When you’re building early, especially in deep tech or AI, it’s easy to feel like you have no metrics worth showing. No revenue. No viral growth. Maybe not even a product in the wild yet.
But here’s the truth: investors don’t just fund startups with traction. They fund startups with signals.
You don’t need scale to raise. You need clarity. And the right early-stage metrics—yes, even pre-product—can make the difference between getting a quick yes and getting ghosted.
At Tran.vc, we work with founders before the usual numbers show up. And we know what metrics matter before revenue. This article will walk you through the signals that make you fundable—metrics that show progress, insight, and momentum, even at zero users.
Let’s dive in.
Not All Metrics Are Created Equal
The Wrong Numbers Can Hurt You
Founders often feel pressured to show metrics—even if they don’t have the right ones yet. So they reach for whatever’s handy. Website visits. Social followers. Email signups.
But surface metrics can backfire if they don’t match what you’re building.
If you’re a deep tech or AI founder, early-stage investors aren’t impressed by vanity stats. They’re looking for substance. Signals of depth. Early validation that you understand the market and are solving something real.
When you show the wrong numbers, you don’t just waste their time—you confuse the story. And confusion kills deals.
That’s why the smartest founders focus on clarity over volume. They pick the few numbers that tell the right story. The numbers that show why this problem matters, why your solution is unique, and why you’re ready to build something defensible.
Good Metrics Tell a Story of Motion
What investors want to see—especially at the pre-seed or seed stage—is movement.
They’re looking for signals that you’re not standing still. That you’re learning, building, testing. That you’re moving forward, even without revenue.
This might be measured in technical milestones. In how quickly you’ve validated a use case. In early usage patterns from pilot partners. Or even in how fast you’re iterating based on new learning.
These are signals of motion. And motion builds belief.
The best founders don’t just show where they are—they show where they’re going. And how fast they’re getting better.
The Three Types of Metrics That Matter Early
Insight Metrics: What You’ve Learned About the Problem
You may not have users yet, but that doesn’t mean you’re guessing. In fact, some of the strongest early signals you can share are insight-based.
These are the metrics that show how deeply you understand the problem you’re solving. Maybe you’ve spoken to 30 engineers at robotics labs. Or interviewed 12 operations leads at logistics companies. Or run lightweight experiments with a small AI model to test user workflows.
That kind of learning is gold. It shows you’re not building in the dark.
Founders who bring insight metrics to the table come across as deliberate, thoughtful, and grounded. It shows the investor that you’ve done the hard work of figuring out what’s real—and what’s just noise.
You’re not just building what’s possible. You’re building what’s needed.
Velocity Metrics: How Fast You’re Learning, Building, and Adapting
Speed, on its own, doesn’t impress investors. But learning velocity does.
Can you show how quickly you’ve tested and iterated on core ideas? Can you track how your product evolved based on new data or feedback? Have you moved from a concept to a working prototype in weeks, not months?
Velocity metrics show that your team knows how to move. That you don’t waste time. That you’re capable of executing under pressure.
Even if you’re early, this kind of momentum stands out. It shows you’re not just smart—you’re fast and focused.
And for an investor, that’s often a better signal than raw user numbers.
Moat Metrics: What You’re Doing That No One Else Can
Investors know that the early days are messy. They expect the numbers to be small. But what they really want to know is: what makes this startup hard to copy?
That’s where moat metrics come in.
Maybe it’s a proprietary dataset you’ve started collecting. Maybe it’s your custom infrastructure that handles a unique robotics process. Or a patent you’ve filed that protects a core method. It could even be your specific way of solving a hard problem that others have overlooked.
Whatever it is, your moat metric should point to the thing that gives you a long-term edge.
That signal tells an investor this isn’t just a clever project. It’s a company with real staying power.
Framing Your Metrics to Show Signal, Not Scale
Early Numbers Are Only Powerful When They Have Context
The actual numbers you show don’t need to be big. They need to be believable.
For example, telling an investor that ten engineers responded positively to your prototype sounds small. But if you explain that those engineers represent five of the top research labs in your field, that number becomes powerful.
This is where most founders slip. They share raw numbers with no frame. “We had 500 site visits.” “Two people tried the tool.” But without context—who those people are, how they found you, what they said or did—those numbers mean nothing.
Instead, focus on what those early actions prove. Did they validate a core workflow? Did they show urgency? Did they lead to an inbound from someone serious?
Every early metric has to fight to earn space in the story. The ones that stay should help build belief in your direction.
Don’t Dump Data—Use It to Tell a Narrative
Your investor deck isn’t a spreadsheet. It’s a story. And your data should support that story—not distract from it.
That means every number you include should support a “why now” or “why us” message.
Why now: show metrics that point to urgency, market timing, or shifting behavior. For example, maybe your waitlist filled fast after a single post. Or maybe three of your pilot partners came inbound after seeing an academic preprint. That suggests the market is moving.
