Accepting Q2 founders Free for accepted founders Pre-seed → Seed Official LvlUp Ventures deal scout

traztech Launch.
We set up your stack.
The vendors pay.

Every startup pays for the same mandatory stack: banking, payment processing, hosting, domain, payroll, accounting, insurance, compliance, observability. You'd buy all of it anyway. We just route every category through our affiliate directory so the vendors fund our work instead of you. Same list prices, often lower (we negotiate volume across hundreds of founders). You pay zero. The vendors pay us instead.

We're an official LvlUp Ventures deal scout

traztech is part of the LvlUp Ventures deal scouting program, one of the most active venture firms in the world. When you're in Launch and ready to raise, we don't hand you a generic intro list. We can refer you directly into the LvlUp program, putting your startup in front of their investment team and their network of corporate and investment partners.

1,000+
startups backed globally
$12.5B+
portfolio market value
#7
most active VC firm worldwidePitchbook ranking
750+
corporate & investment partners

Being an official deal scout means our referral isn't a cold email. It's a credentialed introduction that lands inside LvlUp's review pipeline. If LvlUp or one of its funding partners invests, the fund pays us a scout fee. You pay nothing, and you keep your full equity and terms. A referral is never a guarantee of investment, but it gets you a real, fast read from a firm that reviews thousands of startups a year.

What we actually deliver

A real white-glove setup, not a deck of advice. Concrete deliverables, hands-on work, every week, until you're in market.

MVP development

Engineers from our bench build your initial product. Real code, real reviews, real ship dates. Web, mobile, or API. Whichever fits.

Security & compliance setup

SSO, MFA, secrets management, encryption, logging. Vanta or Drata configured for SOC 2 from day one. No rip-and-replace later.

Infrastructure & DevOps

Cloud account setup, IaC, CI/CD pipeline, monitoring, on-call rotation. Deploys in minutes, not weekends. Cloud credits applied where you qualify.

Fractional CTO advisory

Weekly strategy sessions with a senior operator. Architecture decisions, hiring calls, board prep, crisis support. Not a coach. A co-pilot.

Brand & marketing setup

Domain, email, landing page, basic SEO, analytics. The boring foundation that makes everything else possible.

Legal & corporate

Incorporation referrals, standard NDAs, privacy policy, ToS, employment templates. Through partners. Not legal advice from us.

Finance & ops setup

Banking, accounting software, payroll, invoicing. Everything wired up to your books from day one. Stripe and Mercury credits via partner programs.

VC introductions & LvlUp referral

If you're raising, we refer you directly into the LvlUp Ventures deal scouting program (we're an official scout), plus warm intros to other funds we trust. Not a guarantee of investment. A real read on whether to even take the meeting.

How we get paid (since you don't)

Most "free" programs hide the model. We don't. Here is exactly where the money comes from when we run Launch for a founder. If any of this makes you uncomfortable, the program isn't for you, and that is fine.

Vendor affiliates
When you sign up for Vanta, Datadog, AWS, Stripe, Mercury, or any of our other partner platforms via traztech, the vendor pays us a referral or affiliate fee, typically 10–30% of your first year. You pay the same list price you'd pay direct (sometimes less, since we negotiate volume discounts).
Cloud credits
AWS, GCP, Azure, and Cloudflare run startup credit programs (typically $5K–$100K per founder). We get you in. They're funding their own customer acquisition; we just make the application fast.
VC scout fees
We're an official deal scout for LvlUp Ventures and scout for a small group of other VCs we trust. If we refer you and a fund invests, the fund pays us a scout fee, typically a cash finder's fee, 1–2% of round size, or a slice of carry. You don't pay anything; the fund's GP/LP economics absorb it.
Volume discounts
Because we run dozens of these setups a year, we get pricing tiers no individual founder can. We pass most of that savings to you (it makes the program work) and keep enough to make it sustainable for us.
Optional paid services
If you outgrow Launch and want to hire us for ongoing fractional CTO/CISO work, an IR retainer, or a dedicated engineering pod, we'll quote it. Not required. Roughly 20% of Launch alums become paid clients later. The other 80% don't, and that's a feature, not a bug.

We will tell you the affiliate split on any specific vendor before you sign up. If our recommendation is biased by a kickback, we say so. If a tool we don't earn from is genuinely better for you, we recommend that one. That's the only way the program survives long-term.

