Pre-seed in our practice
Market articles disagree on round size labels. Some treat pre-seed as idea-plus-team capital; others describe million-euro first institutional rounds. We do not publish a market-wide valuation table. We publish the bar we actually use.
In our practice, pre-seed means you are past pure concept. You have something a customer or design partner can touch: a prototype, an early product, pilots, LOIs, or another concrete validation of the problem–solution fit. Paying customers are not a hard filter at pre-seed. A slide deck of ambition with no product surface usually is not enough for investment.
We are a private venture studio headquartered in Berlin. Pre-seed for us is also a studio moment: capital plus operators can still change product craft, architecture, and early GTM. For who we back across stages and sectors, see our Berlin pre-seed investor guide. For the broader criteria list, see what we look for.
Pre-seed vs seed
Halfmeyer Ventures invests at both pre-seed and seed from Berlin with the same €25,000–€200,000 ticket, studio support beyond the check, and cold pitch path. The difference is the strength of proof we expect, not a separate product line or a larger institutional cheque. Cold submissions are welcome at halfmeyer.tech/pitch; we respond within 48 hours.
Founder-facing Berlin and Europe seed guides often treat seed as an institutional traction round with MRR floors (commonly framed around €10k–€30k monthly revenue before serious outreach) and fund tickets well above our band. Our seed bar is different: we want clearer repeatability than pre-seed, and we still meet many seed teams before meaningful ARR. Paying customers and a fixed MRR gate are not hard filters. Usage, retention, revenue, or commercial motion that is no longer a one-off anecdote is.
- Pre-seed: working product or prototype, early users, pilots, LOIs, or clear validation of the wedge. Revenue may be thin or zero. The round should fund the next proof steps that make seed conversations honest.
- Seed: clearer repeatability signals at our €25k–€200k ticket. Label the stage honestly. If you call it seed with only a team story and a sketch, you are earlier than our investment bar. If a reviewer needs a customer list or usage curve to underwrite the round, you are closer to seed.
- Same ticket and path: sole institutional check or co-invest; design, engineering, and GTM with the cheque; no warm intro required. Incubation and advisory remain available when investment is not yet the right door.
Name the stage you believe you are in, and show the strongest signal you have at that stage. For traction language by stage in the deck, see pitch deck expectations. For pre-revenue without paying customers, see pre-revenue. For idea-only decks, see idea-stage. If you changed direction and are unsure which stage that leaves you in, see pivots. If you want a Berlin family office and venture studio that backs both pre-seed and seed at €25k–€200k without an MRR hard gate, submit your deck.
Idea-stage decks: investment vs earlier doors
Halfmeyer Ventures does not write a pre-seed or seed investment check on idea-only decks. For investment we need a working product, prototype, or validated problem–solution fit: something a reviewer can inspect in software, or evidence you have tested the wedge with real users or buyers. Market idea-stage fund pages and “raise without traction” debates leave that bar vague. Ours is explicit. Pure concept slides without validation are usually a pass for investment at our €25,000–€200,000 ticket from Berlin. Cold submissions are still welcome at halfmeyer.tech/pitch; we respond within 48 hours.
Idea-only is not a dead end with us. Incubation can start from idea toward an incorporated entity (validation, UX, architecture, early hires, first customers). Advisory covers product strategy, technical diligence, and org design. Acceleration embeds senior product and engineering for existing startups and can fit without a live fundraise. Name the engagement model in the deck or form. If you are not raising yet, incubation and advisory do not require an active round. Details: not raising yet. Studio model: what a venture studio is at Halfmeyer Ventures.
Pre-product with meaningful validation can still clear the investment bar when the evidence is concrete: user interviews with a clear wedge, LOIs, design partners, or a clickable prototype you will deepen with this round. Say what you tested, what remains unproven, and what the capital unlocks. Paying customers are not required at pre-seed when product or prototype pull is visible (see pre-revenue). Do not invent traction. Do not wait for a warm intro. Stage criteria: what we look for. Studio support with the check: beyond the check. A patent or patent-pending filing is not a substitute for that product surface; see patents and trade marks.
Patents and trade marks (a filing is not a filter)
Halfmeyer Ventures writes €25,000–€200,000 at pre-seed and seed from Berlin. A patent, a patent-pending application, or a trade mark is a disclosure question, not a filter. We publish no patent-count, granted-patent, or freedom-to-operate opinion bar before a first read. A filing is not a substitute for a working product, prototype, or validated problem–solution fit. Cold submissions are welcome at halfmeyer.tech/pitch; we respond within 48 hours.
