Journal

What you can raise before you have a product

By the Thaw Ventures team · 2026

Can you raise money with just an idea? Some, from a few specific places, for a specific purpose. Not a seed round and not a valuation. What is realistic at idea stage is enough to turn the idea into something other people can evaluate, and that is the step most founders try to skip.

Realistic sources

• Grants sized to a first milestone. For most teams this is the most accessible idea-stage money. It pays for a deliverable, not a stake.
• Small first checks from funds that say they invest before a product exists. Ask directly: “Do you invest before there is a product, and in what form?” A clear answer saves weeks.
• Hackathons. A prize rewards a working demo built against a deadline. Treat it as a way to produce the prototype a committee wants to see, not as a funding plan.

What is not realistic yet

Some money is out of reach until you ship. Retroactive programmes pay for impact already delivered. Programmes that depend on traction ask for users you do not have yet. Quadratic funding rounds weigh how many people back you. None of these are closed to you for good; they are later stops on the path.

What to prepare: four things on one page

• One milestone. A single, checkable deliverable with a date. If a reviewer who has never met you could not verify it, it is not concrete yet.
• A budget that reads like a bill of materials. Three to six lines (engineering time, review, infrastructure) that add up to the ask.
• A demo or an architecture document. A repository whose README runs in one command is better than any deck.
• The team, with links. At idea stage, the team is most of what a reviewer is judging, so make it easy to check.

Mistakes at this stage

• Asking for “runway” instead of naming a milestone.
• Requesting the top of a programme’s range for a first step.
• Leading with token design before anything works.
• Not explaining why the product needs a blockchain at all.
• Sending one generic application to ten programmes instead of tailoring the fit paragraph.
• Waiting until the application looks polished. An honest early application with one milestone is stronger than a late one with ten.