The Pre-Seed Discovery Framework

The Pre-Seed Discovery Framework

7 questions investors want you to have asked before you pitch

Most founders validate by asking customers if they would use the product. Most customers say yes. That answer is not validation — it is politeness. The questions below reveal whether a problem is real, urgent, and worth building a business around. Work through them before you build, before you pitch, and before you raise.

Problem Reality

01 — Why haven’t you solved this already?

Reveals whether the problem is genuinely unsolved or just inconvenient enough to tolerate.

• Red flag: “I haven’t had time” — the problem is not painful enough.
• Strong signal: A specific failed attempt with a named reason it didn’t work.

02 — What have you tried before, and why did it fail?

Prior attempts confirm the problem exists and that existing solutions are inadequate.

• Red flag: No prior attempts — either the problem isn’t acute or discovery was shallow.
• Strong signal: Clear articulation of what broke and what gap remains.

Market Reality

03 — How many people have this problem AND cannot work around it AND will pay to solve it?

The three conditions together define a real addressable market. Each one alone does not.

• Red flag: Large TAM figure without evidence of willingness to pay.
• Strong signal: A specific segment with named examples who meet all three conditions.

04 — Who else is solving this — and why are people still using them?

Proxy competition confirms the problem is real. Understanding why incumbents persist reveals your actual challenge.

• Red flag: “There is no competition” — this signals incomplete research, not a clear market.
• Strong signal: Named competitors with a specific articulation of what they don’t solve.

Behaviour Change

05 — What would it take for you to actually change how you work today?

Surfaces the real switching cost — the invisible barrier between a founder’s solution and a customer’s decision.

• Red flag: “If it worked, I’d switch immediately” — no switching cost awareness.
• Strong signal: Specific conditions named — budget threshold, team buy-in, integration requirement.

Conviction vs Data

06 — What is the strongest evidence you have that this problem is real — not that people said so?

Forces the distinction between stated interest (cheap) and demonstrated behaviour (expensive and rare).

• Red flag: Survey results or positive interview responses as primary evidence.
• Strong signal: Someone paid, waited, built a workaround, or changed their process.

07 — What assumption, if wrong, would invalidate your entire thesis?

The founders who have done genuine discovery can answer this immediately. The ones who haven’t will pivot to the vision.

• Red flag: Cannot name one — or names a risk so minor it barely matters.
• Strong signal: Named clearly, with an honest assessment of how certain they are it holds.

How to use this framework

Ask these questions in customer discovery interviews — not to your customers, but to yourself after each conversation. If you cannot answer questions 03, 06, and 07 with specific evidence, you are not ready to pitch. Go back to the market first.

The founders who raise are not the ones who pitch best. They are the ones who can answer these questions without reaching for a script.

DM & Associates works with pre-seed founders on validation, investor readiness, and go-to-market strategy. View the Founder Readiness Products at dmassociates.xyz/products.