The honest answer isn't a single number — it's the smallest amount that funds you to the next round's bar without over-diluting. Here's how to work it from the milestone backward, check it against what's typical, and see the dilution it implies, using the same arithmetic a partner runs on the ask.
A seed round exists to buy you to the Series A bar — roughly $1.5M+ ARR, growing, with the efficiency to justify an A. So the sizing question is really: what does it cost to get there, plus a buffer? Raise for the milestone and 18–24 months of runway, then sanity-check the number against the market — not the other way around.
Take your target monthly burn at the team size you need, multiply by the months to the milestone plus a cushion for slippage. Say you need $200K/mo average burn over 20 months → $4.0M. That's your milestone-driven ask.
US median seed rounds run $2M – $5M. A $4.0M ask sits comfortably inside. If your milestone math lands above $10M (2× the top of band), a partner will ask why a seed needs that much — often the honest move is a smaller seed to a nearer milestone.
Median seed post-money is ~$24M. Dilution at that price is ask / (post + ask):
| Ask | Implied dilution | Read |
|---|---|---|
| $2.0M | 7.7% | light — check runway is enough |
| $3.0M | 11.1% | in band |
| $4.0M | 14.3% | in band (healthy) |
| $6.0M | 20.0% | top of the healthy band |
| $9.0M | 27.3% | over — too big, or you're pricing above median |
The healthy primary-round dilution band is 10–25%. Inside it, the ask reads as sized to the stage. Above it, either the raise is too large or you're implicitly claiming an above-median valuation — which you then have to defend with traction.
Then the ask slide has to make it milestone-anchored: "$4M buys 20 months to reach ~$2M ARR / Series A metrics, split X% product / Y% GTM / Z% G&A" — not "to grow the team." An ask with no milestone is the single most common way the last slide undoes the deck.
The report runs the round-size, dilution, multiple and runway checks on your actual ask and rewrites your use-of-funds slide to be milestone-anchored.
Request the report — $490 Try the ask checker