Beyond early self-fund phases through to seed hashtag Beyond early self-fund phases through to seed # investments , investors primarily focus on the team and additive business model. Investors whom you may consider for a Series A, or later, do not fund startups without proven products, customers, and technical capabilities already in place. Think of these investors as ‘GROWTH’ investors. hashtag # Growth is the second of three startup frames; 1) Build 2) Grow 3) Scale. As with any situation where an individual feels stuck between equal forces, the newbie founder must exercise simple cost-effective approaches to validate his or her early ideas with minimal cash flow. An early mistake by seed-stage hashtag # founders is to approach investors before they are ready. For example, validate your business model outside of friends and family or you will burn out with investors and reputational harm. Every customer and investor after your immediate friends and family is a stranger, an