The biggest frustration I have with today’s pre-seed landscape is how automated it has become. Founders fire off pitches written by AI, push everything through templates, and expect investors to respond to an idea rather than a relationship.

There’s very little human connection and even less consideration for who they’re speaking to. In a market shaped by AI, this lack of thought is more obvious than ever. It’s also one of the reasons so many founders are struggling to get cut-through.

The myth that pre-seed is still about raising money for an idea lingers on. It used to be true, but the ground has shifted. Investors are no longer betting on potential alone. They’re looking for proof that a founder can turn an idea into something real. That shift has caught a lot of founders off guard.

The vision trap

A lot of early-stage pitches lean heavily on a brand-led vision. Founders describe a world they want to create, often beautifully, but without anchoring it to a commercial reality. Vision still matters, but only when it helps explain the size of the opportunity and the transformation you can create. Without that grounding, it becomes a distraction.

I’ve seen plenty of impressive visions unravel the moment you look at execution. The progress isn’t there. The credibility isn’t there. Founders present features, ideas and product screenshots, when what investors really need is confidence in the founder’s ability to deliver. Great ideas are everywhere. The value sits in the execution.

And execution is now easier to demonstrate than ever.

AI has raised the bar

Over the last decade, we’ve moved through several fundraising eras: pre-covid optimism, the covid surge, the post-covid recalibration, and now the post-AI reality. Funding hasn’t disappeared – in fact, early-stage investment in the last year still exceeds pre-Covid levels (which at the time felt like a boom period with huge amounts of optimism and opportunity). But expectations have changed.

AI is the catalyst. Since the launch of ChatGPT, it has become entirely possible for one or two capable founders to build a working version of a product, create content at scale, run distribution experiments, and speak to hundreds of potential customers without spending any meaningful capital. Technical ability has been commoditised. You no longer impress an investor just because you can code.

This has reshaped what investors consider risky. Why would they back a team at idea stage when another team can show demand, early product, and distribution muscle before raising a pound? That’s why pre-seed today looks more like what seed looked like not long ago. Investors can afford to expect more, because many founders are showing more.

What pre-seed really means now

When I strip everything back, pre-seed in 2026 comes down to what I think of as the four why’s. These are the signals investors use to judge whether a founder is building something inevitable. It’s our job as founders to deliver credible, data-backed answers to each of them.

• Why this product – what problem it solves, and why the solution is the right one.

• Why this market – the commercial context, the demand you’ve seen, and the audience waiting for it.

• Why this moment – the forces that make now the time this needs to exist.

• Why this founder – the insight, commitment and execution that show you can turn the idea into reality.

If you can answer these clearly, you give investors the confidence they need at pre-seed. If you can’t, no amount of vision or storytelling will compensate.

Much of this is demonstrated to investors by the commitment and progress the founders have already made. You don’t need revenue at this stage, but you do need evidence. Market signals matter far more than prototypes. Surveys, focus groups, interviews, letters of intent and waitlists are all forms of traction. They show demand, they show the ability to execute, they show a path to distribution.

And there’s no excuse not to have them, in fact, they are vital if you want to raise.

One team I worked with was asked by an investor to return once they had a waitlist of 250 people. He loved the idea, but he needed more proof that the market was willing to adopt and the founders could generate interest.

Initially, they thought the number was huge and the request unjust. How were they supposed to get people interested when they didn’t have a product? They just wanted someone to believe in their vision and give them the money to build. But they went away, built a process, spoke to their market, gathered data, and grew a waitlist of around 700 people. When they returned, the investor had to take them seriously. Shortly after, they closed their round. The shift in their ability to raise came not from a better prototype, more features, or a bigger, bolder vision. It came from market signals alone.

The fairest question investors now ask

Founders often ask if it’s fair for investors to demand traction at pre-seed. Given where the market is, I think it is. It may feel unfair because four years ago that wasn’t the expectation, but we’re operating in a new environment.

The problem is that investors often use the word traction without defining it. When they say “come back with more traction”, what they usually mean is “I don’t yet trust you to turn this idea into reality”.

Ultimately, all investors are looking for signs you can turn ideas into reality, and reality into returns.

Traction simply means progress aligned to your stage. It’s a sliding scale. Early on, it’s market signals. Later, it’s revenue. This traction is demonstrated by the primary evidence you’ve gathered in answer to the four whys.

Momentum is your strongest story

The strongest signal a founder can offer is progress unfolding in real time. When an investor sees customers signing up, insights sharpening, and the business case being de-risked week by week, they feel drawn into the journey. They see the momentum, and they don’t want to miss the boat by trying to board too late.

This stands in complete contrast to the static big vision that defined the old pre-seed world. A vision simply points out the direction of travel, but it doesn’t make progress towards the destination. Execution, on the other hand, delivers progress towards the ultimate goal.

What investors want is a founder who can hold a big vision as a beacon while also navigating the road towards it. Someone who can adjust to setbacks, handle the steep climbs, and maximise opportunity when the terrain turns in their favour. These are ‘outlying founders’ – rare, disciplined operators who pair ambition with progress. A business led by an outlying founder has far greater odds of succeeding.

And investors know this. Their job is to allocate capital to the opportunities most likely to produce returns, so they look for an exceptional product in an exceptional market, at the right moment, led by an outlying founder. It sounds like a lot to ask, and it is, but there are enough founders seeking funding for investors to be this selective.

Your ability to show momentum is what shifts you from simply being a founder with a vision to becoming the outlying founder investors want to back. Momentum is the proof that you can take the idea where you say it’s going.

Where founders need to shift their focus

The founders struggling most are the ones still rooted in the old story: features, ideas, theoretical opportunities. They’re missing the practical signals that make investors act. In a world where AI can build almost anything, distribution, customer insight and execution are what stand out.

The opportunity for founders is clear: show progress and demonstrate demand. It’s your job to create a narrative where market adoption is inevitable, even if the product is not yet finished.

Pre-seed is no longer a pitch about potential, it’s a demonstration of capability. Investors want founders who can show, not tell. If you can build momentum before you raise – and keep building it while you raise – you put yourself in a completely different category. You become the founder who is turning ideas into reality at a pace others can’t ignore.