Hiring
We help write the role, work your pipeline directly, and sit in on final rounds when you want a second read.
Early-stage venture capital
We back the 1% who build for the 99%.
We back SaaS and applied AI founders at the very start, from Hyderabad. Two meetings, a straight answer either way, and then we get to work alongside you.
A small firm on purpose. You talk to the people who decide, and there is no committee you will never meet.
What we are looking for
Companies that get more useful as they get bigger.
Most of what we fund is unglamorous. Payment rails, developer tooling, sensing hardware, the layer underneath the layer everyone talks about. It rarely trends. It tends to last.
We look for founders who have lived inside a problem long enough to be annoyed by it, and who can explain it to a stranger in ninety seconds. Technical depth matters. So does a plan for getting paid.
At a glance
- Stage
- Pre-seed and seed, occasionally a follow-on when we already know you
- Cheque
- Early and sized to the round, with room kept for the next one
- Role
- We lead about half the time and follow a good lead happily
- Sectors
- SaaS, applied AI, and software for industries that still run on spreadsheets
- Geography
- India first, and Indian teams selling to the world
How a decision gets made
Four steps. No gauntlet.
Fundraising takes attention away from your company, so we try to give it back quickly. Here is the whole process, start to finish.
Send a note
One paragraph, a deck if you have one. No warm introduction required. Every message reaches a partner, and we reply within three business days whether the answer is yes or no.
First conversation
Sixty minutes with the partner who will sponsor the deal. We want the problem, the wedge, and the honest state of the numbers. You will get our real reaction in the room.
Working session
Half a day on the parts that matter: architecture, pipeline, hiring plan, whatever is actually hard. We call a few of your customers. We do not ask for a data room you have to build.
Answer and terms
A yes comes with a term sheet and a price the same week. A no comes with the reasoning, in writing, and an offer to stay in touch until the story changes.
How we are built
An operator model, not a committee.
99sa grew out of 99 Strategic Advisors, the practice we ran before the fund existed. That order matters. We were doing the work with founders first, and the capital followed.
It means you get people who have sat in the operating seat, and it means we are honest about our size. We are early, we are focused, and we would rather be genuinely useful to a few companies than listed on the cap table of many.
Portfolio
We name companies once founders are ready.
Most of our work happens before a company wants to be written about. We publish the list as founders announce their own rounds, not before.
After the wire
The help is specific, or it is not help.
We do not send a welcome packet. We pick two or three things you actually need in the next six months and work on those until they are done.
Customers
We open doors to buyers we know personally. If we cannot make a warm introduction, we tell you rather than forwarding you into a void.
The next round
We work on your narrative with you months before you need it, then introduce you to the funds most likely to lead, in the order that makes sense.
Pricing and packaging
Most early SaaS companies are underpriced and over-featured. The fastest revenue available to you is usually already in your account list.
Operating help
We have run companies and advised a lot more. When the org chart or the go-to-market stops working, that is the call to make.
The hard weeks
Layoffs, co-founder splits, a bridge you did not plan for. Call the founder, not an associate.
Where we work
Hyderabad, and wherever the company is.
The firm sits at T-Hub. We spend most of our time with founders building for Indian businesses and for global software buyers, which increasingly turn out to be the same companies.
- Stage
- Pre-seed and seed, occasionally a small follow-on
- Sectors
- SaaS, applied AI, and the software underneath real industries
- Structure
- An operator model: a fund and a studio in the same room
Tell us what you are building.
One paragraph is enough to start. If it is not a fit we will say so quickly and tell you why, which is worth more than a polite maybe.