Episodes
How Pre-Seed Founders Use a Pricing Table to Anchor Value
In this episode of The Pre-Seed Podcast, Lucas and Luna dig into a tactical move that early-stage founders often overlook: building a pricing table before their product is fully built. They break down how a simple three-tier pricing page can become a discovery tool, not just a sales page — using a real example of a SaaS founder who tested willingness-to-pay with a Notion page and a waitlist. The conversation covers anchoring psychology, tier design (the decoy effect), and how to read early…
How Pre-Seed Founders Use a Lead User Interview
In this episode of The Pre-Seed Podcast, Lucas and Luna dive into the lead user method—a way to find the most demanding, forward-looking customers who can validate your pre-seed idea before you build. They unpack why lead users aren't just early adopters, how to identify them, and what to ask them that you wouldn't ask a typical customer. Using the example of a hypothetical workplace analytics tool, Lucas shows how a lead user interview can surface the 'wrong' answers that actually signal…
How Pre-Seed Founders Use a Warm Intro Through an Unlikely Channel
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how pre-seed founders can open doors through an underused channel: alumni networks. They dig into why a warm intro from a fellow alum — even one you've never met — can outperform a cold email or a conference hallway chat, and how one founder used a university alumni directory to land a meeting with a partner at a top-tier venture firm. The conversation covers practical tactics like crafting a short, specific ask, referencing shared context, and following…
How Pre-Seed Founders Use an Investor's Office Hours
In this episode of The Pre-Seed Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore how idea-stage founders can make the most of an investor's office hours — a low-pressure, high-value format that often gets overlooked. They dig into what actually happens in these sessions, how to prepare so you stand out, and why a 15-minute conversation can be more informative than a formal pitch meeting. With August 2026's fundraising climate in mind, they discuss how office hours can serve as a soft entry point, a source of…
How Pre-Seed Founders Validate Demand Before Building
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how idea-stage founders can validate customer demand before writing a single line of code. They break down the story of a founder who used a simple landing page and a pre-order campaign to test interest in a niche productivity app — without spending a dime on ads. Lucas shares the exact metrics that signal real demand, like conversion rate and willingness to pay, and explains why a hundred pre-orders beat a thousand newsletter signups. Luna challenges him…
How Pre-Seed Founders Use a Cap Table Model
In this episode of The Pre-Seed Podcast, Lucas and Luna dive into the cap table — the foundational document every founder must master before raising their first dollar. They explore why a cap table is more than a spreadsheet: it's a strategic tool that shapes dilution, control, and future fundraising. Through the lens of a realistic pre-seed round, they break down how to model ownership percentages, the impact of a 20 percent option pool, and the often-overlooked differences between pre-money…
How Pre-Seed Founders Use a Pricing Page Teardown
In this episode, Lucas and Luna dissect the anatomy of a pre-seed pricing page. Most founders treat pricing as an afterthought, slapping a number on a page and hoping for the best. But the pricing page is often the first real conversation with a potential customer. Lucas walks through a specific teardown of a SaaS pricing page, showing how the order of plans, the anchoring effect of a premium tier, and the psychology of a 'Most Popular' badge can quietly multiply conversion. Luna challenges him…
How Pre-Seed Founders Use a No-Code Prototype to Test Demand
In this episode of The Pre-Seed Podcast, Lucas and Luna dig into the art of the no-code prototype—the fastest way for idea-stage founders to test demand before writing a line of serious code. They break down why a landing page with a fake 'Buy Now' button can be more valuable than a polished app, using the example of a founder who validated a $29/month tool with nothing but a Typeform and a Stripe link. The conversation covers the psychology of the 'smoke test,' how to measure real interest…
How Pre-Seed Founders Use an Advisory Board to Open Doors
In this episode of The Pre-Seed Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore a tactic often overlooked by idea-stage founders: building a small, strategic advisory board before you have a product. They unpack the difference between a formal board and a loose group of mentors, and walk through a concrete example — a fintech founder who landed her first customer conversations through an advisor who'd previously opened doors for a now-public company. The hosts share a framework for who to recruit, how to…
How Pre-Seed Founders Test Their Pricing Before Launch
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how idea-stage founders can validate a pricing model before writing a line of code. They dig into the concept of a 'buying temperature' survey, a technique that tests whether customers would actually pay at a given price point. Using the example of a hypothetical project-management tool for small construction crews, they walk through how to design the survey, whom to send it to, and how to interpret the results. They also discuss common mistakes, like…
