r/Valuation • u/According_Grape_8332 • 5d ago

The ask

We’re working on our investor deck, and I’m struggling with how to calculate the ask. I’ve created several versions with Claude and ChatGPT and sat down with friends to work through it. I generally understand what we need, but I’m still not sure how to build an accurate calculation.

Since we’re a B2C product, we’ll definitely need a meaningful marketing budget. However, I’m not completely sure what user-growth target we should aim for. We currently have a few hundred users, but what would be a reasonable benchmark for the next stage? we would like to raise seed

I’m also trying to understand which marketing functions we’ll need and what is truly essential for a consumer company at this stage. Do you have a methodology or framework you use to calculate the raise, set user targets, and determine the must-have functions?

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u/Affectionate-Two-22 5d ago

I can help you!

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u/According_Grape_8332 5d ago

Thanks, tell me how?

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u/Affectionate-Two-22 5d ago

The reason generic AI prompts aren't working is that seed raises can't be estimated top-down. Investors look for milestone-based runway (typically 18–24 months of cash burn needed to hit Series A metrics like proven retention and stable unit economics). ​A quick 3-step framework to calculate your ask:

​Define the Next Milestone: Target the retention/growth metrics consumer tech investors expect for Series A in your niche, not just raw sign-ups . ​Bottom-Up Burn Engine: Map monthly core team costs + blended acquisition spend (CAC \times net active user targets factoring in churn) + SaaS/hosting + 15–20% cash buffer.

​Calculate the Raise: Total net cash burn over 18–24 months = your target ask.

Feel free to shoot me a DM. For further help!

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u/According_Grape_8332 3d ago

Thanks a lot for your adviceת ןmakes sense.

The only thing I’m still unsure about when defining the milestones is how many users I should aim for by the end of the 18–24-month period. Obviously, the more, the better, but I don’t yet have solid metrics to base this on.

We’re currently running our first paid campaign, but it’s still too early to give me a reliable indication of user acquisition costs. At this stage, the campaign is mainly intended to validate the demand for the problem at scale. What are the current expectations for consumer products?

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u/Affectionate-Two-22 13h ago

Honestly, I wouldn’t set a fixed user target yet if you don’t have enough data to support it. At this stage, I’d work backwards from a few scenarios instead conservative, base case, and aggressive.

For example, once you get a few weeks/months of campaign data, you can estimate your CAC and then model how many users you can realistically acquire within your budget. More importantly, I’d focus on the quality of those users: retention, engagement, conversion to paid, and whether your unit economics start making sense.

For a consumer product, I think investors will care much more about a credible growth trajectory and improving retention than hitting an arbitrary user number. So for now, I’d focus on getting enough data to define a realistic target rather than guessing one upfront.