Resources
The Avan Readiness Rubric
The Avan Readiness Rubric is the written standard Avan Partners scores every business against before it raises. It covers seven areas a consumer fund probes at seed and Series A (business dynamics, unit economics, cash cycle, positioning, brand story, founder, and fundraising path), and both partners score each company against it separately before comparing.
Why it is written down
Neither of us takes a number on trust, including our own. A written rubric means the standard does not move with mood, with how good the pitch was, or with who referred the founder. It also means a founder who is turned down can see that the no came from the business, not from us.
The seven areas, as investors see them
Business dynamics. Whether the revenue you show is the revenue you keep, and whether that growth still works when spend stops.
Unit economics. What one order earns after discounts, platform fees, shipping, COD charges and returns. The number on the dashboard is rarely the number that survives this.
Cash cycle. How long your money sits in inventory, marketplace settlements and courier remittances before it comes back. Seed rounds are often spent filling this gap without anyone naming it.
Positioning. Whether a buyer can tell, in a crowded Nykaa or Amazon listing, why your product and not the one beside it, and whether a cheaper competitor could copy that reason in a quarter.
Brand story. Whether what you say about the brand and what the numbers show are the same argument.
Founder. Whether the person raising knows the business more precisely than the person reading it.
Fundraising path. Whether this round, at this size, from these funds, leads somewhere the next round can follow.
What we don't publish
The scale, the weights, the order we work through the areas, and the cut-off we call our capital threshold stay private. Publishing them would turn a judgement into a form, and a form can be filled in to look ready without being ready. What you can take from this page is where a fund will look. Looking there alone means marking your own paper.
Questions
FAQ
What is the Avan Readiness Rubric?
The written standard Avan Partners uses to score Indian D2C businesses before they raise, covering seven areas investors probe.
Can I see how the rubric is scored?
No. You see your scores and the reasons in your diagnostic note. The method stays with us.
Why do both partners score separately?
So one of us cannot talk the other into a view. Disagreement is a finding in itself.
Is the rubric the same for every category?
The areas are the same. What counts as healthy differs between beauty, wellness and food, and the review accounts for that.
Does a high score mean I will raise?
No. Nobody can promise a raise. A strong result means a fund is less likely to find a reason to say no that you didn't already know about.