How Pre-Seed Founders Use an AngelList Syndicate
In this episode of The Pre-Seed Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore how idea-stage founders can leverage AngelList syndicates to secure their first checks. They break down the mechanics of syndicates, the role of a lead investor, and the economics that matter to backers. Using a fictional example of a founder named Maya who raised $250,000 through a syndicate, they discuss the 15 percent carry and the 20 percent fee structure, and how these terms compare to traditional venture capital. The hosts…
How Pre-Seed Founders Use an Investor Update Template
Lucas and Luna dive into the underrated power of the investor update — not as a chore, but as a strategic tool for pre-seed founders. They break down a simple template that turns a monthly email into a trust-building machine, covering the 'one number' rule, the 'ask' section, and how to handle bad news. Using the example of a hypothetical food-delivery startup, they show how a consistent update can keep investors warm, open doors, and even lead to unexpected intros. The hosts also share what…
How Pre-Seed Founders Use a No-Agenda Coffee Chat to Open Doors
In this episode of The Pre-Seed Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore how idea-stage founders can use a no-agenda coffee chat to build relationships with potential investors, advisors, and future hires before they need anything. They break down why the no-ask approach works, share a concrete template for the invite, and walk through a real example of how a founder landed a warm intro to a lead investor through a casual conversation. Lucas explains the psychology behind reciprocity and network…
How Pre-Seed Founders Use a Pricing Survey Before Launch
In this episode of The Pre-Seed Podcast, Lucas and Luna dig into the pricing survey — a low-cost, high-signal tool for idea-stage founders who need to test willingness-to-pay before writing a line of code. They walk through the story of a founder who ran a simple Google Form with 200 responses to validate a $29 per month SaaS price point, and how that data changed the entire go-to-market plan. Lucas explains the three questions that matter most (range, anchor, and competitor reference), while…
How Pre-Seed Founders Use a Warm Intro Through an Investor's Portfolio Company
In this 150th episode of The Pre-Seed Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore a crucial pre-seed fundraising skill: getting a warm introduction through an investor's portfolio company. They break down the anatomy of a successful warm intro—why it matters, how to identify the right portfolio companies, and the exact steps to craft an intro request that gets a 'yes'. They walk through a detailed example of how a fictional founder named Maya secured a meeting with a tier-one investor by first building a…
How Pre-Seed Founders Use a Product Hunt Launch
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how idea-stage founders can use a Product Hunt launch as a strategic early traction play, not just a one-day spike. They break down what a realistic Product Hunt launch looks like for a pre-revenue startup, from building a community before launch day to crafting a compelling maker story. The conversation covers the importance of timing, the role of early supporters, and how to measure success beyond votes and comments. They also discuss common pitfalls…
How Pre-Seed Founders Use a Decision Journal
In this episode of The Pre-Seed Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore how idea-stage founders can use a decision journal to sharpen their judgment before investors ever see a pitch deck. They walk through the practice of logging key choices, the reasoning behind them, and the expected outcomes — then reviewing them weekly to catch biases early. The conversation centers on a concrete example: a founder deciding whether to build a mobile app or a web MVP first, and how that decision journal entry later…
How Pre-Seed Founders Use an SAFE to Price Their First Round
In this episode of The Pre-Seed Podcast, hosts Lucas and Luna break down the practical mechanics of using a Simple Agreement for Future Equity, or SAFE, in a pre-seed round. They walk through how a SAFE's valuation cap and discount work together, why the discount matters more for early angels than the cap, and how to sequence multiple SAFEs to avoid a messy cap table. Using the example of a fictional hardware startup called LoopSensor, they show how a $1 million valuation cap and a 15 percent…
How Pre-Seed Founders Use a Term Sheet Negotiation Cheat Sheet
Episode 146 of The Pre-Seed Podcast digs into a tool few idea-stage founders think about until it's too late: the term sheet negotiation cheat sheet. Lucas and Luna walk through a real case from a 2024 health-tech founder who used a simple one-page breakdown of valuation, liquidation preference, pro-rata rights, and board seats to push back on a lead investor's first offer and secure better terms. They explain why understanding the five clauses that actually matter beats memorizing every legal…
How Pre-Seed Founders Use a Co-Founder Agreement
Before you write a line of code or pitch a single investor, Lucas and Luna dig into why a co-founder agreement is the unsung hero of pre-seed startups. Using the story of a real two-person team who split equity 50/50 without vesting — and the fallout when one founder left after six months — they explain the four clauses that matter most: vesting schedules, IP assignment, decision rights, and what happens when someone walks away. They also share a simple template that founders can adapt, and…
