Heard 18 start-up pitches this week! Common thread: founders want to know exactly what criteria VCs look at when deciding to invest. Assuming the team is great, here are a few things I evaluate (not exhaustive):

1. Traction, e.g. week over week or MoM growth rate.
2. Proof of latent demand - you can unlock the customer pipeline with funding from me. Could be that you have a waitlist for the product, even if no customers yet.

3. Focus on niche customer market short-term. You can't target everyone at the start (but a long-term grand vision is great).
4. Timing of your entry into the market - why you, why now
5. How will you make money; unit economics make sense

6. Growth strategy, e.g. marketing/sales - how will you acquire customers; distribution channels
7. Product-market fit getting worked out. How are you figuring out P-M fit? Are you doing customer surveys? Collecting data?

8. Why you'll be a category leader. Soon to be obvious or obvious problem.
9. I feel I can add value. See my partial investment list on my web site for some examples.
10. Intangible - grit, fire in the belly, hustle

This list is for Seed funding ("true" seed, not pre-seed). At Series A it would be similar but certain things should be worked out, e.g. product-market fit, distribution channels, unit economics, and ideally a hockey-stick growth rate.