“We don’t invest in hype. We invest in high-signal, founder-led execution.”
In the Wild West of Web3, due diligence often takes a backseat to vibes, memes, and vaporware decks. At OnlyFounders, we’re rewriting that playbook. We don’t bet on narratives — we bet on builders. And we’ve built a due diligence framework that cuts through the noise.
This isn’t your cookie-cutter checklist. It’s a signal-maximizing, red-flag-surfacing, risk-adjusted way to evaluate Web3 startups and their founders with real weight. Here’s how we do it — and how you can too.
🎯 Our Evaluation Framework: What Actually Matters
We break our assessment into five weighted categories. Each reflects a core component of long-term success in the decentralized future.
CategoryWeight
🧑🚀Team & Founders 30%
🛠️ Technology & Product 25%
🌍 Market & Business Model 20%
💸 Tokenomics & Community 15%
⚖️ Legal & Regulatory 10%
Let’s break it down.
1. 🧑🚀 Founders First (30%)
The single biggest predictor of success?
The people building it—not the pitch deck, not the token price, not the buzz—the team.
What We Look For:
Founder track record. Serial builders? Previous exits? Can they ship and scale?
Complementary skill sets. Tech, ops, BD — is it all in-house or duct-taped?
Resilience. Can they adapt when the market punches them in the face?
Questions We Ask:
Have you built anything meaningful before this?
What’s your unfair advantage?
How do you respond when things break?
💡 Bonus Insight: If a founder can’t explain their product in one sentence without jargon, we walk.
2. 🛠️ Technology & Product (25%)
Hype doesn't scale. Tech does. We go deep on product architecture, roadmap realism, and actual innovation — not buzzwords.
What We Look For:
Is it real? Do you have an MVP, a prototype, or just a deck?
Does it scale? What happens when 100k users show up?
Moat? Is this defensible or forkable in 48 hours?
Questions We Ask:
Why this chain? Why now?
Is your code audited? Who are your technical partners?
Can you demo this live — right now?
💡 Bonus Insight: The strongest founders are shipping while others are tweeting.
3. 🌍 Market & Business Model (20%)
Cool tech without a market is just a science project. We want to see how this fits into the real world — and if there’s a business behind it.
What We Look For:
Market size. Is this a $10M play or a $10B one?
Revenue engine. How do you make money without dumping on your own users?
Competition awareness. Who else is in the game, and how are you different?
Questions We Ask:
What real problem are you solving?
What’s your customer acquisition cost?
How will you survive a bear market?
💡 Bonus Insight: If the answer to “Who is your customer?” is “everyone,” the answer is no one.
4. 💸 Tokenomics & Community (15%)
In Web3, the token is the product. But bad tokenomics kill projects faster than a rugpull. We care about sustainability, alignment, and community skin in the game.
What We Look For:
Clear utility. Does the token do anything?
Fair distribution. Who gets what, and when?
Real community. Not bots, not airdrop farmers — believers.
Questions We Ask:
Why does your project need a token?
How are you preventing mercenary liquidity?
What are the vesting terms for insiders?
💡 Bonus Insight: Airdrop buzz ≠ community. If your Telegram dies post-TGE, it was never alive.
5. ⚖️ Legal, Compliance & Regulatory (10%)
This might be the least sexy part, but it’s where real projects live or die. We don’t back founders who wing it on legal.
What We Look For:
Structure. Is your setup legally sound? Are you exposed?
Regulatory awareness. KYC/AML? Securities compliance? You better know.
Crisis planning. What happens when a regulator knocks?
Questions We Ask:
Who’s your legal counsel?
Are your tokens classified as securities in any jurisdiction?
What’s your contingency plan for regulatory changes?
💡 Bonus Insight: Legal mistakes don’t just kill projects. They end careers.
🧮 Scoring & Ranking
Here’s how we synthesize it all:
Score each section 1–10.
Multiply by weight.
Sum the total score.
Flag red zones (anything under 5 in any critical area).
🔁 Ongoing Validation
Due diligence doesn’t stop at the check. We monitor:
Milestone progress
Token movement
Community engagement
Regulatory shifts
Founders who ghost their own Discords post-raise? Immediate downgrade. Builders who continue shipping through the bear? That’s who we double down on.
📣 Final Thoughts: OnlyFounders Doesn’t Do Hype
We’re here to back the 1% of founders who build with conviction, navigate chaos, and ship through cycles.
We don’t need to chase hype. We build conviction.
And if you’re a founder reading this, now you know exactly how we’ll judge your startup — and why we might just bet the house on you.
