Back

Phoenix

What Is It?

Case Studies

Phoenix:

Phoenix is the program from TheAgentic where we work with startups in the B2B AI and SaaS space to survive the post-angel or post-seed funding gap.

It is estimated that less than 10% of the startups that raise an angel or seed round are able to get to a Series A or as an alternative get an exit. In short more than 90% of the startups that do manage to raise an angel, pre-seed or seed round end up shutting doors with investors and the founders losing their money and their time investment.

Schedule A Call To Learn More

Trusted by founders at

  • Kismet AI

  • MedNova

  • NiaKai

[What is Phoenix]

[What is Phoenix]

Since the launch of our vertical AI incubation programs in December 2024, we have worked with more than 120 founders and domain experts to help build, launch, and sell vertical AI products. The highlight of this program has been that a significant number of the vertical AI startups we work with have achieved $500k or higher in ARR within 12 months of starting with zero financial risk to the founder and NO external funding raised. Moreover, in all these cases, founders continue to own 100% of their companies; many of them will bypass the seed funding stage and straight go to Series A. More than 1,200 end user organizations use vertical AI products that we've helped co-engineer.

Phoenix is a program from TheAgentic where we apply our expertise in building and selling vertical AI products and solutions to work with B2B AI and SaaS startups who have raised an angel, pre-seed or seed round and are struggling to get to the next stage of a capital raise. We help them survive the post-angel and post-seed funding gap.

Within the Phoenix program we partner with such startups to:

1) Increase revenue.
2) Eliminate cash burn.
3) Add more capabilities and strategic depth to their product & service offering.
4) In case of a tech co-founder exit, we assume the role of the tech co-founder.

We do this with ZERO investment from the startup or the founder/investors. Our goal with Phoenix is to take the success rate wherein the startup is able to successfully exit or raise the next funding round to more than 70%.

As the first step, we engage in a detailed strategic assessment and develop a custom plan along with you. This process takes up to 3 weeks. Post this you can decide whether you would like to work with TheAgentic to execute on such plan. In case you decide not to work with TheAgentic, you are free to use this plan and execute it yourself.

Since the launch of our vertical AI incubation programs in December 2024, we have worked with more than 120 founders and domain experts to help build, launch, and sell vertical AI products. The highlight of this program has been that a significant number of the vertical AI startups we work with have achieved $500k or higher in ARR within 12 months of starting with zero financial risk to the founder and NO external funding raised. Moreover, in all these cases, founders continue to own 100% of their companies; many of them will bypass the seed funding stage and straight go to Series A. More than 1,200 end user organizations use vertical AI products that we've helped co-engineer.

Phoenix is a program from TheAgentic where we apply our expertise in building and selling vertical AI products and solutions to work with B2B AI and SaaS startups who have raised an angel, pre-seed or seed round and are struggling to get to the next stage of a capital raise. We help them survive the post-angel and post-seed funding gap.

Within the Phoenix program we partner with such startups to:

1) Increase revenue.
2) Eliminate cash burn.
3) Add more capabilities and strategic depth to their product & service offering.
4) In case of a tech co-founder exit, we assume the role of the tech co-founder.

We do this with ZERO investment from the startup or the founder/investors. Our goal with Phoenix is to take the success rate wherein the startup is able to successfully exit or raise the next funding round to more than 70%.

As the first step, we engage in a detailed strategic assessment and develop a custom plan along with you. This process takes up to 3 weeks. Post this you can decide whether you would like to work with TheAgentic to execute on such plan. In case you decide not to work with TheAgentic, you are free to use this plan and execute it yourself.

Schedule A Call To Learn More

Case-Studies

  1. Reviving an enterprise software startup which had consumed 80% of the funding raised and didn’t have a ready product yet.

TheAgentic helped revive an enterprise software startup that had already consumed 80% of the funding it had raised but still did not have a ready product.

The founder came from the enterprise software space and had 15 years of executive experience in customer support and product management. He had started the venture with a technical cofounder and raised USD 150,000 to build the company.

