Pre-Seed companies sometimes do not even have a minimal viable product yet, their business case is an idea and likely to be changed quite frequently during the first 18 to 24 months until a first product market fit is tested. Numbers and financial plans are worth nothing at this stage. Yet, there are valuation models Business Angels use to evaluate such early-stage startups. The most prominent method one is the “Scorecard” method. Developed by Bill Payne, this top-down approach compares a startup to other typical startups at the same stage (investors benchmark the “standard” value of a pre-seed or early seed company in this case), within a geographic region and startup-sector (regtech, digital health, fintech, SaaS, etc.).
