Why we built PRL—our unique multi-factor investor readiness framework
Copyright, pitchhawk, 2025.
TL; DR
Fundraising is often viewed as a simple “pitch vs. investor” interaction based on the law of averages, but the reality is far more complex.
Behind every successful new issue, or sale of shares, lies a rigorous process of evaluation that considers many moving parts beyond idea, technology and market opportunity.
That evaluation happens on the buy-side. That means it’s objectively undertaken by the investor. And since serious investors see thousands of pitches in a year and only invest in a few, it makes sense that most pitches miss the key investability elements that investors care most about.
When you dive into the weeds across hundreds of businesses, as Hawk1 has, you realise that those investability elements can number in the dozens. But it’s not the number of elements that matters.
What’s really important is how those elements relate to and operate with each other (interoperability) and whether or not they’re tuned to a frequency that investors are listening to (signal).
Often, four killer investability factors aligned perfectly and tuned to the right frequency totally trump 15 marginally important checkboxes that are misaligned or tone deaf.
And that’s why we created the pitchhawk Readiness Level (PRL) ranking system—the unique PRL rank that you receive following each Pre-flight.
Today, we wanted to unpack the benefits to you of securing your PRL, and then uplevelling it.
What is PRL?
PRL is a multi-factor approach to evaluating, scoring and ranking your startup, scaleup or innovation business against the ideal investment.
At pitchhawk, we think the ideal investment should resemble a mighty stone fortress—strong, dependable, defensible, and built to sustainably capture territory and scale, without the need for constant rebuilding and investment.
Why a multi-factor approach?
Innovation faces challenges at many levels. Some relate to internal execution, like leadership and execution capability, while others stem from external forces like shifting consumer tastes, regulation, creative disruption, or structural changes driven by macro and geopolitical forces.
Traditional fundraising advice tends to oversimplify and/or ignore these complexities because more often than not, it is tethered to a fundraising service where the incentive is a percentage-based fee. Those actors prefer an uncomplicated route to their percentage fee, and as a result are not incentivised to identify weak or missing business elements. Instead, they tend to paper over the cracks with carefully worded statements in lipglossed documents.
Unlike those methods which were designed to get you “advisor-ready” not “investor-ready”—genuine business fortification and investor readiness is precisely where pitchhawk comes in, and our PRL system is at the heart of it.
PRL addresses the “genuine readiness” gap by delivering an integrated, consistent, and data-informed view of your business and investor readiness.
We don’t tick boxes and paper over problems. Instead, we examine all key business and investability elements, score them, and assess how well they align with each other—and whether they are tuned to the frequency that investors in your sector are actually listening to. You receive a PRL ranking after each Pre-flight you take—and you can take as many as you want, when you want.
Our PRL system and process enables you to get investor-ready—smarter, stronger, and faster than other methods.
Alignment and tuning, the key to the highest PRL
Business and investability factors don’t exist in isolation. They form an array of interdependent elements and signals. They’re what investors scan for. If they don’t hear or find them, they move on.
When you know what those signals are and can design and execute your business so that they are aligned and properly tuned, your business sends out a strong, clear signal that resonates with investors.
Only at this intersection will your company achieve a high PRL rank. And the highest PRL means you’re not just prepared, but your investment proposition is finely tuned to attract meaningful capital.
pitchhawk was designed so that you can take a Pre-flight to uplevel your PRL at any time—whether you’re improving on your past score, moving to Seed, or from Seed to Series A, or attempting a pivot, or even considering an IPO or a sale.
At each key juncture, before you face investors and capital markets, we’ve got you covered with our fixed-price Pre-flight and Precision solutions.
A quick note on the macro
PRL uniquely incorporates macroeconomic insights, like secular trends, monetary/funding climates, and business cycles, alongside the granular details of your business and investment proposition.
This holistic lens helps you to contextualise “why now” and prepare you for the actual investor mindset and the realities of capital markets.
Conclusion
Innovation fundraising success depends on far more than just a good idea or a lipglossed “pitch deck”.
Our PRL-fuelled solutions exist to move beyond that gloss, revealing the gaps (that other actors want to hide) and equipping you with a clear, honest view of your readiness before you venture into the investor’s arena.
Regardless of what stage you’re at—pre-Seed to Sale, book your Pre-flight, grab your PRL and see how close your business is to “fortress strength” before you face investors.
pitchhawk has you covered!
Mike
Transforming innovations into investable businesses—smarter, stronger, faster 💨
Copyright, pitchhawk, 2025. All rights reserved.