However, after 7 months and USD 110,000 spent, the startup had only reached a demonstrable stage. The product had roughly 40% of the required feature set and was still not production grade. As a result, the founder had to let go of the entire engineering team.

At this point, the startup partnered with TheAgentic. Within 5 months of the partnership, TheAgentic helped deliver a production system with the full feature set. TheAgentic also added the team, tools, and methodology needed for fast customization and integration. This allowed the company to bring overhead down to zero, with only the founder continuing to work directly in the company.

With TheAgentic handling the product, engineering, customization, and implementation capabilities, the founder was able to focus on large deals in Silicon Valley. TheAgentic provided the customization and implementation skills required for successful customer implementations, and these were charged based on successful customer implementations.

In parallel, TheAgentic focused on mid-market deals globally. This included deploying 2 sales engineers and generating 15–20 new sales meetings every month.

As a result, within 11 months of working with TheAgentic, the startup reached $970,000 in ARR.

  1. Reviving a B2B SaaS startup that had less than 5 Months of runway despite early ARR traction

A founder was building a product designed to help early-stage B2B SaaS companies automate sales outreach and go-to-market execution. The venture was initially started with a technical cofounder and raised a seed round of USD 200,000. The company followed a product-led growth strategy and managed to reach USD 70,000 in ARR.

However, despite this early traction, the company was facing a serious runway problem. It was burning USD 19,000 per month, of which USD 15,000 was coming from technology costs alone. At that burn rate, the company had less than five months of runway remaining and very little chance of being able to raise further funding.

The founder then partnered with TheAgentic. TheAgentic took over the maintenance and improvement of the core product, which reduced the technology burn from USD 15,000 per month to USD 3,000 per month. This materially improved the company’s cost structure and extended its ability to continue operating.

In addition to stabilizing the core product, TheAgentic built a new mid-market and enterprise-focused offering driven by Forward Deployed Engineers. This offering was designed for B2B SaaS and deep tech companies that had raised more than USD 10 million. While the founder continued focusing on promoting the core product through the product-led growth motion, TheAgentic took responsibility for the mid-market and enterprise-focused business line.

TheAgentic handled this new motion end-to-end, including lead generation, sales engagement, product management, development, and implementation. As a result, the startup has now grown to USD 800,000 in ARR, with the sales pipeline created by TheAgentic expected to take the company to USD 2 million in ARR within an 8–9 month period.

  1. Rebuilding an AI compliance startup for vertical adoption

TheAgentic helped revive an enterprise software startup that had already consumed 80% of the funding it had raised but still did not have a ready product.

The founder came from the enterprise software space and had 15 years of executive experience in customer support and product management. He had started the venture with a technical cofounder and raised USD 150,000 to build the company.

However, after 7 months and USD 110,000 spent, the startup had only reached a demonstrable stage. The product had roughly 40% of the required feature set and was still not production grade. As a result, the founder had to let go of the entire engineering team.

At this point, the startup partnered with TheAgentic. Within 5 months of the partnership, TheAgentic helped deliver a production system with the full feature set. TheAgentic also added the team, tools, and methodology needed for fast customization and integration. This allowed the company to bring overhead down to zero, with only the founder continuing to work directly in the company.

With TheAgentic handling the product, engineering, customization, and implementation capabilities, the founder was able to focus on large deals in Silicon Valley. TheAgentic provided the customization and implementation skills required for successful customer implementations, and these were charged based on successful customer implementations.

In parallel, TheAgentic focused on mid-market deals globally. This included deploying 2 sales engineers and generating 15–20 new sales meetings every month.

As a result, within 11 months of working with TheAgentic, the startup reached $970,000 in ARR.

Case-Studies

  1. Reviving an enterprise software startup which had consumed 80% of the funding raised and didn’t have a ready product yet.

TheAgentic helped revive an enterprise software startup that had already consumed 80% of the funding it had raised but still did not have a ready product.

The founder came from the enterprise software space and had 15 years of executive experience in customer support and product management. He had started the venture with a technical cofounder and raised USD 150,000 to build the company.

