Founder features

The founder side of Hockystick is built around one loop: build a verified profile, get discovered by investors whose thesis you match, open a deal room, and get a real decision — Invest, Hold, or Pass with a reason — instead of silence.

Feature map

The founder flow

1. 1Create an account and build your profile — by hand, or by letting the AI extract it from your pitch deck.
2. 2Pass verification checks. Tier 1 is automated and instant; higher tiers add document evidence.
3. 3Fill the document vault against your stage's checklist so you're ready before the first investor call.
4. 4Open a deal room when an investor engages. The NDA gate protects everything inside it.
5. 5Progress through the six stages — Overview, Information Vault, Q&A, Due Diligence, Term Sheet, Closing — and receive a recorded decision.

Onboarding flow

New founders follow one sequential path with a single call to action at each step: build your profile (a 10–12 question AI interview or a document upload, ~10 minutes), verify your identity (four automated checks, ~2 minutes), and publish to the directory. After saving, the app points you straight at verification; after publishing, you get a durable confirmation with your public profile link. The whole path from signup to a live, discoverable profile is designed to take under ten minutes.

Fundraising readiness checklist

Every time you save your profile or upload a document, the AI reviews your complete file — profile data, documents, verification status, and claim verdicts — the way an investment analyst would, and produces a readiness score (0–100) with the 5–7 most important gaps for your stage and sector. Each gap explains what an investor thinks when it's missing, how to fix it, and links to the exact place to do so. A pre-revenue deeptech company is asked about IP status; an early-revenue SaaS company about churn and unit economics — this is not a generic checklist.

Investors in a deal room with you see your score and top three gaps on the room's Overview panel, so their questions focus on what actually matters. The checklist lives on your dashboard and can be re-run at any time.

Badge system

23 badges across four categories. Most are awarded automatically when the underlying fact becomes true — none can be bought outright (Roast Survivor has a participation fee for the live event itself; the outcome is decided independently).

Investors earn their own seven — Active Investor, Thesis Clarity, Fast Decision, Deal Closed, No Ghosting, Gives Reasons, and Verified Fund — so accountability runs both ways: founders can see whether an investor decides quickly and never ghosts before accepting a deal room.