The Founders Behind the Ideas: Meet Three Builders from the LvlUp Ventures First Check Fund
Every startup begins long before the first customer, funding round, or product launch.
It starts with a founder who sees a problem differently than everyone else.
At LvlUp Ventures, that's what we're investing in through our First Check Fund. While markets, products, and technologies evolve, exceptional founders consistently find ways to adapt, execute, and build lasting companies.
Our First Check Fund is designed to support founders early in their journey, often before they've reached the milestones that attract broader investor attention. At this stage, conviction matters. We look for founders with deep insight into the problems they're solving and the determination to turn those ideas into scalable businesses.
Here are three founders from our portfolio who are building across AI, travel, and the creator economy.
Ramin Rajaii | Rajaii Labs
Artificial intelligence is becoming more capable every day, but one challenge remains: continuity.
Most AI systems can respond intelligently in the moment, but they struggle to maintain long-term memory and context across interactions.
That's the problem Ramin Rajaii is tackling with Rajaii Labs.
The company is building Continuum, an AI platform focused on persistent memory and relationship continuity, enabling AI assistants to remember important context and deliver more personalized, long-term interactions.
Ramin's interdisciplinary background spanning neuroscience, medicine, engineering, and business gives him a unique perspective on building systems that combine human understanding with advanced AI infrastructure.
Pranamee Sarma | bAI
Planning a family vacation should be exciting—not overwhelming.
After experiencing firsthand how time-consuming and fragmented family travel planning can be, Pranamee Sarma set out to build a better solution.
With bAI, families can create personalized travel plans based on children's ages, travel preferences, and budget through an AI-powered conversational experience.
Drawing on more than 13 years of startup operations experience, Pranamee is building a platform that simplifies one of the most stressful parts of traveling with children while making family-friendly travel more accessible.
Hengyi Wu | Frenzy
Short-form content has become one of the most effective ways for local businesses to reach customers, yet many restaurants struggle to create consistent, authentic content.
At the same time, creators often face inconsistent compensation and limited opportunities to monetize their work locally.
Hengyi Wu founded Frenzy to solve both problems.
Frenzy connects restaurants with local creators through a marketplace where creators produce short-form content and are rewarded through verified, performance-based campaigns. The platform creates a win-win for businesses looking to reach new customers and creators looking to build sustainable income.
Investing in Founders First
Every founder's journey is different.
Some are reimagining how families travel. Others are building the next generation of AI infrastructure or transforming how local businesses connect with creators.
What they share is a willingness to tackle meaningful problems and the persistence to keep building solutions.
That's what the LvlUp Ventures First Check Fund is all about.
We're proud to partner with founders at the earliest stages of their journey and look forward to supporting them as they continue to grow.
The future is built by founders—and we're excited to help them take the first step.
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