Staging the capital against the tests

The staging follows the tests rather than a calendar, and its logic is specific to this case. Innovera's own second stated assumption is that new capital improves the trajectory rather than adding burn. The analysis here shows capacity is not the binding constraint at current conversion: a midpoint raise funds about 11.5 advisors carrying 30.6 business units of capacity, against a middle case of six contracts, and nearer half that headroom once the pilot book those advisors also carry is counted. Deploying into delivery capacity first would confirm that assumption's failure mode rather than avoid it.

Before the round closes, at no cost. Tests 1 through 5, plus starting the SOC 2 Type I. All are internal decisions, internal records or one conversation. Two of them change the gross margin figure a diligence process will compute, and one changes the price on the next invoice.

First tranche, the lower end of the band. Fund the engineering that reduces advisor hours, the conversion motion, and one seller who is not a founder. Milestones stated as evidence rather than as revenue: advisor hours per engagement down by a stated fraction against the baseline test 1 produces; a conversion rate measured on a cohort old enough to have converted; one annual license sold without a founder present; and the Navigate monitor either sold separately or shown not to sell.

Second tranche, released on those milestones. Delivery capacity hired against signed contracts, depth in whichever vertical the evidence points at, and the benchmark data product once there are enough initiatives for a comparison set to exist.

The one thing worth funding ahead of evidence is the engineering that takes advisor hours out of delivery, because it is the only spend that changes what the company is rather than how much of it there is. Everything else scales the business as it stands.