Question 1

What does Cobalt Glacier actually do?

Accepted Answer

We are an AI venture studio. We conceive AI-native B2B SaaS brands, build the first version ourselves, take them to first revenue, and then keep operating them. Seven brands so far, all originated in-house. We are not an accelerator, not a fund, and not an acquirer. We start companies and we run them.

Question 2

What is a co-founder seat, exactly?

Accepted Answer

Most brands we build start with an internal thesis. Occasionally we meet an operator who knows a market so well that partnering beats building alone. In that case you become co-founder and CEO of a single new brand. You own the market thesis, the customers, and the roadmap. The studio owns the build: design, engineering, AI infrastructure, finance, and distribution. You are not joining a cohort and you are not pitching for a check.

Question 3

Do I need a company, a deck, or funding already?

Accepted Answer

No. You need a market you understand better than almost anyone and a specific workflow inside it that AI can now do end to end. If you already have a product, we will look at it, but existing traction is not a requirement and we are not evaluating you as an investment. We are evaluating whether we would build this thing together for the next decade.

Question 4

What does the studio actually build for me?

Accepted Answer

The first working product, not a prototype. Design system and brand identity, application engineering, model selection and evaluation harness, data pipeline, billing, auth, infrastructure, security posture, and the launch site. Then the shared spine underneath it: finance and FP&A, RevOps, contracts, recruiting, and internal AI tooling. Most solo founders spend eighteen months and a seed round assembling that. Inside the studio it exists on day one.

Question 5

How does the AI-native part change the build?

Accepted Answer

Two ways. First, in how we build: small teams shipping at large-team velocity because generation, review, and testing are model-assisted end to end. Second, in what we ship: every brand puts a model to work on a job a human used to grind through by hand. If the product would still make sense with the AI removed, it is probably not a studio thesis.

Question 6

What does the first 90 days look like?

Accepted Answer

Days 1 to 14: we pressure-test the thesis together. Who buys, what they pay today, what breaks, and whether a model can do the job well enough to charge for. Days 15 to 45: the studio builds v1 while you run customer development and land design partners. Days 46 to 90: first paying customers, pricing set, and a 12-month operating plan we co-author. If the thesis fails the first two weeks, we say so and neither of us wastes a year.

Question 7

How is equity structured?

Accepted Answer

You hold meaningful founder equity in the brand you co-found, vesting over four years with a one-year cliff, plus a cash salary from the studio so you are not living on hope. Cobalt Glacier holds the majority position because the studio funds the build, carries the payroll, and keeps operating the brand indefinitely. Terms are simple and written down before you start. No option-pool games, no side letters.

Question 8

Am I an employee or a founder?

Accepted Answer

Both, structurally. You are on payroll for stability and you hold founder equity for upside. In practice you operate as CEO of your brand: you own the P&L, hiring, pricing, and roadmap. The studio sets capital allocation, approves the annual plan and senior hires, and provides the shared spine. We meet monthly on numbers and quarterly on strategy. We do not sit in your standups.

Question 9

Do the brands ever get spun out or sold?

Accepted Answer

We keep what we build by default. There is no fund clock forcing an outcome and no spin-out milestone. If a sale, recap, or listing ever clearly beats continuing to hold, we decide that per brand, with you, and your equity participates on the same terms as ours. Patient by default, outcome-driven per brand.

Question 10

What if I want liquidity before then?

Accepted Answer

Because we hold rather than exit, we open periodic secondary windows so co-founders can take real money off the table without a sale event. The diagram above shows how that works: salary and equity at the start, distributions once the brand is cash generative, and secondary windows as the brand matures.

Question 11

What kinds of markets are you looking at?

Accepted Answer

B2B, unglamorous, and full of manual work. The pattern across our portfolio is a workflow where a competent human currently does something slow, repetitive, and expensive, and where being wrong occasionally is survivable. Legal ops, finance ops, GTM, revenue operations, recruiting, and documentation have all produced brands for us. We avoid consumer, avoid regulated life-or-death decisions, and avoid anything that only works with a huge sales team.

Question 12

What happens after I submit?

Accepted Answer

A partner reads it within a week and replies personally. If there is a fit, a 30-minute call, then a working session where we tear the thesis apart together. If we both still want to build it after that, we write terms. We are honest fast in either direction, and everything you send is confidential.

Co-found a brand inside the studio.

How we operate, in plain language.

Salary from day one, founder equity that vests, liquidity later.

Co-found a brand inside the studio.

How we operate, in plain language.

Salary from day one, founder equity that vests, liquidity later.

Q·01What does Cobalt Glacier actually do?

Q·02What is a co-founder seat, exactly?

Q·03Do I need a company, a deck, or funding already?

Q·04What does the studio actually build for me?

Q·05How does the AI-native part change the build?

Q·06What does the first 90 days look like?

Q·07How is equity structured?

Q·08Am I an employee or a founder?

Q·09Do the brands ever get spun out or sold?

Q·10What if I want liquidity before then?

Q·11What kinds of markets are you looking at?

Q·12What happens after I submit?