Quick answer
- Yes. Have a website live before you start fundraising conversations, because searching for you is the first thing an investor does after reading your deck.
- At pre-seed, one clear, professional page is enough: what you do, for whom, the founders and a way to get in touch.
- At seed and beyond, investors expect a team page, evidence of traction, a maintained site and details that match the deck exactly.
- The website and the deck do different jobs. The deck persuades in private; the website verifies in public.
- Accelerators, grant bodies, banks and payment providers also ask for a website address when they check a new business.
- Case studies, pricing, a blog and a product tour can all wait. Half-finished pages cannot be left live.
Founders preparing to raise money often ask whether the website matters yet, or whether a good deck is enough. The short answer is that the website matters earlier than most people think, not because investors fund websites, but because of what they do with yours. After reading a deck or receiving an introduction, almost every investor types the company name into Google. What they find in the next thirty seconds shapes the whole conversation. This guide explains what they are looking for, what your site needs to show at each stage, what can safely wait and how to time it.
What Investors Actually Do With Your Website
Investors do not read your website the way a customer does. They use it to check things:
- Is this real? A domain of your own, a company name that matches Companies House, an address and a working email say the business exists.
- Can they explain it? If the headline on your home page needs a paragraph of explanation, they assume customers will struggle too. Clarity on the website is read as clarity of thinking.
- Does the story match? The positioning, the team and any numbers on the website are checked against the deck. Differences, even small ones, look like carelessness or worse.
- Who are the founders? Names, backgrounds and links to LinkedIn. New businesses are backed on the strength of the people behind them.
- Is there momentum? Evidence of customers, pilots, a waiting list, press, hiring or recent updates, as opposed to a site that looks abandoned.
- Can they execute? A professional website is a small, visible piece of execution. A broken one is too.
They also share the link with partners and come back to it during due diligence, so the website is seen by more people, more times, than the deck.
What the Website Needs at Pre-Seed
At the earliest stage nobody expects a large site, and an unfinished large site does real damage. One well-designed page is enough if it contains:
- A headline that says what you do, for whom and why it matters, in plain words.
- A short explanation of how it works or what the product will do.
- The founders, with a sentence each on why they are the people to build this, and links to their LinkedIn profiles.
- Any genuine early signal: a pilot, a letter of intent, a waiting list, a first paying customer.
- A way to contact you, and the legal basics: a privacy notice and company details if you are a limited company.
- Your real branding, so the website, the deck and your LinkedIn profiles look like one company.
Our guide to landing pages versus full websites explains how to build that single page as the first page of the eventual site, so it grows rather than being replaced after the round.
What Investors Expect at Seed and Beyond
Once you have customers and are raising a larger round, the website is expected to match the maturity you are claiming:
- A team page with the founders and key hires, and a sense of the culture if you are hiring.
- Proof of traction you are happy to make public: customer logos with permission, testimonials, case studies or a number or two you can keep current.
- Product pages with real screenshots or photography rather than mock-ups, and a clear explanation of what it does for whom.
- Press and news, if there is any, and a page for careers if you are recruiting.
- Trust pages such as privacy, terms and, for business software, a page on security and data handling.
- Signs of life. A site that has clearly been updated recently. A blog with two posts from last year is worse than no blog at all.
For software businesses in particular, the website is often the product's shop window as well as the company's, and our SaaS startup website design work is built around exactly that double job.
The Deck and the Website Do Different Jobs
The deck is private, detailed and persuasive. It carries the market size, the financials, the ask and the plan. The website is public, short and verifying. It should never try to be the deck, and it should never contradict it. Before any outreach, check that the company description, the names and titles, the customer numbers and the positioning are identical in both. If the deck says you serve small accountancy firms and the website says you serve everyone, you have created a question you will have to answer in the meeting.
Do You Need an Investors Page?
