Foragers.io Book your 30 minutes

For funds backing distributed systems, privacy, security and cryptography

Read the architecture before you invest. Find the buyer after.

A deep technology investment carries two risks: the technology does not do what the deck says, and the company cannot find who pays for it. We read the architecture and we do the market work, so we can test both. You pay per milestone, not per hour.

Book your 30 minute introduction The three ways to work with us

  • 3 at a time

    At most three engagements run at once, so yours gets priority

  • Both halves

    Solution architecture and go to market from one team

  • Fixed price

    Scope, acceptance and fee agreed before any milestone starts

  • No hype

    No airdrops, no KOL buys, no engagement farming

01 / The gap

Technical risk gets assumed. Market risk gets delegated.

Before the round, the technology is taken on trust because nobody at the table can check it. After the round, the company is asked to find a market with money that was raised for engineering. Both gaps cost you the same thing: time to the next round.

What you get

  • Someone who reads the code and docs and tells you where they disagree with the deck
  • Segments ranked by the cost of entering each, not a market size slide
  • Milestones with written acceptance criteria, so progress is a fact you can report
  • One team for the technical and the market half

What we do not do

  • A formal audit. We point you at someone who does that work.
  • Investment advice. We tell you what we found. The decision is yours.
  • Airdrops, KOL packages or engagement farming for your portfolio
  • Securities promotions, for a token or for equity

02 / Three ways to work with us

One method, applied where your risk sits

The work is the same as for a founder: read the architecture, rank the segments, test one. What changes is who asks the question and when.

Before you invest

Technical and market diligence

For a deal where the technology is the thesis and nobody on the team can check it

  • Architecture read against the claims in the deck and the docs
  • Code and documentation check: does it do what it says
  • Segment map: who would buy this, and what entering costs
  • Written memo with the risks named and ranked

Cadence One to two weeks per deal

Pricing Scope and fee fixed before anything starts

Not A formal cryptographic or smart contract audit. We will say so and point you at someone who does that work.

After you invest

Portfolio diagnostics

For portfolio companies with real technology and no repeatable way to reach a buyer

  • The one week diagnostic, run for the companies you choose
  • One framework agreement with the fund, one initial plan per company
  • The fund pays, the company pays, or you split it
  • Milestones after the week only with the company's agreement

Cadence One week per company, then milestones

Pricing From EUR 4,500 per diagnostic, credited to the company's first milestone

Not A retainer against vague portfolio support.

When a company stalls

The product market fit rescue

For portfolio companies three years in who still cannot name the buyer in one sentence

  1. Patch survey

    Interview candidate segments and rank them by cost of entry.

  2. Entry test

    One segment, one narrative, one funnel. Demand appears or it does not.

  3. Scale or leave

    Build the motion and hand it over, or test the next candidate.

Commitment Stage by stage. Stop after any stage and keep the work.

Not Pre-architecture vapor. The machine has to exist before we price a market for it.

03 / What you can check

Results you can put in a portfolio report

Every milestone is accepted against something on this list, so acceptance is a fact, not an argument.

What milestones are written against

  • Qualified conversations, logged with what was said
  • Design partners who commit engineering time
  • Integration commitments, dated, with blockers named
  • Retention after the incentive ends
  • Cost per validated learning

How deal and portfolio material is kept

  • Material from one company is never shown to another company or another fund.
  • Before we start, we tell you if we work with a company in the same segment. You decide.
  • Specialists and lawyers see material only once they are on the engagement, under the same terms we are.
  • If a token is involved, bring legal and compliance in early. We are not a law firm and we will not write communications that are securities promotions. We can introduce you to lawyers who do that work, and if the scope needs it we put a credible lawyer on the team under the same milestone terms.

04 / Selected results

Anonymized, because most of it is not ours to publish

Teams working on anonymity systems rarely want their name on a case study. Names and references come on request, once we are discussing a deal or a scope.

  • 2 paid integrations

    requested by new clients of a post-quantum mix network, after two field campaigns and business development.

  • All business units

    of an encrypted peer to peer organization, reached by the campaign we initiated, led and maintained.

  • EUR 30,000+

    raised for a privacy research collective, plus an audit service that outlived its grant.

  • EUR 20,000+

    of revenue in four months for a privacy first property platform, from a standing start.

Read the full case studies

Start with an initial 30 minute introduction

Tell us about the fund, the deal or the portfolio company, and what you need to know. If we are the wrong people for it, we will say so in the introduction. References on request.

Book your 30 minute introduction Message us on Signal