# doany.ai — Seed Investment Business Case

**Prepared for:** Seed Partner Meeting  
**Date:** April 14, 2026  
**Round:** Seed ($2.5M target, ~$12M pre-money valuation)  
**Contact:** Alex, Co-Founder

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## Executive Summary

**doany.ai** is an AI workflow copilot that turns natural language intent into reliable, cross-tool automations for non-technical operations teams. We solve the "workflow glue work" problem: SMB and mid-market ops teams lose 1-2 FTE-months of productivity each month managing manual handoffs across Notion, Slack, Sheets, Zapier, and fragmented scripts.

**Why now:** Operations teams are drowning in tool sprawl. Existing automation tools (Zapier, Make) require technical setup and break silently. Generic "AI agent" platforms demo well but fail on reliability and auditability—critical for ops workflows touching customer data, billing, and compliance.

**Our wedge:** SMB internet companies with ops-heavy teams (e-commerce, healthcare ops, logistics) where workflow reliability directly impacts revenue and customer experience. We're not selling "AI magic"—we're selling observable, human-supervised automation that non-technical teams trust.

**Traction (Q1 2026):**
- 6 paying customers, $31k MRR (March), 72% MoM growth
- 12 active design partners across ops-heavy verticals
- $134k new ARR booked in Q1
- 74% gross margin, 1.6% logo churn

**The ask:** $2.5M seed to fund 17 months of runway focused on:
1. Product: enterprise-grade reliability, security (SOC2), expanded integrations
2. GTM: repeatable SMB sales motion + mid-market expansion pilots
3. Team: 4 eng hires, 2 GTM hires, 1 customer success lead

**Path forward:** Reach $270k ARR by EOY 2026 (18 paying customers), validate mid-market expansion in H2 2027, position for Series A at $1M+ ARR with proven unit economics (13-month CAC payback, $54k LTV).

---

## Problem & Market Opportunity

### The Problem

Operations teams at SMB and mid-market companies run critical workflows across 5-10 disconnected tools:
- **Customer onboarding:** Slack notification → Notion task → HubSpot update → Gmail sequence → Sheets tracking
- **Order fulfillment:** Stripe webhook → inventory check → shipping label → customer notification → support ticket routing
- **Lead routing:** Form submission → qualification → CRM assignment → Slack alert → follow-up automation

**Current state:** Teams patch these workflows together with Zapier, manual Slack reminders, and spreadsheet macros. The result:
- **1-2 FTE-months lost per month** on manual handoffs and error recovery (customer quote)
- **Silent failures:** Automations break when APIs change; teams discover issues days later
- **No audit trail:** Compliance and ops leaders can't trace workflow execution for customer disputes or regulatory review

**Why existing solutions fail:**
- **Zapier/Make:** Require technical setup, no cross-tool context, break silently
- **Internal scripts:** Brittle, undocumented, require eng resources to maintain
- **Generic AI agents:** Demo well but lack reliability, observability, and human checkpoints for high-stakes ops workflows

### Market Opportunity

**TAM (Total Addressable Market):** $47B  
Operations software spend for SMB and mid-market companies globally (Gartner 2025: workflow automation + ops productivity tools).

**SAM (Serviceable Addressable Market):** $8.2B  
SMB internet companies (e-commerce, SaaS, healthcare tech, logistics) with 50-500 employees and ops-heavy workflows.

**SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market, 3 years):** $180M  
~12,000 target companies × $15k ACV. Assumes 2% penetration of SAM by EOY 2028.

**Market timing:**
- **Tool sprawl acceleration:** Average SMB now uses 8-12 SaaS tools for ops (up from 5 in 2022)
- **AI adoption readiness:** 67% of ops leaders piloting AI tools in 2026 (McKinsey)
- **Reliability gap:** 73% of ops teams report "frequent automation failures" with current tools (internal survey, n=140)

---

## Solution & Product

### Core Product

**doany.ai** is an AI workflow copilot with three core capabilities:

1. **Natural language workflow design**  
   User describes workflow intent ("When a new customer signs up, create a Notion page, send welcome email, and notify the ops team in Slack"). System proposes a flow graph with required integrations and data mappings.

2. **Cross-tool context memory**  
   Unlike Zapier's stateless triggers, doany maintains workflow context across tools. Example: "If the customer replied to the welcome email, skip the follow-up reminder and update their Notion status to 'engaged'."

3. **Human-in-the-loop checkpoints + observable execution**  
   For high-stakes steps (e.g., sending invoices, updating customer records), system pauses for human approval. All runs logged with full audit trail for compliance and debugging.

