For founders

We are not looking for ordinary people.
We are looking for extraordinary ones.

No CV. No degree. No warm introduction. No deck, unless you insist. One email that shows us what you have built and how fast you build it. We reply to every single one.

Pitch: <your company> The exact instructions

I Manifesto

Ship today.

Fail hard. Fix it by lunch.

Think harder than everyone in the room.

Then leave the room and build it.

A founder with a model in the next tab now does what a funded team did in 2022. We only want to meet that founder.

We do not care where you studied, whether you studied, or who you worked for. We care what you have made, how fast you made it, and whether you will do it again tomorrow. Everything on this page follows from that; the stage, terms and timing are on how we invest.

Read the two letters below. Then send the second one.

II Two letters

One of these gets a call. Guess.

We redlined the first one so you do not have to wonder. The second one took its author eleven minutes.

✕ Do not send thisrec'd — filed
Toinfo@rutenberg.capital
SubjectExciting Investment Opportunity — Synergistic AI Platform (Confidential)

Dear Sir/Madam,who?

I hope this email finds you well. Please find attached our 42-slide investor deck, executive summary, five-year financial model and NDA for your signature prior to further discussion.no.

Our team combines over 60 years of combined experience, two MBAs and deep domain expertise. We are leveraging AI to unlock synergies across a $400B TAM and are seeking a strategic partner for our journey.

We would welcome the opportunity to schedule an introductory call at your earliest convenience.what did you build?

Kind regards,
The Founding Team

Deck_v42_FINAL.pdfExec_Summary.docxFinancial_Model_5yr.xlsxNDA_Mutual.docxCV_CEO.pdfCV_CTO.pdf

6 attachments · 0 links · 0 things we can click

✓ Send thisrec'd — called
Toinfo@rutenberg.capital
SubjectPitch: Ledgerline

1Ledgerline closes the books for small e-commerce brands automatically; the owner approves in one tap instead of paying a bookkeeper.

2I built it alone in nine weeks; 41 shops use it, 23 pay, and I shipped the Shopify sync last Tuesday.

3Before this I ran the payments backend at a company you have heard of and rewrote its reconciliation engine over one Christmas.

4Now, because a model reads every invoice and I only check the exceptions — that was impossible three years ago.

5Raising a pre-seed on a standard SAFE; happy to show you the live product and the churn numbers on a call this week.

→ledgerline.example — live demo, no login

— Ana

none

Ledgerline and Ana are invented for this example. The eleven minutes are not.

III A month, the way we like it

What "ships daily" looks like.

Not a sprint. Not a roadmap. Something real leaves your hands every day, and one of those days goes badly. That is fine. That is the point.

Day 10 is not a failure. Day 10 with no day 11 is.

IV Fit check

Save yourself a week.

If the first list is mostly you, write today. If the second list is mostly you, we will happily point you elsewhere.

  • You are raising pre-seed or seed.Up to and including your first priced round.
  • You have built something and people are using it.A product, a prototype with users, a wait-list that converts, a first paying customer. Evidence, not intent.
  • You ship every day and could prove it.Your commit log, your changelog, your customers' inboxes — any of these would tell the story.
  • You use AI like oxygen.And you can tell us, precisely, where it fails you.
  • You have done something outstanding before.Not "relevant experience". One thing you are proud of, that you can show.
  • You want a decision, not a process.A fast no beats a slow maybe. You already believe this.
  • You are raising a Series B or later.Genuinely not our stage. We may know who to write to.
  • You need an NDA before the first conversation.We understand. We still cannot work that way.
  • Your business is a fund, a real-estate project or a token.Not what we do.
  • You would like to "explore synergies".We would like you to build something first.
  • You are perfectly normal.Congratulations, sincerely. Wrong address.

V The exact instructions

How to pitch us. All of it.

This is the entire process from your side. We are not hiding a form behind a login somewhere.

Toinfo@rutenberg.capital
SubjectPitch: <your company>Exactly like that. It is how we find you again.
BodyFive sentences.1 — what it does and who pays. 2 — what you have built and shipped, with numbers if you have them. 3 — what outstanding thing you did before. 4 — why this is possible now and was not three years ago. 5 — what you are raising and on what terms, if set.
LinkOne link to something real.Live product, demo video, repository, Loom of you using it. Anything we can click beats anything we have to read.
DeckOptional. Short.If it exists and it is under fifteen slides, attach it. If it is longer, do not fix the deck — fix the sentences.
NDAAttached for your signature None.We do not sign them at this stage; nobody does. Leave out what you must.
IntroWarm introduction Not needed.Cold emails get read with the same attention by the same person. Really.
LanguagePlain.If we cannot understand it in a minute, we will ask. It helps if we do not have to.
ThenYou hear from us within three business days.A call, or a short honest no with the reason. Then a written decision within about two weeks of the call.
Open the email

VI After you press send

What happens next.

We reply to everything. Even the ones that start with "Dear Sir/Madam". Especially those — briefly. Who is reading is on the about page; the address and house rules are on contact.

  1. We read it

    A decision-maker, not a filter, not an associate, not a model pretending to be one.

    Same day, usually

  2. We reply

    A call invitation, or a short honest no with the reason.

    ≤ 3 business days

  3. We talk

    One call. Show us the product. We will ask what you shipped last week.

    Week 1

  4. We decide

    Yes or no, in writing, with reasons. No open-ended maybes.

    ≈ Week 2

  5. We wire

    Standard documents, quick signatures, funds sent. Then you go back to shipping.

    Days after yes

Eleven minutes. Go.

Five sentences, one link, subject line "Pitch: <your company>". We are already reading.

info@rutenberg.capital