Funding Criteria & Eligibility
Guidelines to help you determine if your company is a good fit
Golden Seeds is always looking for new, exciting women-led companies.
Golden Seeds invests in early-stage, women-led U.S. companies with strong leadership, scalable models, and market potential. Typical rounds range from $250K-$2M, with valuations under $10M. We fund select tech, healthcare, and consumer ventures that demonstrate proof of concept and growth readiness.
Please carefully review our investment criteria. If you meet the criteria, we welcome your application.
Eligibility
Golden Seeds accepts applications only from women-led companies domiciled in the U.S.Eligible companies must have at least one woman in an operating C-suite role.
While many have a female founder or CEO, we also consider companies with women in other executive positions.
When evaluating leadership, we consider:
- Does the female executive have power and influence in the company?
- Does she own a “fair” amount of company equity, given her role and the stage of the company?
What We Look For
- A capable management team with domain expertise
- A scalable business model
- An addressable market of at least $500 million
- Limited capital expenditure requirements
- Opportunities that can be accelerated with support from our investors
- A product or service in beta (versus alpha) stage of development that has been created with input from clients or potential clients
- “Proof of concept” revenue or significant pilots, except for health care bio/pharma, diagnostics, and devices companies
- A plausible exit strategy within 5-8 years
- Valuation at first funding is typically below $10 million
- Typically seeking first-round of funding of $250,000-$2,000,000
Sector-Specific Criteria
For consumer product companies, additional criteria include:
- Annual run rate revenue over $1,000,000
- Gross margins over 40%
For health care companies (bio/pharma, diagnostics, and devices), additional investment considerations include:
- Protectable intellectual property, with protection granted or underway
- Products or services that fill a significant unmet need
- A concept based on verifiable science that validates approach and supports expectation of efficacy
- Articulated pathways, with projected timing, for regulatory and reimbursement approvals (if applicable)
- An understanding of the studies required to drive adoption (blind clinical studies, for example), their design, and cost
- Clinical partnerships or connections that will allow access to patients for clinical trials and help drive adoption
- Defined approach for product manufacturing and scaling, or rationale for why this is not necessary
- Understanding of capital requirements, future funding strategies, and expected milestones needed to achieve such strategies
- For device companies, meaningful and positive in vitro, and ideally in vivo data that has been validated externally or with validation underway
- For diagnostic companies, strong retrospective and ideally prospective data that has been validated externally or with validation underway
- We typically do not invest in therapeutics
If you have any questions regarding our criteria, please reach out to us at info@goldenseeds.com.
What We Don't Fund
The following categories do not meet our investment criteria:- Venture Funds: Golden Seeds invests directly in early-stage operating companies, not pooled investment vehicles. Venture funds have different structures, timelines, and risk profiles that fall outside our angel investing model.
- Ventures with a large real estate component: Companies whose primary value is tied to real estate or property assets are not a fit for our early-stage investment strategy. We focus on scalable businesses where growth is driven by innovation, not real estate holdings.
- Television or radio programs: Media productions typically lack the scalable business structure and exit potential required for angel investing. These projects often rely on sponsorship or episodic funding rather than repeatable, high-growth revenue.
- Film, theater, or art productions: Creative productions operate on project-based timelines and do not offer the long-term scalability or exit pathways we look for. Our investments prioritize companies developing products or services with broad market adoption potential.
- Non-profit organizations: We fund for-profit companies with growth and exit opportunities that can generate investor returns. Non-profits operate under different financial models and missions that don't align with angel investment structures.
- Companies domiciled outside of the U.S.: Golden Seeds invests only in U.S.-domiciled companies to maintain alignment with regulatory frameworks and our nationwide deal flow process. International companies fall outside our investment scope.
- Companies using the 506(c) exemption or Reg CF (crowdfunding) or where our investments are subject to a broker/dealer fee: We do not participate in offerings that publicly solicit investment (506(c), Reg CF) or transactions requiring broker/dealer fees. These models introduce regulatory complexities and fee structures that don't align with our investment process.
Not Sure if you Qualify?
If you feel you don’t currently qualify for Golden Seeds funding, or are unsure, but would like to engage with us and learn more, consider attending an Information Session or Office Hours.
Information Sessions offer a brief overview of the basics of raising capital and how the Golden Seeds process works and Office Hours allow entrepreneurs to get feedback on their company from Golden Seeds members before applying.
Information Sessions Office Hours
Ready to Apply?
You’ve reviewed our investment criteria — now take the next step toward funding with Golden Seeds.