30 metrics to show VCs your seed stage startup has traction

For seed-stage founders, one of the hardest challenges is convincing investors your promising startup can become a truly scalable business. Investors know most startups fail to make it to Series A — as many as 85% in recent years.

Traction is quantifiable evidence of your startup’s growth and potential — proof that you’ve made the right bet, and your team is able to execute on it. The stronger and clearer your traction story, the easier it is for an investor to picture your next 12–24 months and back you with confidence.

That story isn’t just about the size and speed of growth; how growth is achieved matters.

“Quality of growth is what differentiates a good professional investment,” says Des Tan, Director at Adeline Arts and Science. “At seed, it’s about convincing investors that your science, innovation, or competitive advantage really works — and that there’s momentum behind it.”

So which metrics can you use to show high quality growth, and what does good look like?

Seed stage traction benchmarks by sector

Expectations vary by industry – a B2B SaaS startup will be assessed differently to a deep tech venture – but the principles are the same: show momentum, show market fit, and show that the path ahead is viable.

Below are sector-specific metrics and benchmarks we are seeing referenced at seed stage - based on our experience and public statements by thought leaders including investors at A16Z, Octopus Ventures, Yonder VC, Avant Bio, DeepTech Seed Fund and more. It goes without saying - this is general information and not advice for any particular founder or investor. Every business and investor is different, and market expectations are always changing. These benchmarks are indicative and directional: you may not need to hit every benchmark to raise; and equally, meeting benchmarks doesn’t entail fundraising success (with Adeline or anyone else).

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B2B SaaS traction metrics

Recurring revenue growth is the core traction signal for SaaS founders. Investors will look closely at growth rate, efficiency of acquisition, and customer stickiness. Founders may need to show greater discipline with unit economics: as Octopus Ventures put it, growth at all costs is out - “sustainable growth, at all costs” is in.

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Social apps traction metrics

For Social Apps, headline download numbers can be deceiving. Bryan Kim of A16Z says that he focuses on growth in active users, engagement, and retention. Where the growth is coming from is also vital - some paid acquisition is acceptable, but the majority of users should be signing up organically. As Kim puts it, “no amount of marketing dollars can fix a product, so make sure that your growth is coming from the product itself.” Below are some of the benchmarks that Kim and others suggest.

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Consumer startups traction metrics

While social apps tend to focus on user growth and worry about monetisation after seed stage, other B2C startups also need to focus on sustainable revenue. Octopus Ventures identifies a “power train” of three fundamental drivers: headline growth, customer happiness, and unit economics. Here are some of the metrics Octopus and other VCs look at for consumer startups:

According to Octopus, the precise metrics that matter and what “good” looks like depends on your business type - specifically how niche or mass-market your consumer startup is, and the frequency with which your customers make orders. Their framework suggests high frequency, mass market consumer startups should achieve higher growth MoM (20-50%) vs slower frequency or more niche businesses but have lower expectations for LTV:CAC and NPS scores, for example.

Marketplace traction metrics

Funding for marketplaces is recovering - but unless your startup is deeply integrating AI agents, expect a strong emphasis on the fundamentals. That’s the state of fundraising according to Colin Gardner, general partner at marketplace specialist Yonder VC. As he puts it: “2025 has crystallised into a market with dual realities. On the one side we have AI-native marketplaces growing exceptionally fast and raising astronomical sums… on the other we have “traditional” marketplaces facing a financial environment that has become increasingly focused on unit economics, profitability paths, and capital efficiency”.

As far as benchmarks go, Gardner still credits FJ Labs’ Marketplace Matrix as the holy grail of marketplace fundraising.  Below are some of their key benchmarks for seed stage:

For marketplace founders and PMs, Lenny Rachitsky (Lenny’s Newsletter; ex-AirBNB) is also worth a read - he recommends keeping a close eye on what he calls “fill rate” and others have called “match rate” (A16Z) - basically how often buyers can find sellers, and vice versa. Lenny calls this the “ultimate measure of marketplace health”.

What about AI? Gardner reports seeing valuations boosted by as much as 30-50% - but only for startups that are “adding AI in a truly integrated and defensible way”, so don’t assume you can throw in some AI gimmickry and pull the wool over investors’ eyes.

Life sciences and biotech traction metrics

Life sciences and biotech startups face long R&D cycles and regulatory hurdles - and with that comes a different set of investor expectations about commercial traction. For Sebastian Latapie (Principal at Avant Bio) the product is the first step, and needs to be an order of magnitude better than the competition. If that’s in place, at seed stage, market traction starts to become relevant - but as he explains it, the way this assessed may be closer to pre-seed expectations in other sectors:

“We want to see them engaging with different customers, having maybe that early traction… when they’re raising the seed round… usually they have a unique insight… they’ve identified a clear pain point that they’re solving for.”

(For more about problem-market fit see our blog on that topic). Latapie has greater expectations for sales and revenue growth at Series A - so in essence, traction benchmarks have shifted back an entire funding stage.

So what can founders do to show traction at seed stage? Here are some ideas:

There are also some clear red flags: if you are going to present a weighted pipeline, don’t include stale deals or companies that have never made a real commitment, says Latapie. Similarly, if you want to show revenue, don’t misrepresent your commercial performance by showing cumulative numbers, or folding in one-off grants from non-commercial bodies.

Deep tech and hardware traction metrics

Founders of deep tech startups are in a similar position to biotech and life sciences: in many cases these companies may be university spinouts, and the road to commercialisation can be a long one. Technical founders may also be better at communicating the brilliance of their science than demonstrating market traction. Pearse Coyle (Deeptech Seed Fund) recommends a development of the ICURe scorecard that can distil early stage, pre-revenue conversations with potential customers into a clear picture of market demand.

In this relatively simple approach, founders define the different levels of commitment they could ask from potential customers (and acquirers) relative to the stages of development the product is expected to go through. This is specific to the company in question. Coyle gives the example of a company spinning out a new kind of material - of which they can currently only produce grams. Some might be interested now; some may want to wait until more can be produced. At each stage, they may be willing to make different commitments - for example participating in a free trial, paying for a free trial, or even pre-paying for the product. You just map how many commitments you have in each bucket.

As Coyle puts it:

“Most teams don’t …don’t realise that if they’re on the right track, if what they’re seeking to commercialise in the company really is interesting, then there will be people who actually want access to it really early and will be willing to pay for that. They don’t appreciate that an awful lot of big companies have little slush funds here and there - they can easily give 20 or 30 grand towards the proof of concept…which will evidence commitment.”

A word on avoiding vanity metrics

The sustainability of your business is directly linked to the legitimacy of your figures – which is why vanity metrics often don’t play well when trying to attract VC funding. “Metrics must be actionable, accessible and auditable,” Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, famously wrote.

VCs have a high BS meter. High MRR without growth sets off alarms. So does GMV without a take rate, or high MAUs without any information on how well retention is going.

Wrapping up

Seed-stage traction in 2025 isn’t about ticking boxes on a universal scorecard — it’s about showing that your growth is real and repeatable. The benchmarks differ across SaaS, consumer, social, marketplaces, biotech, and deep tech, but the through-line is the same: investors want confidence that your early momentum can compound into something much bigger. At the seed stage, you don’t need to have all the answers — but you do need to prove that your team is learning fast, executing with discipline, and building a foundation that can scale.

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Check back for updates and added sectors as we expand this article.