What the Startup Readiness Index does
The Startup Readiness Index scores how ready your startup is to raise, from 0 to 100, and tells you which parts of the business are holding that number down. It is not a pitch review and it is not a valuation. It answers a narrower question: if you walked into an investor meeting next month, what would they find missing?
You answer fifteen questions about customers, revenue, runway, records, equity and team. The index combines those answers with what you have already filled in on your Startupply profile, scores seven pillars separately, and returns an overall figure with a status band attached.
Founders usually discover their gaps one at a time, in meetings, after an investor has already formed an impression. A cap table nobody wrote down, a retention number nobody tracks, a use of funds that is really a wish list. Each of those costs a conversation. The index puts them in one list before the meetings start.
- A score out of 100 with a plain-language readiness band
- Seven pillars scored separately, so a strong product does not hide weak financials
- Your three weakest pillars, with the specific questions behind each one
- Direct links to the Startupply tool that addresses each gap
The seven pillars
A single score is easy to read and easy to misuse. Two startups can both sit at 65% while being unready for entirely different reasons, and averaging their problems into one number hides that. The index scores seven areas separately and shows all seven.
Product & Validation
Whether the problem, the solution and the customer are defined clearly enough that someone outside the company can repeat them back to you.
Market & Traction
Paying customers, growth rate, retention, and whether you can size the market you are selling into.
Business Model
How the money is made, what a customer is worth against what they cost, and how much of your revenue recurs.
Financial Readiness
Revenue, burn, runway, and whether your numbers exist somewhere an investor can audit.
Team
Who is building this, whether they are full-time, and why this team in particular.
Scalability
Whether serving ten times the customers costs ten times as much.
Investor Readiness
The mechanics of taking money: deck, cap table, use of funds, registration.
A low bar on one pillar is not a verdict on the company. It is a list of what to fix, in the order that fixing it moves the score most.
How the score is calculated
The arithmetic is fixed and repeatable. Answer the same way twice and you get the same number twice, which matters if you plan to retake it after a quarter of work and want the change to mean something.
- 1
Each answer earns a share of its question's weight
Questions are not equal. Whether you have documented financial records counts for more than how much you are seeking, because one is a readiness signal and the other is a plan. Every answer scores somewhere between nothing and full marks rather than pass or fail.
- 2
Your existing profile counts too
The fifteen questions cannot cover everything, so the index also reads what you have already written on your Startupply profile: problem, solution, competitors, unit economics, founder background. A substantial answer scores full marks, a two-word answer scores half, a blank scores nothing.
- 3
Each pillar is scored on its own
Every question and profile answer belongs to one pillar. A pillar's score is what it earned as a share of what it could have earned, so a pillar built on three inputs is judged on those three, not diluted by the rest of the assessment.
- 4
The overall index is the weighted average
The seven pillars are combined by weight. Market & Traction, Financial Readiness and Investor Readiness carry the most, because those are what investors interrogate first. Scalability carries the least.
- 5
The weakest pillars become your gap list
Any pillar below the threshold is a gap. Within it, inputs are ranked by how much each one cost you, so a heavily weighted question you left blank appears above a minor one you half-answered.
Nothing you answer here is written back to your startup profile. The index reads your profile; it never edits it.
What the score means
The number maps to one of six bands. The bands matter more than the digits: the difference between 71 and 74 is noise, while the difference between 54 and 71 is the difference between needing validation and needing a tidier data room.
| Score | Status | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 0-39% | Idea / Not Ready | Significant fundamentals are missing |
| 40-54% | Early Stage | Concept exists, but major validation is still needed |
| 55-69% | Developing | Some investment fundamentals exist, but important gaps remain |
| 70-79% | Almost Ready | Strong foundation; address key weaknesses before fundraising |
| 80-89% | Investment Ready | Startup demonstrates strong investment fundamentals |
| 90-100% | Highly Investment Ready | Very strong readiness; suitable for active investor conversations |
Turning the score into work
A score on its own changes nothing. The result page names your weakest pillars, the specific questions behind each, and whether each one is weak because the answer was thin or because it was never given. The second kind is usually an afternoon of work.
Each gap links to the tool that addresses it. Weak Financial Readiness points at the AI Funding Calculator, so a runway you cannot defend becomes a raise you can. Weak Business Model points at the frameworks, where a Lean Canvas or Business Model Canvas forces the revenue question into the open. Weak Investor Readiness points at investor search, once the materials are worth sending.
Where a pillar scores low because your profile is thin rather than your startup is, the fix is the profile. The result page says how many profile answers behind each bar are still empty, so you can tell the two apart instead of guessing.
- Retake it after a quarter: the arithmetic is fixed, so the movement is real
- Work the heaviest gap first - the list is already ordered by cost to your score
- Treat unanswered profile questions as the cheapest points available
Frequently asked questions
Is the Startup Readiness Index free?
Reading your score and seeing the questions is free with a Startupply account. Scoring a new assessment is part of the Go plan and above.
Does it use AI?
The score does not. Every number - the overall index, the seven pillars, the bands, the gap ranking - is fixed arithmetic, so the same answers always produce the same result. AI is used afterwards, to explain the gaps in plain language and suggest what to do about each one.
Will answering these questions change my startup profile?
No. The index reads your profile to score the pillars the fifteen questions do not cover, but nothing you answer here is written back. Where your profile already holds an answer, it is offered as a starting point you can correct.
Why is one pillar low when I answered its question well?
Most pillars draw on your startup profile as well as the fifteen questions. Scalability, for example, also reads your unit economics and market growth answers, so blanks there hold the bar down. Each bar shows how many of its profile answers are still empty, so you can see when that is what is happening.
What if I am a solo founder?
Co-founder questions are excluded from your score entirely when your profile says you have one founder. You are not marked down for a team structure you chose.
How often should I retake it?
Quarterly, or after any change that would alter an answer: a first paying customer, a cap table you finally executed, a bookkeeping system. Because the scoring is deterministic, a movement between two runs reflects real change rather than a different guess.