How Pre-Seed Founders Use a Customer Advisory Board
In this episode of The Pre-Seed Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore how idea-stage founders can leverage a customer advisory board — a small group of early believers and potential users who provide strategic guidance, product feedback, and social proof — long before revenue exists. Lucas walks through the difference between a customer advisory board and a mere focus group, using the example of a B2B SaaS founder assembling six founding customers to shape the roadmap and champion the product. They…
How Pre-Seed Founders Use a Customer Interview Script
In this episode of The Pre-Seed Podcast, Lucas and Luna dig into the art of the customer interview script for idea-stage founders. They break down why most founders ask the wrong questions, and walk through a five-question framework borrowed from the 'mom test' school of thought. The conversation centers on a real example: a founder building a tool for freelance bookkeepers who shifted from asking 'would you use this?' to asking 'how do you handle this today?' The hosts explain how to avoid…
How Idea-Stage Founders Run a 72-Hour Launch Sprint
Lucas and Luna break down the 72-hour launch sprint, a focused experiment idea-stage founders can run before building anything. They walk through a real example: a founder who tested demand for a niche B2B tool by sending 200 personalized emails over three days, landing 37 replies and 11 paying commitments. The conversation covers choosing a narrow audience, writing a one-question ask, and setting a hard deadline to force decisions. They also discuss what the data does and doesn't tell you, and…
How to Find a Technical Co-Founder Before You Code
Over 65% of startups fail due to co-founder conflict, yet most idea-stage founders treat co-founder search like a blind date. In this episode, Lucas and Luna break down a structured five-dimension compatibility scorecard that helps founders evaluate potential co-founders before signing a single line of code. We walk through the actual questions to ask—covering risk tolerance, communication style, equity splits, and time commitment—and explain how a mismatch in any one area can crater a pre-seed…
How Pre-Seed Founders Use a Founder Equity Vesting Schedule
Episode 140 of The Pre-Seed Podcast: Lucas and Luna break down why a founder equity vesting schedule is one of the earliest and most overlooked tools for building investor trust. They walk through a real case: a two-co-founder SaaS startup that avoided a catastrophic split by implementing a four-year monthly vest with a one-year cliff. They explain how vesting signals alignment, protects against early departures, and strengthens a cap table before the first institutional check. Listeners learn…
How Pre-Seed Founders Use a Runway Calculator to Plan Fundraising
In this episode of The Pre-Seed Podcast, Lucas and Luna break down the runway calculator — a simple tool that helps idea-stage founders determine how much to raise and when. Using the example of a founder with $50,000 in savings and a $10,000 monthly burn, they show how to calculate the ideal fundraising target for 18 months of runway. They discuss the trade-off between raising too little (risking a death spiral) and too much (dilution), and the importance of tying your ask to specific…
How Pre-Seed Founders Build a Credibility Bank
In this episode of The Pre-Seed Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore a powerful but often overlooked tactic for idea-stage founders: building a credibility bank before approaching investors. They walk through the story of Sarah, a B2B SaaS founder who compiled her industry expertise, advisory board commitments, early customer letters of intent, and a published trade article into a one-page credibility summary. Within eight weeks, she turned that document into warm intros and closed three angel…
How Pre-Seed Founders Use a Cap Table Simulator to Plan Dilution
Most first-time founders don't model dilution until a term sheet lands. Maya, a B2B SaaS founder, used a free cap table simulator before accepting a $100,000 micro-VC check. The tool showed her she'd be giving up 25% equity at a $400,000 post-money valuation. She negotiated a better deal — $100,000 at $600,000 post-money, lowering dilution to 17%. This episode walks through how to use a cap table simulator, what to watch for (option pools, pro-rata rights, convertible notes vs. SAFEs), and why…
How Pre-Seed Founders Build a Customer Reference List Before Their First Sale
Episode 136 of The Pre-Seed Podcast. Most early-stage founders focus on product and pitch deck, but miss a powerful credibility tool: a customer reference list. Lucas and Luna explain how to build a list of 5-10 potential customers who will vouch for the problem you're solving, before you have any revenue. They share the story of Maria, a B2B SaaS founder who used her reference list to close her first angel investment. The episode covers where to find references (existing discovery interviews…
How Idea-Stage Founders Use a Fake Door Test
Episode 135 of The Pre-Seed Podcast. Lucas and Luna break down the fake door test: a lightweight way to validate demand before building anything. Lucas explains how a founder used a simple landing page with a 'Buy Now' button that led to a waitlist—not a product—and got 300 sign-ups in a week. They discuss signal quality, conversion thresholds, and when a fake door test can mislead. Luna shares a cautionary tale from a fintech startup that mistook curiosity for commitment. Practical tips on…
