The European Founder Readiness Checklist: 10 Questions Before You Raise Your Series A

Before taking a Series A meeting in 2026, 10 questions worth answering honestly first. Can you demonstrate retention behaviour (not retention sentiment) in your data? Have three or more customers expanded without a promotional incentive? Is your NRR above 100% among customers who started at full commercial price? Can you name every churned customer and explain why they left? Do you know your real sales cycle length (from first meeting to signed contract) segmented by customer type? Can you cleanly separate grant-funded traction from commercial traction in your numbers? And the last one (the question European investors are now quietly testing for) do you know which of your last six strategic decisions were driven by market data, and which were driven by avoiding a hard conversation?