needing to provide real results. Assuming your launch will go great (big assumption), you might sacrifice some valuation / dilution by raising earlier but doing so derisks the next 18 months of the business (in other words..derisks the possibility of launch not going so great).

So raising on the dream is great, but not every business can raise on a dream! In the example that I led with, I mentioned the founder spent time networking and building heat around her company. There needs to be intrigue around you and the company and some momentum to get a deal done. Not every dream gets money just for being a dream.