B Babelio Playbook · 21
Fundraise Runbook
Founder comms · Fundraise execution kit

Fundraise runbook

Everything to start emailing investors Monday without setting up infra: a decided ask (raise or bootstrap), 50 named funds & angels tiered with real 2025–2026 checks, cold + warm templates, a data room you can assemble this week, and a 12-question FAQ that pre-answers every skeptic in the room. Honest framing throughout: traction today is a working prototype — no users, no revenue, PMF unproven.

Stage
Pre-seed
Ask
$1.2–1.5M
VC score
32/50
Investors listed
50
Read this first A Sequoia-style read scores Babelio 32/50 — pre-seed only (Team 0/50, Traction 1/50 are the holes). Do not open a seed or Series A motion. Two coherent paths exist and both are spec'd below: raise a $1.2–1.5M pre-seed (Delaware C-corp via Stripe Atlas, on a YC SAFE), or bootstrap on subtitle margin. Pick after the WTP test + the audio hire land — raising before founder-market fit is closed gets you a 7-minute pass.

The ask

Pre-seed sizing comes straight from monetization §7: ~$120K ships the monetizable MVP (Cartesia dub + metering + billing + subtitle/export) in 4 months; ~$300K reaches $10K MRR. The round below buys 15–18 months of runway to ~$400–500K ARR and a defensible native-desktop wedge — speed and the audio hire, not survival.

$1.2–1.5M pre-seed
YC SAFE · post-money cap TBD · Delaware C-corp
Runway
15–18 mo
Lean burn ~$6–8K/mo: founder + 1 audio/OS engineer + inference.
Target by month 15
$400–500K ARR
Base case ~$15K MRR EoY12 at $12 ARPU; expansion via metered dub.
Use of funds
Audio hire + MVP
~70% the rare Rust/CoreAudio/WASAPI engineer; rest inference + GTM.

Two paths — present both, decide after the WTP test

Path A Raise $1.2–1.5M pre-seed

Delaware C-corp via Stripe Atlas ($500 + $100/yr agent), YC SAFE up to ~$1M without a lawyer. Buys the audio hire now and compresses the 4-month MVP timeline.

  • Pro: §1202 QSBS, clean ISO grants, terms US VCs expect; speed.
  • Con: needs FMF + the hire closed first, or a partner passes in 7 min (Team 0/50).
  • When: open only once WTP validated + audio engineer committed.
Path B Bootstrap on subtitle margin

Cartesia retail COGS (~$0.31 subtitle / ~$0.50 dub per active-hr) is already margin-viable — no self-host TTS needed. Breakeven on ~$4K/mo burn ≈ 460 paying users, Month 6–7 base case.

  • Pro: no dilution; lighter entity (Estonia OÜ viable); de-risks before raising.
  • Con: slower; capped if no audio-internals co-founder appears; consumer churn ~50%/yr is the live risk.
  • Default if: WTP clears the COGS floor and you can ship subtitle-led solo.
Decision rule Run the Van Westendorp + metered $5/hr concierge on 30–50 ICP buyers (monetization §2). If metered-dub WTP sustains margin within the $6–12 band and the audio hire is committed → Path A (raise, move fast). If WTP is thin but subtitle margin holds → Path B (bootstrap to ~$10K MRR, raise later from strength).

50 named investors

Funds and angels that actually write pre-seed/seed checks into consumer-AI, voice/audio, prosumer-desktop, dev-tools/SDK, and language-learning — with a real 2025–2026 check named to prove they're active in your lane. Partner names are best-fit suggestions; verify the live partner before you send. Status starts at Not contacted; refresh this column weekly.