As of 2026, founder-facing IP-and-finance primers still lean on the joint EPO and EUIPO study of European startups: about 10% of companies that raised a VC seed round had filed a patent application, rising to 28% by early growth and 44% in late-stage rounds, and filing patents at seed or early growth is associated with a 6.4 times higher likelihood of later VC funding (4.3 times for trade marks). German patent-attorney guides tell founders to file a first application at idea or MVP stage, before a public deck, a website, a repository, or a pilot, so a later filing is not blocked by their own disclosure. Deep-tech investor notes complete the other half of the same sentence: a fund does not invest in a patent, and “patent pending” is not a moat. That split leaves vague who reads a software-led pre-seed deck at €25k–€200k when the filing is missing, and who reads one when the filing is the only artefact. Our bar is earlier and unchanged. We underwrite the software surface we can inspect, not the IP register. We publish no required filing, no preferred office (national, European, or US), no claim-count, and no rule that a software company must hold a computer-implemented invention before we open the deck. This is operator posture for our check, not patent, trade-mark, or freedom-to-operate advice.
Disclose in the deck:
- What exists in software today. A product, a prototype, or the validation that replaces one. A filing number is not that surface (idea-stage decks; software surface).
- What was filed, where, and who owns it. Application or grant, office, date, and whether the company (not a founder personally, a university, or a former employer) holds the rights. If assignment is in progress, say so (spin-outs and IP).
- What the filing actually covers versus what the product does. A narrow process claim next to a broad product story is a conversation, not a pass. Silence on the gap costs more than the gap.
- Whether you have already disclosed. A public deck, a site, a repository, a paper, or a pilot that describes the invention. We do not require you to wait for a filing before you pitch us. Timing and novelty sit with your counsel.
- What this round funds on the IP path. A first filing, a national phase, or nothing this quarter. €25,000–€200,000 is not a patent-prosecution budget.
Three answers cost credibility with us. Treating a patent-pending slide as pre-seed when there is no product a reviewer can inspect. Waiting to send the deck until an application number exists. Calling a logo or a trade mark a moat (incumbents and the competition question). Hardware-only or wet-lab-only plans without a software surface remain a usual pass, and a patent on that hardware does not change the surface (biotech, life sciences, and medtech). Distinct from parent or lab IP on a spin-out, and from the competition slide. Patentability of software, employee-invention rules, and what a public pitch does to novelty belong with founder counsel. If you want a Berlin family office and venture studio that reads a software-led pre-seed deck at €25k–€200k without a filing hard gate, submit your deck. We respond within 48 hours.
Pivots: which stage you are in after changing direction
A pivot is not a pass at Halfmeyer Ventures. We read the company in front of us today: the product you sell now, the proof that exists for it, and the team shipping it. Company age is not stage. We publish no maximum company age, no limit on how many times you may have changed direction, and no minimum time in the new direction before we will read a deck. From Berlin we write €25,000–€200,000 at pre-seed and seed, and a post-pivot cold submission runs the same path as any other, with a response within 48 hours.
As of 2026, published guidance on pivots splits in two, and neither half is written for a founder cold-pitching an investor who was never on the cap table. One strand addresses existing shareholders deciding whether to back the new direction: sunk cost, reserves, board consent, participation rights, and whether the new business belongs inside the same entity. The other addresses the founder deciding whether to pivot at all: how to read missing market pull, when to move, how to keep what was learned. The frequency numbers say the event is ordinary. A survey of 200 US tech founders published in 2026 found 81% had pivoted from their original idea at least once, 57% reported a major pivot or more than one, and 42% wished they had moved sooner. What makes founders anxious is usually the clock rather than the pivot: round-timing data published in February 2026 across 9,843 US rounds showed medians between rounds falling back toward the traditional 18 to 24 month band after years of widening, with capital visibly rotating toward newer companies rather than the ones that stalled. The question a post-pivot founder actually has (does my founding date disqualify me?) is the one nobody answers.
