Free AI tools for founders, from idea to raise

Free AI tools by stage

Each tool answers one question a founder asks on the way from an idea to a round. Use the ones that fit where you are.

What each tool does

1. I

   Thesis Radar

   For founders and investors looking for where to build. A live map of where AI is most likely to reshape the labour market, with concrete startup ideas in the most exposed categories, built on US Bureau of Labor Statistics occupation data. Free at thesisradar.com.

2. II

   Vela Breakout

   For founders looking for demand. It measures what is growing in tech every day from real usage, with boards for AI apps, AI models, open models, developer tools, agent tools, business software, hiring and research ideas, and a daily list of what is breaking out. Open at breakout.vela.partners.

3. III

   FounderMode

   For anyone deciding whether to start a company. A founder psychometrics tool: it measures personality and thinking style with structured questions, and maps you to one of sixteen founder archetypes. Free at enterfoundermode.com.

4. IV

   Entrepreneur OS

   For founders getting ready to raise. Credit Karma for entrepreneurs, rebuilt with AI: it reads your startup against the companies Vela, YC, a16z and Sequoia have actually backed, and shows where you stand with each fund, what drives that, and what to improve before you reach out. Then it stays with you: it helps you work on what is holding you back, keeps reading your company as it grows, and tells you when you have moved closer to a fund. Each reading is Vela's model of a fund's pattern, not the fund itself. It is free, whether or not Vela invests. Try Entrepreneur OS.

5. V

   FounderBrain

   For founders preparing for pitches and meetings. It compares how you spoke in a meeting with 773 public interviews and returns your speaking type, four speaking styles, the well-known founders who speak most like you and three takeaways. It works inside Claude and ChatGPT, needs no account and does not store your transcript. Read the launch.

6. VI

   Vela Coach

   For founders who are building. It reads your last 90 days of meetings and surfaces the leadership, fundraising and team patterns an executive coach would. It is open source and runs in your browser with your own AI key, and Vela keeps no copy of your transcripts. How founders use it.

How to know if you're ready to raise

Being ready is less about a date than about knowing how investors will read you. Before you reach out, it helps to be able to answer four questions.

1. Do I know how venture firms are likely to view my company and team?
2. Do I know what drives that view, in the signals firms weigh?
3. Do I know which firms fit my stage, sector and story?
4. Have I worked on what would strengthen my position before I pitch?

Entrepreneur OS answers each of these in plain language, fund by fund, for Vela, YC, a16z and Sequoia, so you see where you stand beyond any single firm's decision.

How long a seed round takes

A quant VC can move much faster than a traditional firm, because its data and scoring run ahead of the conversation (What is a quant VC?).

When Vela Partners invests in a seed-stage AI founder, its soft commit typically lands within 2 to 7 days, with checks of $100K to $500K. Vela has invested only in AI since it was founded in 2017.

Questions