What I evaluate before considering putting in money or a team
Before any commitment, I look for concrete signs that founders have already put their own resources into validating the core ideas behind the business. An idea on its own tells me nothing, because the value lies in the ability to build, test, and adapt the solution when it meets real market friction.
I want to understand how much time you have spent on the project, what you have done and what you have learned. You might have a prototype, a service you have designed, field research or preparation with your team. You do not need all of these; explain what fits your current stage.
Commitment can take several forms: time spent researching a sector, money put into development, people doing the work or a first version you can show. An idea with no work behind it and no resources or willingness to move forward falls outside my criteria. Customers help explain the business, but they are not a requirement.
I also pay attention to how founders react to data that contradicts their initial assumptions. If an acquisition test fails or the price meets strong resistance, the team needs to change course quickly rather than clinging to a story with no practical backing. On how to think through the structure of a technical product before moving forward, I wrote about planning an app with Claude Code before you start coding.
Businesses that can grow online
I am interested in projects across sectors that can use the internet to reach customers, sell or improve their operations. This might be a service, an online shop, a digital product or a business with physical premises. The key is understanding where my experience can make a concrete contribution.
When assessing growth, I want to understand the cost of serving each additional customer. Team time can matter greatly in a service business; an online shop also has products, logistics and returns to consider. Those differences help determine suitable support and a realistic pace. Explain how your operation works, even if the figures are still estimates.
Throughout my path as founder of SpartAds, both on the services and growth side for e-commerce at spartads.pt and on the automation and artificial intelligence side at spartads.ai, I learned the importance of thinking about distribution from day one. I apply that same logic when analyzing a new investment. A technically good product with no clear path to acquiring customers online tends to wither before it becomes sustainable.
I prefer models where customer acquisition can be tested through paid traffic, qualified outreach, or well-thought-out content. To understand how we structure sales processes geared toward conversion without wasting contacts, I recommend the article on how to build a lead funnel your sales team can actually work. Clarity in the sales process weighs heavily on the viability of growth.
To prepare this part of the proposal, review the criteria for online business and sales. The AI in digital marketing guide adds questions about the offer, message and acquisition that help explain how you intend to reach the market.
The difference between real execution and theoretical presentation
Real execution shows up as working prototypes, early retention signals, already-tested acquisition channels, and decisions based on concrete data rather than assumptions. A document full of five-year financial projections with no field testing is just speculation, and it doesn't, on its own, justify putting in money.
A presentation becomes useful when it explains the work already done and separates facts from assumptions. If you spoke with potential customers, describe your questions and their answers. If you built a first version, show what works and what is missing. If you have not tested demand, say so and explain what you would test next.
To demonstrate execution, a founder should be able to walk through the history of changes to the product over recent months. It matters to know which hypotheses were dropped, which tools were used to speed up the launch, and what concrete response came from each test. Honestly recounting mistakes and adjustments builds more trust than a story with no setbacks, which is rarely true anyway.
The use of technology in the business should translate into real productivity gains, not just buzzwords meant to impress whoever is investing. I pay close attention to whether the team uses artificial intelligence to improve support, organize data, and back up day-to-day operations. On this shift from isolated experiments to more integrated workflows, I wrote in how to use AI in your business beyond chatbot questions.
What would make you change your plan?
When getting to know a project, I want to understand what information would make its founder change course. In the book, I wrote about the risk of continuing a decision simply because we have already spent time and money on it. Work done shows commitment; honest evaluation helps guide the next investment.
You may have built a first version and discovered that customers need something simpler. You may have chosen a tool and found that the operation requires another. Explain what led to that conclusion, what you can reuse and the cost of changing. A test that challenged the original idea can also demonstrate serious work.
With AI, producing a visual demonstration has become more accessible. To help me understand the project, show what is behind it too: which problem you investigated in practice, how you would reach the first interested people and what remains untested. If the demonstration uses fictional data, label them. You do not need to invent customers or revenue you do not yet have.
This willingness to review decisions matters both for a project with sales and at an earlier stage. I still want to see real investment in time, money, work or a team. And I want to understand how my involvement would enable a next test or resolve a specific difficulty.
How I can take part in the project
My involvement may include knowledge and guidance, work from the team, money or a combination of these. The form of participation depends on your project, what you need and what I can contribute. Submitting a proposal starts that assessment; the terms of any potential partnership would be discussed afterwards.
Before deciding how I can get involved, I want to understand what that support would actually be used for. If you're looking for money, explain what you'd be able to do with it and what you've already achieved with the resources you currently have. If the difficulty lies in a decision or in execution, guidance or the team's work could be possibilities worth discussing.
Team work can be one way to participate, depending on the project and availability. Explain what tasks you need solved and who handles them today. That way we can discuss a concrete scope, each side's responsibilities, and what would need to happen for the collaboration to make sense.
The strategic guidance side isn't about abstract corporate meetings, but about sharing concrete execution lessons. Over the years I've built and followed several online businesses, and that hands-on experience feeds recommendations focused on protecting margin and keeping the team stable, as I describe in growing an online business: what I learned about margin, team, and AI.
How to prepare your proposal before you send it
To present a project, prepare a short document that explains the real problem you're solving, the solution already built, evidence of tests done in the market, and the exact role you expect from me. Direct proposals, without flourishes, backed by concrete data, get priority in my reading.
The first point should summarize the specific difficulty faced by a well-defined group of customers and why existing solutions don't solve it well. Avoid generalizations about "transforming entire industries"; explain the concrete difficulty your tool removes. Then include direct links to the working product, short demo videos, and preliminary usage data, even if still small.
The second point is the description of the team and the effort already invested. State who codes, who leads operations, how much of their own capital has already been spent, and how many hours per week each person dedicates to the project. Add data from early sales outreach: how much it cost to generate a lead, what response rate cold contacts got, how many users tested the initial version.
The third point explains what you want from a partnership. State whether your main need is money, guidance, team support or help reaching customers. Describe the next step that support would enable and what would remain your responsibility. If the project interests me, the team will get in touch so we can explore the possibility of working together.