Normally not. A dedicated page tends to signal that the website is for investors rather than customers, which is the wrong way round. A single line in the footer or on the contact page inviting investor enquiries to a named email address does the job. If you are running a public crowdfunding campaign the rules are different, and a page explaining the raise with a link to the platform is expected.
Investors Are Not the Only Ones Checking
The same search happens elsewhere. Accelerator and grant application forms ask for a website address, and the people reviewing them look at it. Business bank accounts and payment providers often ask for a website when they verify a new company. Early customers, suppliers and potential hires all look you up before they reply. A website that does the job for investors does the job for all of them, which is a large part of why we recommend having one live before you need it rather than after.
What Can Wait
Plenty. Detailed case studies, a pricing page if pricing is not settled, a blog, a careers page before you are hiring, a full product tour and integrations pages can all come later, once there is something true to say. The rule is simple: everything that is live must be finished. An empty page, placeholder text or a "coming soon" section in the menu undoes the credibility the rest of the site has built. Our guide to startup website mistakes covers the other ways a site quietly works against you.
Timing It Right
Have the website live before the first email goes out, not in parallel with the raise. A professionally designed single page takes one to two weeks; a full startup website of five to ten pages takes three to six weeks, as our guide to how long a website takes to build sets out. If you plan to start conversations in three months, start the website now, and if you do not yet have a logo and brand, have those designed at the same time so the deck and the site match from the first day. We quote logo and brand design alongside every website for that reason.
Is It Worth Spending on a Website Before You Have Funding?
Compared with the size of even a small round, the cost is minor, and compared with the cost of one conversation that goes nowhere because the investor could not find you, it is trivial. A do-it-yourself page on a builder is better than nothing, but it tends to look like what it is, and our comparison of custom websites and website builders explains why many founders end up paying twice. A designed page or a focused startup website is a one-off cost that keeps working through the raise and long after it, and with startup website design from £2,400, it is well within the budget of most companies preparing to raise.
Investor-Ready Website Checklist
- Your own domain, with email on it, registered in the company's name.
- A headline a stranger understands in five seconds.
- The founders, with backgrounds and LinkedIn links.
- Company name, number and address matching Companies House.
- Every claim and number identical to the deck.
- At least one genuine proof point, or none, but never an invented one.
- A contact route that is answered within a day.
- No empty pages, placeholder text or broken links.
- Privacy notice and terms where relevant.
- Checked on a phone, because that is where the link will be opened first.
If you are preparing to raise and the website is not ready, tell us your timeline. We can usually have a credible first page live well before the first meeting, built so that the full site grows from it afterwards.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will investors reject a startup that has no website?
Rarely on that alone, but it makes everything harder. The first thing most investors do after reading a deck or an introduction email is search for the company, and finding nothing, or finding a half-built page, raises questions about how far along you really are. A clear single page removes that doubt for very little money.
Should the website say that we are raising?
Usually not. A public note that you are fundraising can make the round look harder than it is and tells customers and competitors more than they need to know. A single line inviting investor enquiries to a named email address is enough. The exception is a public crowdfunding campaign, where a dedicated page is expected.
Can I use a Notion page or my LinkedIn profile instead?
For a very early idea, a tidy Notion page is better than nothing, and LinkedIn is where investors will look at the founders anyway. But neither reads as a company. A domain of your own with a designed page signals that the business exists, that you can execute and that you intend to be around, which is exactly what an investor is trying to establish.
How much should a pre-seed startup spend on its website?
Enough to look credible and no more. A professionally designed landing page costs a few hundred pounds upwards, and a full startup website of up to around ten pages starts from £2,400 with us. Against the amount you are raising, and the cost of a lost conversation, either is a small and sensible expense. Spending a great deal more before you have customers rarely is.
Should we publish our metrics on the website?
Only numbers you are happy for anyone to see, including competitors, and only numbers you can keep up to date. A waiting list size, the number of customers or a growth figure can be persuasive, but a stale number is worse than none. Detailed traction belongs in the deck and the data room, not on the home page.