# Help Somebody — Context Facts current as of 14 Aug 2026 Website: https://help-somebody-68551.genie.jellyjelly.com Deck: https://help-somebody-deck-68551.genie.jellyjelly.com ## 01. How to use this _One page, three readers: Andrew, Iqram, Genie._ This is the third Help Somebody surface. The site is for founders. The deck is for investors. This is for us: docs, notes, decisions, and open threads, so nothing has to be re-explained. - Copy all context (top right) puts every doc on this page into your clipboard as markdown. Paste it into a Genie thread as the first message and it has the whole picture. - Copy on any single doc grabs just that section. - Raw markdown in the header is the same bundle as a plain file, good for linking or dropping into a tool. - Press / to search. It filters both the index and the docs. ### Editing rule Content lives in one file (docs.js). Say the change out loud to Genie and it edits that file and redeploys. Three URLs stay independent: an edit here can never leak into the site or the deck. --- ## 02. What Help Somebody is _The one-paragraph version, for reuse anywhere._ Help Somebody is a fund from Iqram and Andrew that invests in people. Small checks, early, at the speed of trust. The differentiator is not the capital, it is the access: founders get operators on demand for growth, product, engineering, and fundraising, any time they need them, instead of a quarterly board meeting. > We invest in people, not decks. Then we jelly with them all day. - **Partners:** Iqram Magdon-Ismail and Andrew Staub - **How they met:** Ticketleap - **Built together:** Venmo — Iqram cofounder, Andrew employee #2 (head of customer support, then growth) - **Stage:** Pre-seed and seed, first-check friendly - **Superpower:** Operator help on demand, not scheduled - **One-liner:** A fund that invests in people. --- ## 03. Thesis _Why people, and why now._ - People compound, markets rotate. The founders worth backing are identifiable before the company is legible. We would rather be early to a person than on time to a category. - Speed of trust beats process. We have known most of our best investments for years. Diligence is relationship, not a data room. - Help is the product. Capital is a commodity at this stage. Time from an operator who has shipped the exact thing is not. - Small checks, high touch. We do not need ownership targets to make the model work, which means we can move without negotiating. ### What we are not Not a platform team behind a portal. Not quarterly board theater. Not a spray-and-pray index. Not a fund that needs to lead to be useful. --- ## 04. The model — jelly all day _What a founder actually gets after the wire._ “Jellying” is the unit of work: a founder pings, an operator shows up, they work the problem together in real time. Not office hours. Not an intro to someone who might reply. - **Growth:** Acquisition loops, referral mechanics, pricing, retention teardown - **Product:** Scope cuts, onboarding, what to build next and what to kill - **Engineering:** Architecture reviews, hiring the first engineers, unblocking a shipped-but-broken thing - **Fundraising:** Story, deck, target list, room prep, term sanity checks - **Cadence:** On demand, any time — replaces the quarterly board meeting as the default touch point ### Why it wins - Founders pick the investor who answers on the day it matters. That is a durable edge in a crowded round. - It generates proprietary signal: we see how people work before anyone else can price them. - It is cheap to run when checks are small and the partners are the operators. ### Open question Where does the operator bench come from as volume grows, and does it stay founders-helping-founders or does it become a paid pool? Needs a decision from Andrew and Iqram. --- ## 05. People we’ve backed _People first. Companies are the footnote._ Framing rule for every surface: lead with the person, put the company second and smaller. This is the traction slide on the deck and the portfolio band on the site. - **Matt Mirman:** Modal - **Kiaan Pillay:** Stitch - **Jacques Marco:** Axis - **Phoebe Gates & Sophia Kianni:** Phia - **Flutterwave:** Founder name to add - **Zo:** Founder name to add - **chat.dev:** Founder name to add - **Light Shift:** Founder name to add ### Gaps - Flutterwave, Zo, chat.dev, and Light Shift are still listed company-first. Need the person for each to match the framing. - Resume lines for Chris and Shreyans are unfinished in the deck and waiting on Andrew’s redline. - The three featured people on the deck show resume only, no current company, by design. Keep it that way. --- ## 06. The raise _Two things running at once: the fund and the near-term round._ - **Fund target:** $10M from LPs - **Near-term raise:** $500K, followed by ongoing jelly-all-day support sessions - **Audience:** LPs for the fund; angels and operators for the $500K - **Positioning:** Differentiated, deliberately