### Current Integrations

**Live (GA):** Slack, Notion, HubSpot, Gmail  
**Beta:** Google Sheets, Stripe webhooks  
**Roadmap (H2 2026):** Salesforce, Intercom, Airtable, Zendesk

### Key Differentiation

| Capability | doany.ai | Zapier/Make | Internal Scripts | Generic AI Agents |
|------------|----------|-------------|------------------|-------------------|
| Non-technical setup | ✅ Natural language | ❌ Technical UI | ❌ Requires eng | ✅ Natural language |
| Cross-tool context | ✅ Stateful memory | ❌ Stateless triggers | ⚠️ Custom code | ⚠️ Limited |
| Reliability | ✅ Human checkpoints | ❌ Silent failures | ❌ Brittle | ❌ Unpredictable |
| Audit trail | ✅ Full observability | ⚠️ Basic logs | ❌ None | ❌ Black box |
| Maintenance burden | ✅ Managed | ⚠️ User maintains | ❌ Eng maintains | ⚠️ Prompt tuning |

**Why this matters for seed-stage defensibility:**  
We're not competing on "AI magic." We're competing on **reliability and trust** for ops workflows where failures cost revenue and customer trust. Cross-tool context memory and human checkpoints are near-term technical advantages that generic AI platforms can't easily replicate without sacrificing their "fully autonomous" positioning.

---

## Competitive Analysis

### Direct Competitors

**1. Zapier AI / Interfaces**  
- **Strength:** Massive integration library (6,000+ apps), brand recognition  
- **Weakness:** Stateless trigger model, no cross-tool context, technical setup required  
- **Our edge:** Natural language design + stateful workflows for non-technical users

**2. Make (formerly Integromat)**  
- **Strength:** Visual workflow builder, developer-friendly  
- **Weakness:** Steeper learning curve, limited AI capabilities  
- **Our edge:** AI-first UX, no manual mapping required

**3. Relay.app**  
- **Strength:** Human-in-the-loop approvals, modern UX  
- **Weakness:** Limited integrations, no cross-tool context memory  
- **Our edge:** Broader integration coverage + stateful workflow intelligence

**4. Internal ops teams building custom scripts**  
- **Strength:** Fully customized to company needs  
- **Weakness:** Brittle, undocumented, requires ongoing eng resources  
- **Our edge:** Managed reliability + no eng maintenance burden

### Competitive Moat (12-24 months)

**Near-term (6-12 months):**
- Cross-tool context memory engine (proprietary workflow state management)
- Human-in-the-loop checkpoint UX optimized for ops teams (not generic approval flows)
- Observable execution logs with compliance-ready audit trails

**Medium-term (12-24 months):**
- Workflow template marketplace (community-contributed, vetted by doany)
- Vertical-specific workflow intelligence (e-commerce ops, healthcare ops, logistics)
- Enterprise security + compliance certifications (SOC2, HIPAA-ready)

---

## Business Model & Go-to-Market

### Pricing Model

**Seat + run-volume hybrid:**
- **Base:** $500/month for up to 5 users + 1,000 workflow runs
- **Additional seats:** $100/user/month
- **Additional runs:** $0.20/run (volume discounts at 5k+ runs)

**Target ACV:** $15,000 (blended average across SMB and mid-market)

**Why this model:**
- Aligns with customer value (more workflows = more productivity saved)
- Predictable base revenue + usage-based expansion
- Competitive with Zapier ($20-50/month per user) but captures more value for complex workflows

### Customer Segmentation

**Primary wedge (2026-2027): SMB internet companies**
- **Profile:** 50-200 employees, ops-heavy teams (5-15 people), $5M-$50M revenue
- **Verticals:** E-commerce, healthcare tech, logistics/fulfillment, SaaS ops
- **Buyer:** Head of Ops, COO, or Ops Manager
- **Pain:** Manual workflow glue work costing 1-2 FTE-months/month

**Expansion target (H2 2027+): Mid-market**
- **Profile:** 200-500 employees, dedicated ops/RevOps teams (15-50 people)
- **Buyer:** VP Operations, CTO, or Head of RevOps
- **Requirements:** SOC2, SSO, advanced permissioning, SLA guarantees

### Go-to-Market Motion

**Current (founder-led, 2026):**
1. **Inbound:** Content marketing (ops workflow teardowns, automation case studies) → demo requests
2. **Outbound:** Targeted LinkedIn outreach to Heads of Ops in target verticals
3. **Community:** Ops Slack communities, workflow template sharing
4. **Sales cycle:** 30-45 days (pilot → paid conversion)

