Hyrax Marketing Budget
| People | A year | |
|---|---|---|
| Engineers and product | 7 engineers and product leads | $2M |
| GTM | A founding AE at about $300K a year, plus SDR time | Takes $2M to $3M |
| What it adds up to | $3 million minimum | |
| What that means | A startup that's just raised a $10 million seed round |
Hyrax Budget Part 2, 10 September 2026.
| Pre-seed | Seed | Series A | Series B | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What the round buys | A prototype | Trust in the team and a vision | Proof: customers, usage, revenue and returns | Repeatable growth |
| Median round | $1M | $4.1M | $19.4M | $40M |
| Seed companies that get there | 38% | |||
| Hyrax | Funded here at $3M+ a year in people | Has the product and users. Has no revenue and no Series A proof yet |
Externally benchmarked. Median seed $4.1M from Carta, Q1 2026. Median Series A $19.4M from the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, Q2 2026. Median Series B $40M from the same monitor, Q1 2026. Pre-seed median about $1M. Seed to Series A conversion about 38% on Carta 2020 to 2024 cohorts. All via Value Add VC, 2 September 2026. What each round requires as stated on 10 September: seed funds trust in the founders, Series A requires proof.
| Metric | Series A bar | Who says so | Hyrax today |
|---|---|---|---|
| ARR | $2.8M median in 2025, up 22% from $2.3M in 2024 and from $1.3M in 2021. Top quarter is $7M. Point Nine: $1M to $2M growing 2 to 3x | Carta, Point Nine | Barely any revenue |
| Growth | 7% to 15% a month, or a clear path to $1M ARR in 12 to 18 months | SaaStr | Not measurable yet |
| Users | A steady flow of new free users a day, then New User to WAU% | Stage 2 Capital | 23 new accounts a day over 30 days, 55 a day over the last 7. Activation and WAU not measured |
| Free to paid | 5% for freemium and 17% for free trial at the median | OpenView | Not tracked |
| 30-day retention | 20% to 40% of signups activate. Freemium median 30-day retention is about 20% | OpenView | Not tracked |
| Cost to acquire | CAC payback under 12 months, with at least one channel that scales at a measured CAC | SaaStr, Point Nine | $34 to $101 a signup on Google. Every other channel unmeasured |
| Revenue retention | NDR 100%+ and GRR 90%+ | SaaStr | Too early |
Externally benchmarked. Carta, $1M ARR no longer gets Series A meetings, January 2026, ARR at Series A, August 2025, and $7M ARR is the top quarter. Point Nine per Christoph Janz at SaaStr Annual 2024. SaaStr, top ten Series A metrics, October 2025. Stage 2 Capital, PLG Playbook for B2B Startups. OpenView, 2022 Product Benchmarks, 450+ companies. Known: Hyrax accounts from PostHog, 11 August to 10 September 2026, internal domains excluded. Cost per signup from the Google Ads account, $34 on the rebuilt campaigns and $101 across the account for the 30 days to 10 September.
| Step | North star | Benchmark to clear | Quarter |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. A flow of free users to experiment on | New users a day | Enough to run a few experiments a week | Q1, Sep to Nov |
| 2. Prove free users stay | New User to WAU% | 20% still active after 30 days is the freemium median. Beat it for the ICP | Q2, Dec to Feb |
| 3. Prove one channel scales | Cost per quality user | CAC payback under 12 months on at least one channel | Q3, Mar to May |
| 4. Prove monetization | Free to paid and ARR | 5% free to paid at the median. A path to $1M+ ARR | Q4, Jun to Aug |
Recommendation. The four north stars and their order are Stage 2 Capital's PLG playbook: one metric at a time, in this sequence. Benchmarks from OpenView and SaaStr. The exact targets are set on one scorecard in the first month and reviewed weekly.
Externally benchmarked. First Round, Arielle Jackson and Maya Spivak. Point Nine, nine milestones from seed to Series A and Christoph Janz at SaaStr Annual 2024. Stage 2 Capital, PLG Playbook. OpenView, 2022 Product Benchmarks. SaaStr, Series A metrics. Carta, ARR at Series A.
