Hyrax

Hyrax Marketing Budget

Date
September 2026
Prepared by
Tristan Benozer
Go-to-Market

What We Have Put Into Hyrax

1 of 4

What we have put in

Engineering and product7 FTEs$2.0M
GTM1 FTE + 4 PTE$1.0M to $2.0M
Salary and benefits$3.0M to $4.0M
Total opex$0.75M to $1.0M
Annual cash burn$3.75M to $5.0M
Runway, years2 to 2.5
Implied round size$7.5M to $12.5M

What a seed company raises

Median seed, all sectors$3.2M
AI company shipping product$4M to $5M
Series A$10M to $15M
First Round Capital, average cheque$3.5M

What they put into selling

A seed company15% to 25%
Hyrax today4%

R&D spend from the Hyrax Budget Review, 4 September 2026. Total opex is non-salary operating cost at 25% of payroll. Round sizes from Carta and PitchBook via Value Add VC, May 2026, and the H1 2026 State of Seed report. Sales and marketing at 15% to 25% of capital from Startup Budget Template by Stage. Google spend pulled from the account 8 September 2026.

The AI Companies Top Seed Funds Backed

2 of 4
CompanySeedWho led the seedWhere the money wentWorth now
Clay$2.5MFirst Round CapitalCreators, community, events, billboards, SEO$5.0B
GammaAccel1,000 small creators who drove half of all signups$2.1B
Factory$5.0MSequoia and LuxEnterprise sales$1.5B
Glow$20MSequoia and CyberstartsBrand, content, vendors and advertising, all live on launch day$1.2B
 Total raisedARR nowTeam
Clay$202M$150M
Gamma$68M$100M50
Factory$220M$60M
Glow$255M100

Clay: $2.5M seed led by First Round Capital in 2021, $202M raised, $150M ARR May 2026, $5B employee tender January 2026, per Sacra and First Round. Gamma: seed led by Amy Saper at Accel, $68M raised from a16z at a $2.1B valuation, $100M ARR with 50 people and profitable for two years, per the Gamma growth playbook. Factory: $5M seed November 2023 led by Sequoia and Lux, $220M raised, $60M ARR March 2026, $1.5B Series C April 2026, per Factory funding record. Glow: $20M seed March 2025 with Sequoia, Index and Cyberstarts, $255M raised, $1.2B July 2026, 100 people, per Seedtable. Collected 8 September 2026.

How They Spent It

3 of 4
The moveWho did itWhat it produced
Pay creatorsGamma, Clay, n8n, Manus1,000 small creators drove half of Gamma's signups
Build a communityClay, Gamma, n8nClay's Slack is 15,000 to 20,000 members and replaced paid support
Run eventsClay, n8n, ManusClay runs hundreds a year. Manus funds local meetups and hackathons
Programmatic SEOClay60% of all their traffic
Out of homeClayBillboards in San Francisco and New York
SwagManusKit for the people running their events
Launch momentsManus, GammaManus went to $100M ARR in nine months off one demo on X
Share of spend on distributionAI-native companies40% to 60%. Traditional SaaS is 30% to 40%

Clay playbook from Clay's marketing team and their head of marketing on the Ahrefs podcast. Gamma micro-creator flywheel and Gammbassadors from the Gamma growth playbook: $100M ARR with 50 people, $2.1B valuation, $68M raised, profitable for two years. n8n community and creator flywheel from the n8n growth playbook: $100M+ ARR, $5.2B valuation, and they deleted their lead-generation target to protect it. Manus Fellows programme, swag, launch mechanics and the 40-60% distribution split from the Manus case study: $100M ARR in nine months with 78 people, then acquired by Meta.

What We Will Spend and When

4 of 4
What we doMonthYearStartsSame move as
Conversion ads$28.5K$342KSeptemberGoogle, Bing and ChatGPT buy signups directly
Out of home$20K$240KOctoberClay put billboards across San Francisco and New York
Conferences$18.3K$220KSeptemberClay, n8n and Manus all fund events. GitHub Universe, LDX3, KubeCon
PR agency$12K$144KOctoberManus and Gamma built launch moments that carried the product
Developer creators$10K$120KNovemberGamma's 1,000 creators drove half its signups. Clay and n8n did the same
Awareness ads$16K$192KSeptemberLinkedIn, X, Meta, Reddit, TikTok
Content and video$14K$168KOctoberClay's SEO is 60% of its traffic
Software$2.6K$31KRunningPostHog, Synter and Gauge, already bought
Total$121.4K$1.46MYear two returns for approval

Monthly figures are the year average and ramp by quarter. The year runs September 2026 to August 2027. Conferences are sized from the Hyrax Conference Plan: GitHub Universe booths start at $40K, LDX3 New York runs $15K to $40K, KubeCon Silver is $18K. Content and video covers organic social, video editing and motion graphics; writing is done in house so only the tools and production are a marketing cost.