How to Use the Founder-Market Fit Canvas Before You Build
Episode 134 of The Pre-Seed Podcast: Lucas and Luna dive into a structured self-assessment tool called the Founder-Market Fit Canvas. They walk through five dimensions—domain expertise, passion, network, skills, and personal alignment—using the example of a former nurse building a hospital scheduling app. Learn how to evaluate whether you're the right founder for your idea, why investors care about fit as much as traction, and how to use the canvas to spot gaps early. Plus: the hosts explain…
How to Build a Zero-Revenue Financial Model for Pre-Seed
In this episode of The Pre-Seed Podcast, Lucas and Luna dive into the practical art of building a financial model when you have exactly zero revenue. They walk through the story of Sarah, a founder who created a simple but powerful spreadsheet projecting unit economics, burn rate, and cash runway for her pre-revenue SaaS idea. You'll learn which assumptions matter most, how to handle the uncertainty with sensitivity analysis, and why investors actually want to see a model before any revenue…
How Idea-Stage Founders Use a 10-Customer Cold Email Experiment
In this episode of The Pre-Seed Podcast, Lucas and Luna break down the 10-customer cold email experiment—a low-cost, high-signal method for idea-stage founders to validate their problem before building anything. They walk through how to hand-pick ten ideal prospects, craft personalized outreach that invites discovery conversations, and interpret response patterns. Using the example of Sarah Chen, a founder who used this technique to validate her B2B SaaS for independent bookstores, they show…
How Idea-Stage Founders Map Their Ideal Early Investor
Episode 131 of The Pre-Seed Podcast dives into a tactic most founders skip: building a detailed investor persona map before sending a single cold email. Lucas and Luna walk through how one founder cut her fundraising timeline from six months to three by identifying the specific angel profiles who fit her startup stage, sector, and geography. They cover how to research investor preferences, what data points to track in a spreadsheet, and why a hyper-targeted list of 20 angels beats a…
How Idea-Stage Founders Use a Pre-Launch Waitlist
In episode 130 of The Pre-Seed Podcast, Lucas and Luna unpack the mechanics of a pre-launch waitlist — when it works, when it doesn't, and why 500 waitlist signups can mean very different things depending on how you collected them. They walk through a real example: a B2B SaaS founder who built a waitlist of 1,200 people before writing a single line of code, only to find that only 40 actually converted at launch. The episode breaks down what went wrong, how to design a waitlist that actually…
How Idea-Stage Founders Use a Pre-Purchase Commitment Agreement
It's one thing to say someone would pay for your product. It's another to get them to sign a binding commitment before you've built anything. In this episode, Lucas and Luna break down the pre-purchase commitment agreement — a tool used by founders like Sam Parr of The Hustle to validate demand before writing a line of code. They walk through the exact structure: a non-refundable deposit of 10 to 25 percent, a delivery window of 6 to 12 months, and a full-refund exit if the product never ships.…
How Pre-Seed Founders Use a Problem Validation Scorecard
Most idea-stage startups die not because they can't build the product, but because they're solving a problem nobody actually has. In this episode, Lucas and Luna walk through a concrete framework they call the Problem Validation Scorecard — a simple 0-to-10 scoring system that forces founders to get specific about pain frequency, willingness to pay, and market timing. They illustrate it with the real-world example of a failed food-delivery startup that scored a 3 out of 10 on validation and…
How Idea-Stage Founders Use an Investor Update Before Fundraising
In episode 127 of The Pre-Seed Podcast, Lucas and Luna dive into a counterintuitive pre-fundraising move: sending a formal investor update before you've raised a dime. They walk through the story of a B2B SaaS founder who built a waiting list of angel investors by sending monthly problem-discovery updates — no deck, no pitch, just raw traction signals. Lucas breaks down the three-part update structure that turned 11 unconnected intros into 7 qualified investor conversations. Luna pushes back on…
How Idea-Stage Founders Use a Pricing Confidence Interview
Most pre-seed founders price their product based on what they think it's worth, not what customers will actually pay. In this episode, Lucas and Luna break down the pricing confidence interview — a structured conversation framework that helps idea-stage founders test willingness-to-pay before building a single feature. They walk through three specific questions that surface the buyer's real budget range, the psychological anchor of a 'no', and why asking for a credit card number during a…
How Idea-Stage Founders Use a Customer Problem Stack
Lucas and Luna dive into a practical tool for idea-stage founders: the Customer Problem Stack. Instead of brainstorming solutions first, founders list every pain point their target customer faces, then rank them by frequency and intensity. Lucas walks through a real example from a fintech founder targeting gig workers, showing how the stack revealed a hidden third-tier problem that became their core differentiator. They discuss how this framework prevents premature solutioning, helps prioritize…
How Idea-Stage Founders Use a Warm Intro to Angel Investors