**Planned (post-seed, 2027):**
1. **Product-led growth (PLG) layer:** Self-serve free trial (100 runs/month) → paid conversion
2. **Sales-assisted:** Dedicated AE for mid-market deals ($25k+ ACV)
3. **Partnerships:** Integration partnerships with Notion, HubSpot, Slack (co-marketing)

**Key GTM metrics (current):**
- **Trial-to-paid conversion:** 24% (March 2026)
- **Sales cycle:** 30-45 days (pilot to paid)
- **Close rate (SQLs):** ~13% (4 closed won / 31 SQLs in March)
- **Pipeline:** 31 SQLs in March, growing 15-20% MoM

---

## Financial Projections (3-Year)

### Revenue & Customer Growth

| Metric | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 |
|--------|------|------|------|
| **Paying customers (EOY)** | 18 | 52 | 120 |
| **Average ARR per customer** | $15,000 | $18,500 | $22,000 |
| **Total ARR (EOY)** | $270k | $962k | $2.64M |
| **MRR (EOY)** | $22.5k | $80k | $220k |

**Growth assumptions:**
- 2026: SMB-focused, founder-led sales, 3 net new customers/month (H2)
- 2027: PLG layer + first sales hire, mid-market pilots begin, 4-5 net new/month
- 2028: Sales-assisted motion scales, mid-market mix increases ACV, 6-8 net new/month

### Unit Economics

| Metric | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 |
|--------|------|------|------|
| **Blended CAC** | $7,800 | $8,200 | $9,000 |
| **LTV** | $54,000 | $70,000 | $91,000 |
| **LTV:CAC ratio** | 6.9x | 8.5x | 10.1x |
| **CAC payback (months)** | 13 | 11 | 10 |
| **Gross margin** | 74% | 76% | 78% |

**CAC assumptions:**
- 2026: Founder-led + inbound marketing ($7.8k blended)
- 2027: First sales hire + PLG investment increases CAC to $8.2k
- 2028: Sales efficiency improves, but mid-market CAC higher ($9k blended)

**LTV assumptions:**
- Gross retention: 86-89% (based on Q1 2026: 98.4% gross retention, 1.6% logo churn)
- Net retention: 108-114% (expansion from additional seats + run volume)
- Customer lifetime: 36-48 months (conservative for SMB segment)

### Operating Expenses & Headcount

| Category | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 |
|----------|------|------|------|
| **Headcount (EOY)** | 9 | 21 | 39 |
| **Total OpEx** | $1.85M | $3.56M | $5.98M |
| **R&D (eng + product)** | $1.1M | $2.0M | $3.2M |
| **Sales & marketing** | $450k | $950k | $1.8M |
| **G&A** | $300k | $610k | $980k |

**Hiring plan (post-seed):**
- **2026:** +4 eng (reliability, integrations, infra), +2 GTM (AE, marketing), +1 CS lead
- **2027:** +6 eng, +4 GTM (2 AEs, SDR, marketing), +2 CS, +1 ops
- **2028:** +10 eng, +6 GTM, +2 CS, +1 finance

### Profitability & Cash

| Metric | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 |
|--------|------|------|------|
| **Revenue** | $270k | $962k | $2.64M |
| **Gross profit** | $200k | $731k | $2.06M |
| **EBITDA** | -$1.58M | -$2.60M | -$3.34M |
| **Cash burn (monthly avg)** | $140k | $230k | $300k |

**Path to profitability:**  
Not profitable within 3-year window. Model prioritizes growth and market capture. Expected profitability post-Series A (2029-2030) as revenue scales and GTM efficiency improves.

**Validation needed:**  
CAC payback assumes current 13-month payback holds as we scale sales-assisted motion. If mid-market CAC increases faster than ACV, payback may extend to 14-16 months.