However, after 7 months and USD 110,000 spent, the startup had only reached a basic demo stage. The product had roughly only 40% of the feature set required to be competitive in the market, and was still not production grade. As a result, the founder had to let go of the entire engineering team.

At this point, the startup partnered with TheAgentic. Within 5 months of the partnership, TheAgentic helped deliver a production system with the full feature set. TheAgentic also added the team, tools, and methodology needed for fast customization and integration. This allowed the company to bring overhead down to zero, with only the founder continuing to work directly in the company.

With TheAgentic handling the product, engineering, customization, and implementation capabilities, the founder was able to focus on large deals in Silicon Valley. TheAgentic provided the customization and implementation skills required for successful customer implementations, and these were charged based on successful customer implementations.

In parallel, TheAgentic focused on pursuing mid-market deals nationwide. This included deploying 2 sales engineers and generating 15–20 new sales meetings every month, such that the founder only needs to be involved at the closing stage.

As a result, within 11 months of working with TheAgentic, the startup reached $970,000 in ARR, with deals sourced and managed by TheAgentic accounting for more than 60% of the total ARR.

  1. Reviving a B2B SaaS startup that had less than 5 Months of runway despite early ARR traction

A founder was building a product, designed to help early-stage B2B SaaS companies automate sales outreach and go-to-market execution. The venture was initially started with a technical cofounder and raised a seed round of USD 200,000. The company followed a product-led growth strategy and managed to reach USD 70,000 in ARR.

However, despite this early traction, the company was facing a serious runway problem. It was burning USD 19,000 per month, of which USD 15,000 was coming from technology costs alone. At that burn rate, the company had less than five months of runway remaining and very little chance of being able to raise further funding.

The founder then partnered with TheAgentic. TheAgentic took over the maintenance and improvement of the core product, which reduced the technology burn from USD 15,000 per month to USD 3,000 per month. This materially improved the company’s cost structure and extended its ability to continue operating.

In addition to stabilizing the core product, TheAgentic built a new mid-market and enterprise-focused offering driven by Forward Deployed Engineers. This offering was designed for B2B SaaS and deep tech companies that had raised more than USD 10 million. While the founder continued focusing on promoting the core product through the product-led growth motion, TheAgentic took responsibility for the mid-market and enterprise-focused business line.

TheAgentic handled this new motion end-to-end, including lead generation, sales engagement, product management, development, and implementation. As a result, the startup has now grown to USD 800,000 in ARR, with the sales pipeline created by TheAgentic expected to take the company to USD 2 million in ARR within an 8–9 month period.

  1. Rebuilding an AI compliance startup for vertical adoption

The startup was founded as a competitor to address compliance and GRC workflows using AI across a variety of verticals. The startup had raised a total of USD 1.4mn in two rounds of funding. Initially this startup focused on large enterprise customers, given the lineage of the founders.

After approximately 2 years, this startup had roughly $200,000 left with a monthly burn of USD 30,000. Moreover, AI based compliance and GRC is a highly competitive space especially in the large enterprise. Though the startup was doing close to USD 700k in ARR, it was repeatedly turned down by Series A VCs who saw much larger and much better funded competitors with significantly more traction. This led to most of the founding engineering team leaving and the startup as a result had to significantly cut back.

TheAgentic partnered with the startup and jointly we executed the following:

1. Rebuilt the offering around 3 verticals.
2. Created a lower cost mid-market offering combined with using offshore talent for customers with smaller budgets.
3. Built an entire lead generation and sales team to address mid-market customers which could not be serviced by enterprise sales teams due to cost.
4. Expanded the software only business model to an outcome based model, where in the core product was delivered around with short term consulting assignments to deliver outcome to mid-market customers. TheAgentic made the cost of the consulting assignments to the startup completely variable on revenue.

Within 7 months, we were able to grow revenue by 130% and reduce overheads such that this startup became cash flow positive. The startup now has a much more resilient business with a much larger customer base.