not cookie-cutter — the LP deck should not read like every emerging manager deck - **Check size:** TBD — needs Andrew / Iqram - **Terms, fees, carry:** TBD — needs Andrew / Iqram - **Portfolio construction:** TBD — number of checks, reserves, ownership philosophy ### The LP argument - Access: two operators who built Venmo get into rounds on relationship, not process. - Differentiation: on-demand operator help is a real reason founders pick us, which shows up as allocation. - Proof: an existing set of people we backed before they were consensus. - Discipline: small checks means the model does not depend on winning competitive priced rounds. ### To write The LP deck is a separate artifact from the founder-facing seed deck. Do not merge them. Same facts, different order and different emphasis. --- ## 07. The deck _11 slides, YC seed order, arrow keys to move._ Live at help-somebody-deck-68551.genie.jellyjelly.com. Separate project, separate URL from the site, on purpose. - **Structure:** 11 slides, YC seed round order - **Tone:** Simple and concise, one idea per slide - **Navigation:** Arrow keys - **Themes built:** Zine, Noir, Press — still unpicked - **Traction framing:** People we backed, companies secondary - **Featured people:** Resume lines only, no current company ### Open items - Pick one theme and delete the other two. - Chris and Shreyans resume lines need Andrew’s redline. - Founder names for Flutterwave, Zo, chat.dev, Light Shift. - Known bug filed earlier: the deck link was routing to the website instead of the deck. Re-check it before sending to anyone. --- ## 08. The website _Five versions shipped. Live is v4._ Live at help-somebody-68551.genie.jellyjelly.com. Every past version is kept at /versions/ so we can revert in one move. - **v1:** Cream editorial, first draft - **v2:** Green and gold with nature photos - **v3:** Green and olive, institutional - **v4:** Black and white minimal — currently live - **v5:** Cream, plus a deck link ### Notes - v4 is the house look: white paper, near-black ink, hairline rules, desaturated grayscale photos, zero color. This context site matches it. - Andrew has said he likes the nature photos from the green/gold era. They survive in v4 as grayscale. - Iqram asked for a revert at one point on 14 Aug 2026. Current state is v4. --- ## 09. Design system and voice _So anything new looks like it belongs._ - **Paper:** #FFFFFF, warm panel #F6F5F3 - **Ink:** #0B0B0B, soft #4A4A4A, faint #8C8C8C - **Rules:** 1px #E2E2E2 hairlines, no shadows, no rounded corners - **Display / body:** Inter Tight, weight 300–500, tight tracking (-.03em) - **Labels:** IBM Plex Mono, 10–12px, uppercase, .2em tracking - **Photos:** grayscale(100%), contrast 1.08, brightness .94 - **Color:** None. Ever. ### Voice - Short sentences. Verbs over adjectives. No VC jargon, no “ecosystem”, no “platform play”. - Person before company, always. - Say the number or leave it out. No hedged claims. - Concise beats complete — especially on the deck. --- ## 10. Open threads _What is actually blocking, and on whom._ - **Andrew:** Redline Chris and Shreyans resume lines - **Andrew + Iqram:** Pick one deck theme: Zine, Noir, or Press - **Andrew + Iqram:** Founder names for Flutterwave, Zo, chat.dev, Light Shift - **Andrew + Iqram:** Check size, terms, portfolio construction for the LP deck - **Genie:** Verify the deck URL routes to the deck, not the site - **Genie:** Draft the LP-facing $10M deck once terms land - **Open:** Where the operator bench comes from as jelly volume grows --- ## 11. Surfaces and changelog _Three URLs, kept independent._ - **Website:** help-somebody-68551.genie.jellyjelly.com — founder facing, v4 live - **Deck:** help-somebody-deck-68551.genie.jellyjelly.com — investor facing, 11 slides - **Context:** this page — internal, noindex ### Changelog - 14 Aug 2026 — website set to v4, black and white minimal. Version archive kept at /versions/. - 14 Aug 2026 — deck split into its own project and URL so deck edits cannot touch the site. - This session — context site created: docs, notes, and strategy in one place, matching v4. - 14 Aug 2026 — added Andrew’s routines and habits as a standing operating-context doc. --- ## 12. Andrew’s Routines & Habits _Brain dump from August 14, 2026 — things to hold as operating context._ ### Morning walk - Andrew flows best when he starts the day by getting up and walking immediately. - This works whether the day is a Wefunder day or a Help Somebody day — it is not work-specific, it is a baseline ritual. - Ideal pattern: walk first, solo brain dump (voice notes / jellies), then calls. - Goal: make this a non-negotiable daily habit at home. ### Brain dumping - Morning solo walks are the best time for unstructured thinking and brain dumps. - Calls come after, not before. - Andrew uses Genie / JellyJelly (jellies) as the primary capture tool for these brain dumps.