# Tracer

> Tracer is AI due diligence for venture capital funds. It reads a startup's whole data room and writes investment memos where every statement links to the exact source passage it came from, and every gap in the founder's story is flagged.

Tracer is for venture capital funds, investment analysts and partners who screen and evaluate startups. It is a web app (https://app.tracervc.xyz). Tracer doesn't decide what's true; it makes checking take seconds. The model extracts claims and places links, and the source excerpt sits right next to every claim, so verifying a statement means reading one short passage, not re-reading the data room.

## The problem it solves

- Funds review about 101 deals for every one they close (Gompers et al., 2020). Most get a few minutes, and that's where outliers slip through.
- "Is that from the deck?" is what partners ask in every investment committee meeting. Tracer shows whether each statement rests on the founder's word or on outside evidence.
- Often a single source stands behind a headline claim: the founder's own deck (Kirsch, Goldfarb & Gera, 2009). Most memos don't say so.

## What it does

- Click any sentence, see its source: every statement links to the exact passage in the deck, interview or article it came from.
- Know how solid each point is: each claim is marked as resting on the founder's word only, confirmed by independent sources, or an open question.
- Contradictions stay visible: when the deck says 12 customers and the press says 8, both stay on record until someone resolves it. Nothing gets smoothed over.

## How it works (five fixed steps)

1. First look: answers the fund's screening questions so you know in minutes if the deal is worth a closer look. Output: go / no-go memo.
2. Gather evidence: reads every document, searches the web for more, and separates the founder's sources from independent ones. Output: every source, rated.
3. Check every fact: extracts each fact with the exact sentence it came from; where the deck and the press disagree, both are shown. Output: facts and contradictions.
4. Stress-test: builds the strongest case against investing and lists what nobody has answered yet. Output: risks and open questions.
5. Score the deal: rates the deal against the fund's own investment thesis and criteria (such as team, market and moat); every score shows its evidence. Output: recommendation.

## Outputs

- Thesis Card: a one-page testable thesis with base, upside and failure scenarios, moat, entry wedge, falsifiers and scores, every line cited.
- Evidence Pack: every table behind the Thesis Card (sources, claims, conflicts, uncertainties). Any statement can be followed to its source excerpt in one click.
- Decision Snapshot: Proceed, Watch or Pass, with the strongest arguments, the counter-case, primary risks, a research agenda and a re-evaluation trigger.

## For funds

Funds configure their evaluation once: dimensions (the criteria every deal is scored on, such as team or moat; 10 by default), score anchors (0–5), collection prompts, source tiers (primary, secondary, tertiary) and confidence rules (high, medium, low). Every evaluation records the config version it ran under, so memos from different analysts are comparable.

## Explainer video

- [Tracer explainer: from data room upload to thesis card](https://tracervc.xyz/videos/tracer-explainer.mp4): 48-second walkthrough (MP4, 1080p, with audio). [Captions (WebVTT)](https://tracervc.xyz/videos/tracer-explainer.en.vtt).

Transcript:

> Every deal starts with a pile of reading. Today, AI can summarize it in seconds. But which lines can you actually trust? This is Tracer. Tracer ties every fact to its source, quoted word for word, and checks the quote really exists. Every source is graded. Five articles repeating one press release count as one voice. When sources disagree, Tracer doesn't pick a side. Both stay on the record until you resolve it. If a key question has no evidence, the score is capped. Optimism can't fill the gap. Then your fund's own rules make the call: Proceed, Watch, or Pass. The result: an investment memo you can check, line by line. Tracer. Every statement traces back to its evidence.

## Links

- [Website](https://tracervc.xyz)
- [Create an account](https://app.tracervc.xyz/signup)
- [Sign in](https://app.tracervc.xyz/login)
- [Sitemap](https://tracervc.xyz/sitemap.xml)