Why us: show metrics that prove your approach is sticky, smart, or protected. For instance, maybe your tool reduced time-to-deploy by 60% in a test case. Or your algorithm outperformed a standard baseline by 30% in a simulation.
These are not “traction” metrics. They are belief-builders. They make the investor lean in and ask for more.
They don’t prove you’re ready to scale. They prove you’re worth betting on.
Translating Early Activity Into Fundable Metrics
Product Signals: Showing That You’re Solving the Right Problem
Even when your product is incomplete, how you’re building—and what choices you’ve made—can tell an investor a lot.
If your MVP isn’t launched yet, that’s okay. But you should be able to explain why. Are you focusing on building core infrastructure that others skipped? Are you sequencing development to solve a specific technical risk first? Have you deliberately avoided launching because your pilot partners need something deeper than a landing page?
Those decisions are metrics, too.
For instance, if you’ve spent two months building the back-end architecture for a machine learning system that needs low latency, explain that. Explain the tradeoff. Show that you’re prioritizing long-term performance over early feedback. That tells an investor you’re not just shipping fast—you’re shipping right.
And if you have launched, even quietly, then your usage patterns can become some of your strongest metrics. How often do people return? What tasks do they complete? What parts of the product create friction?
Even ten active users can tell a compelling story—if those ten users are engaged, if their behavior confirms your hypothesis, and if you can explain what you’ve learned from them.
What matters is not how much activity you have—it’s what you’ve done with it.
Team Metrics: Proving That Your Crew Can Execute
Another overlooked set of signals comes from your team.
Investors want to know: can this group of people actually pull it off? They don’t expect a perfect team from day one, but they do look for signals that your current team can learn, adapt, and build fast.
That means you should talk about pace. What’s your weekly shipping rhythm? How fast do you turn insight into implementation? How quickly do you kill ideas that don’t work?
Even if your team is just two people, you can show output. A weekly cadence of shipping, documenting, testing. A pattern of holding each other accountable. A consistent flow of updates to your advisors, your early supporters, or your pilot users.
This builds confidence. It shows that your company isn’t just an idea—it’s a group of people already acting like a real team.
If you’ve brought in advisors or contractors, explain why. Did you recruit someone with deep domain knowledge in robotics because you identified a blind spot early? Did a machine learning researcher join you part-time after being impressed with your dataset?
That’s a metric too. Because the people who show up early—and why they show up—tells investors something about your gravity.
Execution Metrics: Showing Focus and Follow-Through
Investors know the earliest days of a startup are full of distractions. It’s easy to chase the wrong feedback, build features no one asked for, or pivot every time something gets hard.
That’s why one of the strongest metrics you can show is execution discipline.
Have you stuck to a clear plan for the last few months? Have you resisted shiny objects and prioritized one core outcome? Can you show a timeline of progress, with specific, measured wins?
These don’t have to be large wins. But they should be real. For example:
- Did you commit to a 60-day sprint to test your onboarding flow, and actually complete it?
- Did you run three customer discovery cycles and ship updates based on what you heard?
- Did you stick to your roadmap—and decide not to add a requested feature because it didn’t align with your vision?
That’s what execution metrics look like in the early stage. They show that you’re not just reacting. You’re steering.
And when you’re pre-revenue, this type of maturity goes a long way. It tells investors that your team won’t fall apart under pressure. That you’ll keep shipping, keep learning, and keep moving forward—even when things get messy.
Handling Metrics That Aren’t Impressive Yet
Sometimes your early numbers aren’t what you hoped. Maybe only two out of ten pilot users stuck around. Maybe your first AI model didn’t outperform the baseline. Maybe your waitlist was flat after two weeks.
This is where most founders go silent. They hide the weak signals. They bury the bad news.
Smart founders don’t.
Instead, they frame those numbers as learning. They explain what they tried, what went wrong, and what they’re doing next. They connect early failure to future clarity.
This shows resilience. And self-awareness. Two of the most important founder traits.
If your CAC is high, show what you’re trying to lower it. If your churn is brutal, share what you’ve learned from exit interviews. If your launch flopped, explain what it taught you about timing, positioning, or user segmentation.
Investors don’t expect perfect data. But they do expect honest analysis. And if you can take early signals—even weak ones—and turn them into insight, you’ll earn their respect.
Because building a company isn’t about getting everything right. It’s about getting better, faster than anyone else.
How to Present Your Metrics to Spark Conviction
Metrics Mean Nothing Without Narrative
Even the strongest numbers can fall flat if you don’t give them meaning. A chart without a story is just data. But a story with data? That’s where trust begins.
When you present metrics to investors—whether in a pitch, a deck, or a conversation—you need to explain what the number proves. And why it matters right now.
Instead of dropping a stat like “20% of users returned within 24 hours,” explain why that’s meaningful. Did that behavior confirm a workflow you bet on? Did it surprise you and change your roadmap? Is it better than a known benchmark?
