Bootstrap guide
Customer prepayments + annual contracts
Sample data — verify thesis, stage focus, and contact info before reaching out.
Get paid upfront for what you're going to build. Non-dilutive, no interest, validates the market. Often-overlooked first capital for B2B + service businesses.
Stages
Geographies
Industries
Business models
Check size
$1,000 to $1,000,000
Founder segments
How to reach them
Offer a 10-20% discount for annual prepay vs. monthly. For services: charge a discovery/scoping fee before the engagement starts. For products: take pre-orders before you ship. Stripe Atlas has a comprehensive guide on customer-financing patterns.
- Submission link
- Apply or pitch ↗
Known weaknesses
- Requires existing customer demand + trust
- Cash-flow obligation to deliver, over-promise risk
- Hard to do at scale without a sales team
Outreach starter
Pick a material kind or ask AI to rewrite with your voice.
Subject: {{idea name}}: {{one-line description}}
Hi Customer prepayments + annual contracts,
I'm {{founder name}}, building {{idea name}}.
In one line: {{one-line description}}
Where we are today: {{1-2 sentences of traction}}
We are raising {{ask amount}}. Saw your work with {{portfolio company you back}}, the closest analog to what we're building, which is why I'm reaching out to you specifically.
Deck and demo: {{website url}}
Worth a 20-minute conversation?
{{founder name}}Fill in: idea name, one-line description, founder name, 1-2 sentences of traction, ask amount, portfolio company you back, website url
Need every material at once? See the full outreach generator.