---

## Team & Organization

### Founding Team

**Alex (Co-Founder, CEO)**  
[Assumption: Add 2-3 sentence bio highlighting relevant ops/product experience]

**[Co-Founder Name] (Co-Founder, CTO)**  
[Assumption: Add 2-3 sentence bio highlighting relevant eng/AI experience]

### Current Team (7 FTE)

- **Engineering:** 3 engineers (full-stack, infra, integrations)
- **Design:** 1 design engineer (part-time contractor)
- **GTM:** 1 GTM lead (sales + marketing)
- **Total:** 7 (including 2 founders)

### Post-Seed Hiring Plan (18 months)

**Priority 1 (Months 1-6):**
- Senior Backend Engineer (workflow engine reliability)
- Integrations Engineer (Salesforce, Intercom, Zendesk)
- Account Executive (SMB sales)
- Customer Success Lead

**Priority 2 (Months 7-12):**
- Infrastructure Engineer (SOC2, security, observability)
- Full-Stack Engineer (PLG self-serve experience)
- Marketing Lead (content, demand gen)

**Priority 3 (Months 13-18):**
- Senior Engineer (AI/ML workflow intelligence)
- Account Executive #2 (mid-market)

**Target EOY 2026 headcount:** 9 (from current 7)

---

## Traction & Milestones

### Current Traction (Q1 2026)

**Revenue & Customers:**
- **6 paying customers** (March 2026)
- **$31k MRR** (March), up from $18k (January) — 72% MoM growth
- **$134k new ARR booked** in Q1 2026
- **12 active design partners** across e-commerce, healthcare ops, logistics

**Key Metrics:**
- **Gross margin:** 74% (March)
- **Logo churn:** 1.6% (1 pilot paused for IT security review)
- **Net Dollar Retention:** 114% (March)
- **Trial-to-paid conversion:** 24% (March)
- **Sales pipeline:** 31 SQLs (March), growing 15-20% MoM

**Lighthouse Customers:**
- **BrightPath Commerce:** E-commerce ops team (12 people), using doany for order fulfillment + customer onboarding workflows
- **NovaHealth Clinics:** Healthcare ops (8 people), using doany for patient intake + billing workflows
- **Lumen Freight:** Logistics ops (15 people), using doany for shipment tracking + customer notification workflows

### Milestones Achieved (Last 6 Months)

- **Oct 2025:** First 2 paying customers, $9k MRR
- **Dec 2025:** 4 paying customers, $15k MRR, launched Notion + HubSpot integrations
- **Jan 2026:** 5 paying customers, $18k MRR, launched human-in-the-loop checkpoints
- **Mar 2026:** 6 paying customers, $31k MRR, launched observable execution logs

### 18-Month Milestones (Post-Seed)

**Product:**
- **Month 3:** SOC2 Type 1 certification
- **Month 6:** Salesforce, Intercom, Zendesk integrations live
- **Month 9:** Self-serve PLG trial experience launched
- **Month 12:** Workflow template marketplace (beta)
- **Month 18:** SOC2 Type 2, HIPAA-ready compliance

**GTM:**
- **Month 6:** 12 paying customers, $60k MRR
- **Month 12:** 18 paying customers, $90k MRR, first mid-market pilot closed
- **Month 18:** 25 paying customers, $120k MRR, 3+ mid-market customers

**Team:**
- **Month 6:** 9 FTE (4 eng, 2 GTM, 1 CS, 2 founders)
- **Month 12:** 12 FTE
- **Month 18:** 15 FTE, ready for Series A hiring acceleration

---

## Risks & Mitigation

### Risk 1: Reliability & Trust

**Risk:** Workflow automation failures erode customer trust. One high-profile failure (e.g., duplicate invoices sent, customer data misrouted) could damage reputation in tight-knit ops communities.

**Mitigation:**
- Human-in-the-loop checkpoints for high-stakes workflow steps (already live)
- Observable execution logs with real-time alerts for failures
- Dedicated customer success lead (hire Month 3) to monitor early warning signals
- SOC2 certification (Month 3) to demonstrate security + reliability commitment

### Risk 2: Integration Maintenance Burden

**Risk:** As we add integrations (target: 15+ by EOY 2027), API changes from upstream providers (Slack, Notion, HubSpot) could break workflows and require constant maintenance.

**Mitigation:**
- Dedicated integrations engineer (hire Month 2)
- Automated integration health monitoring + regression testing
- Prioritize integrations with stable, well-documented APIs (Salesforce, HubSpot, Stripe)
- Build integration abstraction layer to reduce coupling to specific API versions

### Risk 3: Competitive Response from Zapier

**Risk:** Zapier could add AI-powered natural language workflow design and cross-tool context memory, leveraging their 6,000+ integration library and brand.

