fundraising-narrative— agent skill

When to use

When a founder is preparing to raise pre-seed/seed and needs a tight, investor-grade narrative arc — for a deck, a memo, or a verbal pitch.

Inputs to gather

1. The problem, ICP, and what's broken about today's solutions.
2. The founder's non-obvious insight / unfair advantage (why YOU, why now).
3. Any traction: revenue, pilots, waitlist, design partners, growth rate.
4. The raise amount, the milestones it funds, and rough use of funds.

Process

1. Open on the problem — visceral, specific, in the customer's world (not "the market is huge").
2. State the insight — the contrarian thing you believe that others don't; this is

the spine of the pitch.

1. Why now — the shift that makes this possible today (model capability, cost

curve, regulation, behavior change). Investors fund timing.

1. Solution — how it works in one breath, framed as the inevitable answer to the insight.
2. Moat — be explicit: proprietary data, vertical depth, workflow lock-in, network

effects, or regulatory edge. Pass the test: "if OpenAI/Anthropic shipped this tomorrow, what's left?" A thin wrapper won't clear seed bar in 2026.

1. Traction — the steepest true line you have (revenue, design partners, retention,

NRR). For vertical AI, outcome-based revenue + NRR 120-150% is a strong signal.

1. Market — bottom-up sizing, then the wedge → expansion path.
2. The ask — amount, the 2-3 milestones it buys, and the metric that earns the next round.

Output

• One-line positioning ("We help [ICP] achieve [outcome] via [insight]").
• Narrative arc: Problem → Insight → Why Now → Solution → Moat → Traction → Market → Ask,

one tight paragraph or slide line each.

• The ask with milestones and use of funds.
• 3 anticipated hard questions + crisp answers (moat, defensibility, why-you).

Quality bar & pitfalls

• Good = the insight and "why now" are memorable enough that an investor repeats them to a partner.
• Traction speaks louder than vision at seed — lead with the steepest real number you have.
• Avoid: feature-first pitches; vague "$X0B TAM" with no wedge; hand-waving the moat;

a "why now" that was equally true three years ago.