Recommendation. The same moves the investors prescribe, in the same order, on this product. Costs on the next slide.
| Line | Depends on | Basis | A year | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Internal people | ||||
| Head of Marketing, 9 months at $220K a year | Nothing. Search starts now, in seat by December | Benchmarked | $165K | 14% |
| Vendors and contractors | ||||
| Brand agency | Nothing. First program funded, from September | Assumption | $96K | 8% |
| Content agency for SEO and GEO | The brand. From December | Assumption | $45K | 4% |
| Video editor for two recordings a month | Nothing. From September | Known | $36K | 3% |
| Paid acquisition | ||||
| Paid search on Google, Bing and ChatGPT | Nothing. Running now | Known | $420K | 35% |
| Video ads on LinkedIn, Reddit and X | The brand and the edited videos. From December | Assumption | $180K | 15% |
| Out of home | The brand done and the product revised. From March | Assumption | $90K | 7% |
| Content and creative | ||||
| Creators and affiliates | The brand and the line. From December | Benchmarked | $90K | 7% |
| Community and events | ||||
| Conferences | Held until the brand and the product are revised | $0 | 0% | |
| PR | Not funded. No investor playbook and no comp funds it | $0 | 0% | |
| Tools and data | ||||
| Analytics, ads, posting and email tools | Nothing. Running now | Known | $31K | 2% |
| Experiments | ||||
| A few experiments a week | Nothing. From September | Recommendation | $60K | 5% |
| Total | Q1 $161K, Q2 $321K, Q3 $366K, Q4 $366K | $1.21M | 100% | |
September 2026 to August 2027. Monthly rates times months active. Head of Marketing: startup.jobs median salary of $185K across 101 startup postings, August 2026, plus benefits. Creators: Gamma paid 1,500 small creators through an agency and ElevenLabs pays affiliates 22% of subscriptions. Known lines are running today at their current rate. Founding AE and SDR time sit in the commitment on slide 1, not here. Paid search stays only while it clears $100 a signup.
| Company | Worth | The move that won | What it produced |
|---|---|---|---|
| CodeRabbit | $1.5B | Made reviews free on public GitHub repos, so every pull request comment was a live demo, and listed on GitHub Marketplace | #1 AI app on GitHub Marketplace, 313K installs, 17,000 paying teams |
| Clay | $7.1B | Bet on brand two years early: a paid creator program, free certifications people post about, events at every funnel stage, then billboards in conference season | $1M to $100M ARR in two years, 60% self-serve |
| Gamma | $2.1B | Paid 1,500 small creators to post decks they made with the product, through an agency, instead of buying ads | 1B views, half of all signups, $100M ARR with 50 people and $0 on ads |
| ElevenLabs | $11B | Paid search only on the words buyers type, and affiliates paid 22% of every subscription they send | 1 in 4 new paying customers from search, 5,600 YouTube videos carrying the link |
| Lovable | $6.6B | Paid YouTube and Google ads, agencies paid a share of the revenue they bring in, and a launch every few weeks | 1,500 new customers a day, $100M ARR in eight months |
Supporting proof, not the method. CodeRabbit per Sacra and Reuters, August 2026. Clay per Clay and Reuters, 9 September 2026. Gamma per Hockey Stick and TechCrunch. ElevenLabs per Better Launch, Concurate and Tracxn. Lovable per PMF newsletter and CNBC, December 2025.
| Decision | Why | When |
|---|---|---|
| Approve $1.21M for year one | People and programs that take Hyrax from seed proof to Series A proof in 12 months | This week |
| Approve the Head of Marketing hire | The first marketing hire every investor names. Hiring takes 3 to 6 months, so the search starts now | This week |
| Fund the brand first | Creators, video ads and billboards all wait on one line to carry | September |
| Review at each north star | New users a day in Q1, retention in Q2, one scalable channel in Q3, monetization in Q4. Spend moves if a step fails | Quarterly |
Comments on this version by Friday 11 September. Final version Friday.