Hyrax Marketing Budget
Hyrax Marketing Budget
| Engineering and product | 7 FTEs | $2.0M |
| GTM | 1 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, years | 2 to 2.5 | |
| Implied round size | $7.5M to $12.5M |
| 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 |
| A seed company | 15% to 25% |
| Hyrax today | 4% |
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.
| Company | Seed | Who led the seed | Where the money went | Worth now |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clay | $2.5M | First Round Capital | Creators, community, events, billboards, SEO | $5.0B |
| Gamma | — | Accel | 1,000 small creators who drove half of all signups | $2.1B |
| Factory | $5.0M | Sequoia and Lux | Enterprise sales | $1.5B |
| Glow | $20M | Sequoia and Cyberstarts | Brand, content, vendors and advertising, all live on launch day | $1.2B |
| Total raised | ARR now | Team | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clay | $202M | $150M | — |
| Gamma | $68M | $100M | 50 |
| Factory | $220M | $60M | — |
| Glow | $255M | — | 100 |
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.
| The move | Who did it | What it produced |
|---|---|---|
| Pay creators | Gamma, Clay, n8n, Manus | 1,000 small creators drove half of Gamma's signups |
| Build a community | Clay, Gamma, n8n | Clay's Slack is 15,000 to 20,000 members and replaced paid support |
| Run events | Clay, n8n, Manus | Clay runs hundreds a year. Manus funds local meetups and hackathons |
| Programmatic SEO | Clay | 60% of all their traffic |
| Out of home | Clay | Billboards in San Francisco and New York |
| Swag | Manus | Kit for the people running their events |
| Launch moments | Manus, Gamma | Manus went to $100M ARR in nine months off one demo on X |
| Share of spend on distribution | AI-native companies | 40% 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 do | Month | Year | Starts | Same move as |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conversion ads | $28.5K | $342K | September | Google, Bing and ChatGPT buy signups directly |
| Out of home | $20K | $240K | October | Clay put billboards across San Francisco and New York |
| Conferences | $18.3K | $220K | September | Clay, n8n and Manus all fund events. GitHub Universe, LDX3, KubeCon |
| PR agency | $12K | $144K | October | Manus and Gamma built launch moments that carried the product |
| Developer creators | $10K | $120K | November | Gamma's 1,000 creators drove half its signups. Clay and n8n did the same |
| Awareness ads | $16K | $192K | September | LinkedIn, X, Meta, Reddit, TikTok |
| Content and video | $14K | $168K | October | Clay's SEO is 60% of its traffic |
| Software | $2.6K | $31K | Running | PostHog, Synter and Gauge, already bought |
| Total | $121.4K | $1.46M | — | Year 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.