How to Evaluate a Startup

A usable framework covers six areas: the team and why they are the ones to do this, the problem and how acute it is for a specific customer, the product and whether it is in real use, the traction and whether it is compounding, the market and what changed to make now the moment, and the round terms and whether the price is defensible.

Score them independently before forming an overall view. The most common analytical error is letting enthusiasm about a founder retroactively improve every other category.

Write your reasoning down at the time you decide. Reviewing your own past reasoning against outcomes is the only reliable way to improve at this.