In this episode of The Pre-Seed Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore why a warm introduction from a trusted mutual connection is the most effective way for idea-stage founders to get a first meeting with angel investors. They break down a real case: a 2025 cohort of founders who used a simple spreadsheet to map their network's 'second-degree' connections to 50 active angels, and how an 18% conversion rate on warm intros compared to a 2% rate on cold emails. The hosts discuss practical steps — how to…
How Idea-Stage Founders Use a Customer Journey Map
In this episode of The Pre-Seed Podcast, Lucas and Luna dive into the customer journey map as a tool for idea-stage founders who haven't written a line of code yet. Lucas walks through how mapping a customer's emotional and practical steps — from trigger to purchase — can reveal hidden assumptions and shape a better MVP. They discuss a real example from a fintech founder who mapped the journey for first-time homebuyers and discovered that the real pain point wasn't mortgage rates but the…
How Pre-Seed Founders Use a Customer Advisory Board Before Launch
In this episode of The Pre-Seed Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore how idea-stage founders can assemble a customer advisory board before having a product or revenue. They break down the why, the who, and the how — using real examples like a B2B SaaS founder who recruited five potential buyers before writing a line of code, and a consumer hardware founder who turned pre-orders into a feedback loop. Lucas shares a specific template for the initial reach-out email and explains how to structure…
How Idea-Stage Founders Use a Customer Avatar Avatar Interview
In this episode of The Pre-Seed Podcast, Lucas and Luna dive into a specific, underutilized pre-funding tactic: the Customer Avatar Avatar Interview. Rather than just building a customer persona, this method involves interviewing someone who perfectly represents your target customer and asking them to describe that customer's problems, behaviors, and decision-making process in detail. Lucas shares a real-world example of a B2B SaaS founder who used this technique to uncover a critical feature…
How Idea-Stage Founders Use a No-Code MVP in 72 Hours
In this episode of The Pre-Seed Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore how idea-stage founders can build a functional MVP in just 72 hours using no-code tools. They break down the specific case of a fintech founder who validated a budgeting app concept with 15 beta users using Bubble and Airtable, spending only $47. The hosts discuss the trade-offs between speed and polish, when to graduate to a coded solution, and how pre-revenue founders can test core assumptions without writing a line of code. They…
How Idea-Stage Founders Use a Competitive Teardown
In this episode of The Pre-Seed Podcast, Lucas and Luna break down how idea-stage founders can use a competitive teardown to de-risk their startup concept before building anything. They walk through a real example from the food delivery space, showing how to analyze competitors' pricing, UX, and reviews to identify gaps. Lucas explains the three-part framework: surface-level features, user sentiment, and unit economics. Luna shares how a friend used a competitive teardown to pivot her SaaS idea…
How Idea-Stage Founders Use a Deck-Free Pitch Approach
In this episode of The Pre-Seed Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore why more early-stage founders are pitching without a formal slide deck. They break down how a health-tech startup called Kardia raised a $500,000 pre-seed round using only a one-page narrative memo and a live product demo. The discussion covers when a deck-free approach works, what to include instead of slides, and how investors like the syndicate Pre-Seed Labs are responding to the shift. Lucas shares specific data on close rates…
How Idea-Stage Founders Use a Pre-MVP Pricing Test
In this episode of The Pre-Seed Podcast, Lucas and Luna unpack the pricing test that three founders ran before building a single line of code. They walk through the specific experiment: a landing page with three tier options—$19, $39, and $79 per month—that attracted 400 visitors and generated 14 sign-ups. The hosts discuss why conversion rate matters less than willingness to pay, how to interpret a 3.5 percent click-through on a non-functional buy button, and why one tier's 60 percent…
How Idea-Stage Founders Use a Customer Persona Canvas
Episode 116 dives into the Customer Persona Canvas — a practical tool for idea-stage founders to map their first buyer before building. Lucas and Luna walk through a real example: a founder launching a compliance tool for small manufacturers. They break down the canvas's nine building blocks — from goals and pains to decision criteria — and explain how it prevents the common mistake of building for a persona that doesn't control the budget. The hosts share a specific framework for validating…
How Idea-Stage Founders Use a Customer Advisory Board Before Launch
Episode 115 of The Pre-Seed Podcast: Lucas and Luna unpack why founders should assemble a customer advisory board before they have a product—or even a prototype. They walk through the case of Mixpanel, which onboarded a dozen VP-level product leaders six months before launch to steer priorities and secure early reference calls. The hosts explain how to identify 'warm enthusiasts,' structure quarterly check-ins, and avoid the confirmation-bias trap that turns advisory boards into echo chambers.…
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