The Rule of 6: A Practical Fundraising Guide for Indian Healthcare Founders (Seed & Pre-Series A)

From Seed to Series A: The Rule of 6

Raising your first institutional round? This guide explains the Rule of 6, weekly traction, and how investors assess readiness for Series A.

This guide is for Indian healthcare founders preparing to raise their first institutional round.

What this is: A framework for demonstrating traction that healthcare investors can underwrite confidently.

Who this is for: Indian healthcare founders preparing for their first institutional round (Seed/Pre-Series A) and planning their path to Series A.

1

How Institutional Investors Frame Your Round

At the first institutional round, investors typically work backwards from a Series A milestone 12–18 months ahead.

This does not mean you must already be at scale.

It means you must demonstrate a reliable trajectory toward scale.

Typical Series A reference points in healthcare. KPIs may vary by model and investor interest in the specific model (figures below are directional):

B2C care delivery / D2C health brands
Series A signal: ₹15–40 Cr annualized revenue with repeat cohorts
B2B healthcare SaaS / workflow tools
Series A signal: $1–3M ARR equivalent, low churn, expansion motion
Clinics / diagnostics roll-ups
Series A signal: 3–5 cities, unit-level EBITDA visibility
Devices / deep-tech healthcare
Series A signal: regulatory clearance + first commercial installs

How to use this: Calculate the growth rate and operational milestones you need to hit these bars in 12-18 months. That becomes your operating plan.

Your fundraising story simplifies to:

Where you are today (baseline)
How reliably that baseline is growing (proof of mechanism)

Your current size matters less than whether your growth path appears repeatable and durable.

2

The Rule of 6: What It Is and Why It’s Useful

The Rule of 6 is a simple heuristic:
When you can show six consecutive periods of progress driven by the same underlying mechanism, investors begin to treat the trend as dependable rather than random.

The number six is not a target—it is a confidence threshold:

Fewer periods can be explained by timing, pilots, or one-off wins
Six consecutive periods make patterns easier to interpret and project

At the first institutional round, this rule helps founders:

Select the right metric to emphasize
Build internal discipline before fundraising
Reduce ambiguity during diligence

3

How to structure your
proof of progress

The metric does not have to be monthly revenue. In early-stage healthcare other reliable signals often exist. Choose the metric that reflects real progress for your model.

Choose the right metric

Pick metrics that are:

Tied to cash or commitment: Revenue, paid pilots, signed contracts
Hard to game: Repeat customers, expansion revenue, utilization rates
Predictive: Leading indicators of future revenue

Metric selection by model:

The goal is to show consistent improvement in the same metric for the same reason.

4

Build six consecutive
periods of proof

As companies mature toward Series A, investors look for evidence that growth holds when the model scales and operating conditions change.

How to stress-test your mechanism:

For multi-location models:
- Track performance consistency across 2-3 cities
- Measure how quickly new cities reach baseline performance
- Monitor whether first-city performance holds as you expand
For B2B models:
- Remove initial discounts and track retention
- Measure sales velocity with new customer cohorts
- Test whether new hires can replicate founder-led sales
For clinical models:
- Track utilization with new doctor cohorts
- Measure performance with different payer mixes
- Monitor margins as volume scales

What to document: For each period, note what changed (new city, new pricing, new sales rep) and how the core metric responded.

A strong Rule-of-6 pattern continues to hold even as one or more of these variables change.

Founders do not need to test everything at once. They do need to demonstrate that growth is not limited to a single, ideal setup.

5

Revenue and
Unit Economics

At the first institutional round:

Revenue is expected
Unit economics directionality matters more than absolute margins

What investors typically look for:

Revenue growing in a predictable way
Unit economics that are stable or improving
Clear understanding of what drives margin expansion over time

A growing top line with deteriorating fundamentals will raise questions.
A modest top line with improving economics often builds confidence.

6

Operating on a
Weekly Cadence

The tactical advantage: Weekly data makes patterns visible 2-3 months earlier than monthly reporting.

How to set this up:

Step 1: Pick one North Star metric
- Must move every week
- Must be controllable by your team
- Must predict your next fundraising milestone
Step 2: Build Friday-to-Friday rhythm
- Set weekly target
- Assign one owner
- Review actual vs. target every Friday
- Adjust tactics Monday morning
Step 3: Track leading indicators
- What drives your metric this week?
- Are those inputs on track by Wednesday?
- What specific action closes the gap?

This presents an unusual investment paradox: a mass-market condition with low-tech solutions, yet underserved because it's not sexy, fatal, or acute.

7

How to present your
Rule of 6

Format your data:

Show 6+ consecutive periods (weeks or months)
Use the same metric throughout
Annotate what changed each period
Highlight how performance held or improved under stress

What this shows: The underlying demand mechanism survived adding doctors, removing discounts, and expanding locations.

Handle model-specific complexity

For lumpy revenue models (enterprise SaaS, large device deals)
Adjust the metric, not the framework:
- Track pipeline velocity instead of closed revenue
- Measure conversion stages (pilot → paid → expanded)
- Count decision-maker meetings per week
.
For regulatory-gated models (devices, diagnostics)
Track execution predictability:
- Query-response turnaround time
- Milestone completion vs. plan
- Parallel commercial preparation activities

8

Using the Rule of 6 to Decide When to Raise

The Rule of 6 is not a pass/fail test. It is a timing and readiness tool.

You are generally well positioned to raise when:

The same metric has improved for six consecutive periods
The improvement is driven by the same underlying factors
Growth continues under at least one form of added complexity
If these conditions are not yet met, the most effective step is often to:

Continue operating
Tighten execution
Re-evaluate fundraising timing after additional data points

This approach saves founders time and preserves leverage.

Most startup teams need 3-4 months to build a fundable Rule of 6 story from scratch.

~

Closing Note

This framework is not designed to restrict fundraising.

It is designed to help founders raise with clarity, confidence, and alignment.

Teams that apply the Rule of 6 early often find that:

Investor conversations are more focused
Diligence moves faster
Expectations are clearer on both sides

Used correctly, it becomes an operating tool first—and a fundraising tool second.

If you are a founder or investor in the Indian healthcare space and would like to have a chat – please reach out to me at chandra@pharma-pro.in

Why Weekly Metrics Matter During a Capital Raise

Early-stage fundraising is governed by weeks, not months.

A typical first institutional raise in India unfolds roughly as follows:

Fundraising Phase	Typical Duration
Initial outreach & first meetings	2–4 weeks
Follow-up discussions & data review	2–4 weeks
Partner conversations / IC prep	2–3 weeks
Diligence & term sheet	2–4 weeks

In practice, most Seed or Pre-Series A raises complete get to a Yes/No point at the VC end within 6–10 weeks.

This has a simple implication:
During a live fundraise, investors usually see only one new monthly data point.
Weekly metrics align more naturally with this timeline.

Over a 6–8 week fundraise:

Monthly reporting yields 1–2 data points
Weekly reporting yields 6–8 data points

Weekly data allows investors to observe:

Directionality (is progress consistent?)
Volatility (does growth hold or revert?)
Response to change (does growth continue as complexity is introduced?)

Reference:

Tracxn India Healthcare Funding Reports (2023–2024)
Bessemer India Healthcare Playbook
Accel India healthcare notes