**Mitigation:**
- **Speed:** Move fast on SMB wedge before Zapier prioritizes this segment (they're focused on enterprise)
- **Differentiation:** Double down on reliability + observability (not just "AI magic")
- **Vertical focus:** Build ops-specific workflow intelligence (e-commerce, healthcare, logistics) that generic platforms can't easily replicate
- **Community:** Build workflow template marketplace to create network effects

### Risk 4: SMB Churn & Economic Sensitivity

**Risk:** SMB customers are price-sensitive and may churn during economic downturns or budget cuts.

**Mitigation:**
- Target ops-heavy SMBs where doany directly impacts revenue (e-commerce fulfillment, customer onboarding)
- Expand to mid-market (H2 2027) to diversify customer base and increase ACV
- Build usage-based pricing to align cost with customer value (customers pay more as they get more value)
- Strong customer success motion to drive adoption and demonstrate ROI

### Risk 5: CAC Payback Extension

**Risk:** As we scale sales-assisted motion for mid-market, CAC may increase faster than ACV, extending payback beyond 13 months and pressuring unit economics.

**Mitigation:**
- Launch PLG self-serve trial (Month 9) to maintain low-CAC SMB acquisition channel
- Monitor CAC payback monthly; adjust sales hiring pace if payback extends beyond 15 months
- Prioritize expansion revenue (additional seats + run volume) to improve LTV and offset CAC increases

---

## Funding Ask & Use of Proceeds

### The Ask

**Round size:** $2.5M seed  
**Valuation:** ~$12M pre-money (flexible based on partner fit and terms)  
**Runway target:** 17 months (to Series A milestones)

### Use of Proceeds

| Category | Amount | % of Raise | Key Investments |
|----------|--------|------------|-----------------|
| **Product & Engineering** | $1.4M | 56% | 4 eng hires (reliability, integrations, infra, AI/ML), SOC2 certification, infrastructure scaling |
| **Sales & Marketing** | $650k | 26% | 2 GTM hires (AE, marketing lead), demand gen, content marketing, PLG trial development |
| **Customer Success** | $250k | 10% | 1 CS lead, onboarding playbooks, customer health monitoring tools |
| **Operations & G&A** | $200k | 8% | Finance/ops contractor, legal (contracts, compliance), recruiting |

### Series A Milestones (18 months)

**Revenue & Customers:**
- $1M+ ARR (target: $1.2M ARR by Month 18)
- 25+ paying customers
- 3+ mid-market customers ($25k+ ACV)

**Product:**
- SOC2 Type 2 certified
- 15+ integrations live (including Salesforce, Intercom, Zendesk)
- Workflow template marketplace with 50+ community-contributed templates

**GTM:**
- Repeatable SMB sales motion (CAC payback <15 months)
- PLG self-serve trial converting at 15%+ (trial to paid)
- Mid-market expansion validated (3+ customers, $25k+ ACV)

**Team:**
- 15 FTE (from current 7)
- Sales team: 2 AEs, 1 marketing lead, 1 CS lead
- Eng team: 8 engineers (from current 3)

---

## Appendix: Key Assumptions

### Revenue Model Assumptions
- **ACV growth:** $15k (2026) → $18.5k (2027) → $22k (2028) driven by mid-market mix and seat expansion
- **Net new customers/month:** 3 (2026) → 4-5 (2027) → 6-8 (2028)
- **Gross retention:** 86-89% (based on Q1 2026: 98.4% monthly gross retention)
- **Net retention:** 108-114% (expansion from seats + run volume)

### Unit Economics Assumptions
- **CAC:** $7.8k (2026) → $8.2k (2027) → $9k (2028), blended across inbound + sales-assisted
- **LTV:** $54k (2026) → $70k (2027) → $91k (2028), assumes 36-48 month customer lifetime
- **Gross margin:** 74-78%, depends on model serving costs (OpenAI API) and observability infrastructure

### GTM Assumptions
- **Trial-to-paid conversion:** 24% (current) → 20% (2027, as PLG self-serve scales)
- **Sales cycle:** 30-45 days (SMB), 60-90 days (mid-market)
- **SQL close rate:** 13% (current) → 18% (2027, as sales process matures)

### Hiring Assumptions
- **Eng hiring:** 4 (2026) → 6 (2027) → 10 (2028), front-loaded for reliability + integrations
- **GTM hiring:** 2 (2026) → 4 (2027) → 6 (2028), scales with revenue growth
- **Average fully-loaded cost:** $180k (eng), $150k (GTM), $120k (CS/ops)

### Validation Needed
- **CAC payback:** Assumes 13-month payback holds as sales-assisted motion scales; may extend to 14-16 months for mid-market
- **Gross retention:** Based on 6 months of data (Oct 2025 - Mar 2026); needs 12+ months to validate
- **Mid-market ACV:** Assumes $25k+ ACV for mid-market; no closed deals yet to validate pricing

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**End of Business Case**