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Sample artifact · Day-90 memo

The memo
we sign on
Day 90.

Every cohort company ends on the record. This is a representative decision memo — the document a Cupel operating partner writes, signs, and files at the end of ninety days.

The company, buyers, and numbers below are illustrative — a faithful composite of the format we use, not a live cohort company. Real memos are shared with the founder and the fund only.

Reader’s key

How to
read this
memo.

Every Cupel Day-90 memo uses the same eight blocks in the same order. A founder should be able to open any memo in the fund and know where to look for the number they care about. The walkthrough below names each block and what it is for.

  1. § 01Summary

    Two paragraphs. Where the company started, where it ended, and the one-word recommendation.

    If you only read one section, read this. Everything below defends it.

  2. § 02Evidence

    A ledger of the numbers that matter: MRR, logos, retention, sales-cycle length, pipeline coverage.

    Each row is a hard number with a source. No adjectives, no forecasts, only what shipped by Day 90.

  3. § 03Four readings

    Explicit consideration of GO, GROW, PARK, and KILL, including the doors we rejected.

    This is where the recommendation is earned. If we say GROW, we say on the record why not GO and why not PARK.

  4. § 04Risks on the record

    The three or four things that would break the recommendation, named and dated.

    A memo without risks is a pitch. The risks here are the ones the next investor will find; better we surface them first.

  5. § 05Proposed terms

    If the recommendation is GO or GROW, the exact structure of what happens next: cash, equity, cadence.

    No round math is buried in a footnote. Cap, discount, and any studio participation are on this page or nowhere.

  6. § 06Next seven days

    A dated list of actions. Owner, deadline, artifact.

    Ambiguity is expensive after Day 90. This block turns the recommendation into calendar entries.

  7. § 07Signatures

    Operating Partner and Founder sign the same page on the same day.

    Both signatures mean both parties read the whole document and agree it is accurate. This is not a formality.

  8. § 08Doc header

    Doc ID, wedge, cohort, prepared-by, filed-at. The metadata at the top of the page.

    Every memo is retrievable by Doc ID. Nothing about a cohort company is written down that isn’t linked back to one.

A quick glossary while you read: MRR is monthly recurring revenue. LOI is a signed letter of intent — commitment to buy, not yet a contract. Pipeline coverage is qualified pipeline divided by the next-quarter revenue target; 3× is the standard bar for a healthy seed-stage book. Net revenue retention measures how the existing customer base is expanding or churning over time; above 100% means the base is growing without new logos.

To: Cap table · Founder · Cupel Ventures (obs.)
From: Jack Gierlich, Managing Partner
Re: Halden Health — Day-90 close
Date: Day 90 of the operating cohort
§ 01Summary

Halden entered the cohort on Day 0 as a solo technical founder with a working prototype and no revenue. On Day 90 the company has $7,900 in monthly recurring revenue across seven paying single-site clinics, a signed letter of intent for an eighth, and a qualified pipeline of $42,000 in MRR across the next two quarters. The founder is running weekly pipeline and product review without studio scaffolding as of Week 10.

Recommendation: GROW. The commercial motion is real and the founder is operating on their own. The slope and customer shape are not yet what a seed lead will underwrite: no multi-site anchor, ACV below the venture-scale threshold, and a pilot-to-paid motion that needs another quarter of evidence. Continue operating on cash. Re-open the fund conversation in Q+1 if the multi-site pipeline lands.

§ 02Evidence
Monthly recurring revenue$7,900Seven paid clinics · avg. $1,130 ACV/mo
Paying customers7 clinicsSingle-site only · no multi-site anchor yet
Qualified pipeline$42,000 MRR14 clinic groups · weighted, next two quarters
Pilot → paid conversion65%17 pilots run · 11 converted to paid
Gross retention (60-day)100%Zero logo churn in the paid cohort to date
Cash in bank$54,300Runway of 6.2 months at current burn
Studio credits deployed$62,800Of the up-to-$500K stackable maximums; primarily compute and outbound
Founder solo weeksWeek 10 → presentRuns pipeline review, hiring, and product roadmap unaided
§ 03Readings considered
GO
Not this reading

Halden is below the $100K annualized threshold and has no multi-site anchor customer. GO requires a slope a seed fund will underwrite. The evidence for that slope is not yet on the table.

GROW
Recommended

Halden has early product-market fit at the small-clinic tier, a repeatable pilot-to-paid motion, and a founder who is now the operator. Continue on cash flow, work the multi-site pipeline, and revisit the fund conversation in Q+1.

PARK
Not this reading

PARK is for a working thesis without a workable market this quarter. Halden has paying customers renewing at 100%. There is nothing to park; there is a business to keep operating.

KILL
Not this reading

KILL is reserved for companies with no paying customer and no honest path to one. Halden has seven paying clinics and a live LOI for an eighth. There is nothing to kill here.

§ 04Risks on the record
  1. 01
    Slope not yet venture-shaped

    ACV is below the seed-scale threshold and no multi-site anchor is booked. Cupel and the founder should agree a named-account plan and revisit the fund conversation in Q+1 against a written slope target.

  2. 02
    Second sales hire, not first

    The distributed studio sales team ran outbound through Week 12. Post-close, the company should hire the second AE first, since the first sales operator is already in place through the cohort transition.

  3. 03
    Regulatory adjacency

    Clinics ask about HIPAA in Week 2 of every pilot. Halden signed a BAA template in Week 6; formal audit is not yet complete. Book by end of month one post-close.

§ 05The GROW path
InstrumentNo new roundContinue operating on cash flow
Studio position15% common (existing)Unchanged; SAFE remains unconverted
CadenceMonthly readoutCupel steps back to a monthly, not weekly, review
Re-open triggerMulti-site anchor bookedFund conversation reopens in Q+1 against a written slope target
Runway target9 monthsAt current burn on paying revenue plus remaining cash
§ 06Actions · Next seven days
  1. 01Founder and Cupel countersign the GROW memo and the Q+1 slope target.
  2. 02Studio sales team hands over the CRM; founder owns outbound from Week 14.
  3. 03Named-account plan drafted for the top three multi-site targets.
  4. 04HIPAA audit engagement letter countersigned inside 30 days.
Signed · Operating partner
J. Gierlich
Managing Partner · Cupel Studio
Countersigned · Founder
[Anonymized]
CEO · Halden Health (sample)
Every cohort ends here

No portfolio limbo.
One of four readings.

A memo like this is filed for every Cupel company at Day 90: GO, GROW, PARK, or KILL. The founder gets the decision, the evidence behind it, and the next seven days in writing.

The method Apply to Cohort 01