Tier 1 · dream Tier 2 · likely Tier 3 · backup
Tier Fund / Angel Best-fit partner Stage / check Recent AI check (2025–26) Warm-path note Status
Tier 1 — dream (voice/consumer-AI thesis fit, lead-capable)
1Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)Anjney Midha / Speedrun teamPre-seed–A; Speedrun cohortElevenLabs (voice), Character.AI; 50+ AI seed deals 2025Apply Speedrun; warm intro from any a16z founderNot contacted
2Index VenturesDanny RimerSeed–growth; $1–5M seedCartesia (TTS), Granola $125M Series C leadCartesia tie = same voice stack you build onNot contacted
3NFXJames Currier / Pete FlintPre-seed–seed; $0.8–1.2M28 AI seed checks 2025–26; agents/multimodal/dev-toolsOpen application via Signal; network-effects thesis fits flywheelNot contacted
4Lightspeed Venture PartnersNnamdi IregbulemSeed–growth; $9B fresh '25ElevenLabs Series D (Feb '26), LMArena seedConsumer-building-blocks AI thesis; ElevenLabs voice tieNot contacted
5ConvictionSarah GuoSeed; AI-native fundAI-application + infra seed leads across '25; "Software 3.0" thesisNo Priors podcast network; pitch the OS-capture wedgeNot contacted
6South Park CommonsAditya Agarwal / Ruchi SanghviPre-seed; "−1 to 0"; Founder Fellowship31 investments 2025 (Fund III $275M); ofa/Nyne.aiFellowship is built for exactly your solo/pre-traction stageNot contacted
7Y CombinatorGroup partners (W26/S26)Pre-seed; $500K standard deal88% of S25 batch AI-native; ElevenLabs/Speak/Raycast alumniCold apply works; consumer is rare in recent batches = signal edgeNot contacted
8FelicisAydin SenkutSeed–A; $1–5MPeriodic Labs seed (w/ a16z), LMArena seedBacks technical wedges early; lead the OS-capture moatNot contacted
Tier 2 — likely (sector/stage fit: dev-tools, audio, prosumer, edtech, strong seed)
9AccelDan LevineSeed–A; $1–10MSpeak $78M Series C lead, Linear $82M leadSpeak = AI language-learning; closest portfolio analogueNot contacted
10Boldstart VenturesEd SimInception; $500K–10M (Fund VII $250M)15 inception rounds 2025: AI infra, domain models, agenticDay-zero technical-founder backers; pitch the SDK/B2B layerNot contacted
11Khosla VenturesSeed-fund teamSeed; $650M seed fund; $0.75–1.3M19 AI seed checks 2025–26; Speak (existing), frontier modelsAlready in Speak; contrarian-tech appetite for the audio tapNot contacted
12Spark CapitalNabeel HyattSeed–A; $1–8MGranola (Series B + C participation), prosumer AIProsumer-desktop AI taste; Granola is a peer wedgeNot contacted
13NFDGNat Friedman & Daniel GrossSeed–B; technical-founder fundGranola Series B lead; deep AI-systems networkMost credible audience for an OS-internals moat thesisNot contacted
14Bessemer Venture PartnersTalia GoldbergSeed–growth; State of AI thesisEvenUp Series E lead; AI-native GM benchmarks authorsThey literally publish the GM bar you clear (65–73%)Not contacted
15Bain Capital VenturesAaref Hilaly / Slater StichSeed–A; $1–10MEvenUp (w/ Bessemer), AI application layerApplication-layer AI; receptive to the B2B/SDK $10B pathNot contacted
16NEAVoice/consumer teamSeed–growth; multi-stageElevenLabs Series C investor (Jan '25)Already underwrote the voice-AI category economicsNot contacted
17OpenAI Startup FundFund teamSeed; strategic AISpeak (language learning) backer; model-native appsSpeak overlap; STT/MT pipeline could ride OpenAI modelsNot contacted
18Madrona Venture GroupAudio/ML teamSeed–A; $1–6MDeepgram (STT) lead investorDeepgram tie = same STT vendor in your pipelineNot contacted
19GreylockSaam MotamediSeed–A; AI-firstActive AI-infra/agent seed leads across '25–'26Strong on defensibility narratives; lead with telemetry flywheelNot contacted
20Initialized CapitalBrett GibsonPre-seed–seed; $1–3MConsumer + technical AI seed across '25Founder-friendly pre-seed; strong on solo technical foundersNot contacted
21Amplify PartnersSarah CatanzaroSeed; technical/ML-firstML-infra + applied-AI seed leads '25–'26Eval-harness rigor lands hard with this partnerNot contacted
22HeavybitTom DrummondSeed; dev-infra / DevToolsDeveloper-infra + AI dev-tools seed '25Ideal for the SDK/embeddable-capture B2B trajectoryNot contacted
23Lux CapitalBrandon ReevesSeed–A; deep-techFrontier-AI + hard-tech seed across '25Hard-systems appetite suits OS-internals captureNot contacted