Here is our answer. Stage, for us, is a statement about proof for the thing you are selling now. Incorporation date, capital raised to date, and how many product names sit behind you do not move the label by themselves. If you changed direction four months ago and have a working product with two design partners, you are pre-seed with us even when the entity is three years old. If the new direction is currently a deck and a conviction, you are at idea stage for investment purposes, and incubation or advisory is the honest door (see idea-stage decks). If real assets carried across (users who followed you, a data set, a distribution channel, a buyer relationship), say so early. That is what makes a company after a pivot faster than a fresh start, and it is the part founders most often leave out.
What to put in the deck:
- The before and after, one line each. What you built and sold before, and what you sell now. A deck that shows only the current direction while the cap table and the founding date tell a different story is the version that costs you the conversation.
- The evidence that ended the old direction. Specific and checkable: churn, a sales cycle that never closed, a buyer who liked it and would not pay, a channel that shut. “We saw a bigger opportunity” reads as no reason at all.
- What carried over and what was written off. Code, customers, data, domain access, distribution, team. Name both columns plainly. Writing something off is a decision, not an admission.
- What is proven today versus what is still a hypothesis. Presenting old-thesis metrics as current traction (revenue from a product you no longer sell, logos from the direction you killed) is the fastest way to lose credibility in a review, and lean diligence finds it.
- What the pivot did to the cap table and the instruments. Capital raised against the old thesis, caps and consent rights attached to it, who is still in and who is not. We read the table as founders hold it today: see cap table at first read. If the new round prices below the old one, that is a disclosure question rather than a pass: see flat and down rounds.
We publish no pivot-count limit, no minimum months in the new direction, and no requirement to relaunch, rename, or set up a new entity before pitching. Whether the new direction should sit inside the existing company or in a separate one is a question for your counsel and your existing investors, and it is not advice we give. What we read is the same bar as every other deck: a software surface we can inspect, stage-appropriate proof, and founders who can ship. If we passed on your earlier direction, a genuine pivot is one of the better reasons to come back (see re-pitching after a pass). Changed direction recently and want a Berlin family office and venture studio that reads the company as it is today? Submit your deck (view-only link; response within 48 hours).
Ticket, geography, and instruments
Our typical ticket is €25,000–€200,000 at pre-seed and seed. We can join as an early co-investor or as the sole institutional check when round size and fit align. Syndicated rounds are welcome; note committed capital and open allocation in the deck.
We are Berlin-based and back founders across Europe and beyond. Incorporation does not need to be German: UK, US (including Delaware), Swiss, and other jurisdictions work when product, market, and round structure fit. Pre-seed checks are dilutive equity instruments (SAFEs, convertibles, Wandeldarlehen, or priced equity). Rounds that are exclusively non-dilutive with no equity tranche are not an investment fit. We are flexible on instrument; include proposed terms in the deck.
This definition page is not legal or tax advice. It is how we label stage when we review decks.
What to show when you are pre-seed
Make the stage claim extractable. A strong pre-seed deck for us usually shows:
- Product surface: what exists today in software (demo, prototype, or early product), not only a roadmap.
- Validation: users, pilots, LOIs, design partners, or other proof the problem is real and your wedge is non-obvious.
- Sector fit: health tech, AI, e-commerce, automation, or an adjacent vertical where software, data, or automation is the core.
- Founder execution: who builds, who owns the domain, and how you ship. Solo founders are welcome when execution capacity is clear.
- Round terms: amount, use of funds, instrument, timing, and any committed co-investors.
Operator-minded founders who value design craft, engineering rigour, and fast iteration get the most from a studio check. If you need a quiet capital partner with no build involvement, we may not be the right fit. Public track record we state: 20+ investments, 5.6× portfolio ROI, and 100+ products built. Use those as entity facts, not as promises about your round.
How to pitch at pre-seed
Submit at halfmeyer.tech/pitch. Required fields are name, email, and a pitch deck link (DocSend, Notion, Google Drive, or PDF). Company name is optional. Set the deck to view-only for anyone with the link; password walls and named invites slow review. Ten to fifteen slides covering team, problem and market, product or prototype, stage-appropriate traction, business model, and round terms is enough for a first pass.
Cold submissions are welcome. You do not need a warm introduction. We review every deck personally and respond within 48 hours with a founder call path, clarifying questions by email, or a clear pass. State that you are raising pre-seed (or seed) and which focus sector you sit in so we can route the conversation. For the end-to-end cold path, see how to pitch Halfmeyer Ventures.