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?