24Reach CapitalJennifer CarolanSeed–A; EdTech-focusedAI language/learning tools across '25–'26Pure EdTech thesis; immersion-learner ICP fits cleanlyNot contacted
25GSV VenturesDeborah QuazzoSeed–A; EdTechAI-learning portfolio expansion '25Language-learning is core thesis; ASU+GSV networkNot contacted
26Betaworks (Camp)John BorthwickPre-seed; consumer-AI campsAI-native consumer cohort programs '25–'26Thematic camp (voice/AI) gives structured pre-seed + distributionNot contacted
27Character Capital (Character VC)Design-led teamPre-seed; design-driven consumerProsumer + consumer-AI design bets '25UX/first-run-trust matters here; design-led pre-seed sprintNot contacted
28Long Journey VenturesLee Edwards / Cyan BanisterPre-seed; weird-consumerQuirky consumer + AI seed across '25Backs non-obvious consumer; immersion niche is their laneNot contacted
29Precursor VenturesCharles HudsonPre-seed; $250K–500KFirst-check consumer + AI across '25–'26Classic first-money-in; comfortable pre-tractionNot contacted
30Hustle FundElizabeth YinPre-seed; $25K–150KHigh-volume pre-seed incl. AI consumer '25Fast small check to anchor a party round; quick yes/noNot contacted
Tier 3 — backup (angels who co-write the round, micro-VC, strategic/international)
31Nat Friedman (angel)Angel; $25K–250KMastra seed, Granola; most-active AI angelOS-internals credibility magnet; one yes pulls othersNot contacted
32Guillermo Rauch (angel, Vercel)Angel; $25K–100KGranola, Mastra; dev-tools angelDX taste; relevant if the SDK story leadsNot contacted
33Amjad Masad (angel, Replit)Angel; $25K–100KGranola, Mastra; builder-tools angelKnows usage-based-AI margin pain firsthandNot contacted
34Karri Saarinen (angel, Linear)Angel; $25K–100KGranola angel; prosumer craftNative-desktop craft credibility; design + GTM adviceNot contacted
35Tobias Lütke (angel, Shopify)Angel; $50K–250KGranola angel; product-craft betsHigh-signal angel; co-invests alongside NFDG circleNot contacted
36Soleio (angel)Angel; $25K–100KLinear, prosumer design toolsDesign-led consumer; first-run-trust UX advisorNot contacted
37Jeff Weinstein (angel, Stripe)Angel; $25K–100KLinear; product-led monetizationMetering/billing design help for usage-based tiersNot contacted
38Seven Seven SixAlexis OhanianSeed; $1–3MLinear Series C; community-led consumerCommunity-distribution thesis fits the Discord/subreddit channelNot contacted
39Designer FundEnrique AllenSeed; design-ledLinear; prosumer design companiesBacks craft-first products; native-desktop polish mattersNot contacted
40AtomicoSasha AstafyevaSeed–A; European-rootedRaycast Series B lead; prosumer toolsRaycast = closest prosumer-desktop analogue; EU-launch helpNot contacted
41Coatue (Early)Early-stage teamSeed–A; $1–8MRaycast Series B participationProsumer-tools comfort; deeper pockets for follow-onNot contacted
42World Innovation Lab (WiL)Cross-border teamSeed–growth; US–AsiaElevenLabs Series C, RaycastJA/KO market entry help — your top language pairsNot contacted
43Essence VCTim ChenPre-seed–seed; dev-infraOpen-source + dev-infra AI seed '25Good if the capture primitive ships as an OSS/SDK layerNot contacted
44Chapter OneJeff Morris Jr.Pre-seed–seed; consumerConsumer-AI + subscription apps '25Consumer-subscription growth playbook expertiseNot contacted
45Afore CapitalAnamitra BanerjiPre-seed dedicated; $0.5–2MPure pre-seed AI across '25–'26Pre-seed-only fund; comfortable with no traction yetNot contacted
46PebblebedPre-seed teamPre-seed; technical foundersTechnical AI pre-seed '25Founder-friendly first check for a technical solo founderNot contacted
47Banana CapitalTurner NovakPre-seed; $50K–250KConsumer + viral-distribution AI seed '25Distribution-savvy angel-fund; community-launch instinctsNot contacted
48Tiny Capital / Hack VC (audio)Audio/media teamSeed; media/audio AIAudio + media-AI seed '25Niche audio/media thesis; understands latency economicsNot contacted
49LG Technology Ventures (strategic)Corporate VC teamStrategic; $1–5MElevenLabs Series C strategic investorStrategic later-stage hedge; KO-market + device tie-inNot contacted
50Deutsche Telekom Capital / NTT DOCOMO V. (strategic)Telco-CVC teamStrategic; $1–5MElevenLabs strategic backers '25Telco-distribution + DACH/JP reach; revisit at seed, not nowNot contacted