The best founders don’t hide behind metrics. They stand beside them. They use them to lead the story forward. Not as decoration—but as evidence.
And remember: clarity beats complexity. You’re not trying to impress with technical depth. You’re trying to show why this company is ready to go to the next level.
Anchor Your Metrics to Momentum, Not Just Measurement
One of the strongest signals you can send is progress. Investors want to know: are you moving? Are you learning? Are you shipping?
This is where momentum metrics shine.
These don’t always show up on dashboards. They live in your behavior.
Did you go from first line of code to working demo in 4 weeks? Did you ship three versions of your core model in two months? Did your team meet every week and make decisions on time?
Mentioning these kinds of movements shows you’re building with urgency. That you’re not stuck in idea mode. That you’re solving real problems, fast.
You don’t need to say “we’re growing 10% week over week.” You can say, “we’ve shipped every week for the last 12 weeks.” And that tells the investor something even more important: that you execute.
Position Weak Metrics As a Work-In-Progress, With a Plan
Every early company has soft spots. Maybe your activation rate is low. Maybe your product is unfinished. Maybe your architecture isn’t scalable yet.
What matters is not the weakness—but how you talk about it.
You can say, “our retention rate is early and unreliable, but we’ve mapped out three experiments to improve onboarding.” Or, “our current infra can’t support more than 100 concurrent users, but we’re rebuilding it over the next sprint cycle.”
This kind of framing keeps the investor with you. It shows you’re self-aware, focused, and already solving the problem.
Don’t spin. Don’t overpromise. Just be real. And be ready.
That’s the kind of founder people want to bet on.
How Tran.vc Helps You Find and Frame the Right Metrics
We Help You Build Signal Before You Have Scale
Most investors wait for traction. We don’t.
At Tran.vc, we work with founders before the product is live. Before the revenue. Before the numbers get big. That means we know how to spot signal in the early noise—and we help you do the same.
We don’t just look for metrics. We help you shape them.
From day zero, we help founders in AI, robotics, and deep tech figure out what to track, what to test, and what to show. If your tech is powerful but early, we help you pull out the right milestones—so when investors ask “why now” or “why you,” you’re not guessing. You’re prepared.
We help you understand what kind of motion matters. We help you connect early product decisions to long-term growth. And we help you build a story that holds up under real scrutiny.
We Focus on What Makes You Fundable—Not Just Polished
The best early-stage investors aren’t looking for perfection. They’re looking for clarity, insight, and speed.
That’s exactly what we help you show.
We help you build smart IP before you’re live. Clean up your early cap table. Draft your technical roadmap. Shape your pitch—and your data room—around early signals that matter.
You don’t need a growth chart. You need signal.
We help you find it, name it, and frame it in a way that earns belief.
And we do it not with theory—but with sleeves rolled up, alongside you.
Don’t Just Track Metrics—Design Them
Backward Plan From the Story You Want to Tell
One of the most powerful things you can do as an early-stage founder is this: figure out the story you want to tell six months from now—then work backwards from it.
Think about the investor conversation you want to have. What do you want to say your team has proven? What kind of traction or validation will you want to point to? What edge do you hope to have locked in?
Once you define that future state, you can start building toward the exact metrics that will make that story true.
For example, if your vision is to be the fastest API layer for a specific robotics use case, maybe your goal is to prove 10x latency improvement in a real-world setting. That gives you clarity: you now know what to build, what to test, and what to measure.
This kind of narrative design turns your day-to-day execution into strategic preparation. You’re not just tracking random numbers—you’re creating signal on purpose.
Smart Founders Build Metrics Into the Product Itself
Another way to set yourself up for strong metrics is by making measurement a feature—not an afterthought.
If you’re building a product that handles workflows, find ways to log behavior from the start. If you’re deploying AI models, bake in reporting on accuracy, edge cases, and performance by default.
This lets you capture valuable insight without having to spin up separate tracking tools later. And it makes your product development feed directly into your fundraising story.
You don’t need to build a dashboard for investors. You just need to be able to answer questions with real data—confidently, quickly, and clearly.
That starts now. Not once the product is “ready.”
When you treat metrics as a design input, not just an output, you stop reacting to investor questions—and start controlling the conversation.
Conclusion: You’re Probably More Fundable Than You Think
Most technical founders underestimate how strong their early signals really are.
They wait for perfect metrics. Or viral growth. Or investor validation. But the truth is, if you’ve been building, testing, learning, and protecting your edge—then you already have the pieces of a fundable story.
Your job now is to find those signals. Frame them clearly. And lead with conviction.
At Tran.vc, we help you do exactly that. We invest up to $50,000 in in-kind IP and strategy services so you can go to market with more than code—you go with leverage.
Apply now at https://www.tran.vc/apply-now-form
Your metrics don’t need to be loud. They need to be true. Let’s make them matter.