Mandatory tools every startup pays for

These aren't optional add-ons. These aren't nice-to-haves. Every startup, regardless of stage or sector, has to set up banking, payments, hosting, payroll, accounting, insurance, compliance, and the rest of the list below. You're going to spend money on every category here whether you work with us or not. Our directory just routes that spend through partners that fund our work in return. List prices stay the same and often drop, since we negotiate volume across hundreds of founders. We carry at least one partner per category and usually two, so you get a real choice. We name specific partners on the call once you're accepted. The lineup changes as we negotiate, so we don't list them publicly.

Infrastructure & tech
Cloud hosting & compute
AWS / GCP / Azure-tier providers
DNS & CDN
Edge routing, DDoS, WAF
Domain registrar
Where your domain lives
Email hosting
Workspace-grade business email
App / static hosting
PaaS for frontend & APIs
Database & cache
Managed Postgres, Redis, Mongo
Object storage
Buckets for assets, backups, archives
Container registry
Docker images, build artifacts
Money & finance
Business banking
Operating account, deposits, FX
Payment processing
Card & bank checkout
Corporate cards
Spend management with rewards
Accounting software
Books, invoices, reconciliation
Payroll & HR
Domestic and global contractor pay
Expense management
Receipts, reimbursements, reports
Bill pay & AP
Invoice routing, approvals, payouts
Cap table & equity admin
409A, option grants, vesting
Tax filing
Sales tax, R&D credits, returns
International payouts
Global contractor & vendor pay
Subscription billing
Recurring billing, dunning, retries
Invoicing & AR
Invoice generation, collections
Compliance & security
Compliance automation
SOC 2 / ISO 27001 / HIPAA platform
Identity provider (SSO)
Single sign-on across SaaS
Password manager
Team vault & secrets sharing
Endpoint / MDM
Mac & Windows device management
Pen testing & vuln mgmt
Continuous scanning & annual pen tests
Secrets management
API keys, credentials, rotation
Vendor security questionnaires
Automated SIG / CAIQ responses
Backup & disaster recovery
Cloud and SaaS data backup
DevOps & engineering
CI/CD platform
Build, test, deploy pipelines
Observability & APM
Metrics, logs, traces
Error tracking
Frontend & backend exceptions
On-call & incident mgmt
Paging, runbooks, postmortems
Status page
Public uptime communication
Code repository
Git hosting, code review, PRs
Feature flags & experiments
Targeted rollouts, A/B tests
Container orchestration
Kubernetes, ECS, Cloud Run
Productivity & collaboration
Project management
Issues, sprints, roadmaps
Docs & wiki
Internal knowledge base
Team chat
Channels, DMs, integrations
Video / meetings
Calls, recording, transcription
Calendar & scheduling
Bookings, round-robin, reminders
Transactional email
Receipts, password resets, alerts
Whiteboard / collab canvas
Brainstorming, system diagrams
Forms & surveys
Customer research, NPS, intake
Sales & marketing
CRM
Pipeline, contacts, sequences
Email marketing
Lifecycle campaigns & newsletters
Product analytics
Funnels, retention, behaviour
Customer support
Ticketing & help center
Live chat
In-app conversations & bots
SEO & content tools
Keyword research, rank tracking
Sales engagement
Sequences, dialers, prospecting
Webinars & events
Virtual events, registration, replay
Legal & admin
Incorporation services
Delaware C-corp / federal setup
Contract mgmt & e-sign
Templates, signatures, vault
Business insurance
D&O, cyber, GL, E&O
HR / people platform
Hiring, perf reviews, time off
Background checks
Employment & vendor vetting
Trademarks & IP
Filing, monitoring, patents
Privacy & policy generators
GDPR / CCPA / cookie banners
Bookkeeping & fractional CFO
Monthly close, board reporting
AI & data
LLM API providers
Foundation model access
Vector database
Embeddings & semantic search
ETL & data pipeline
Source to warehouse sync
Data warehouse
Analytics-grade SQL store
AI agent / orchestration
Agent runtimes, workflow tools
Prompt eval & monitoring
Quality scoring, hallucination tracking
Inference / model serving
Hosted GPU inference for custom models
BI & dashboarding
Analytics dashboards, reporting

If you need a category that isn't listed (recruiting platforms, design tools, no-code builders, niche industry SaaS), we'll either tell you which partner we have, source a new one, or admit we don't cover it. Honesty first. The program only works if you trust the recommendations.

Who qualifies

We can't run Launch for everyone. The economics only work at a specific stage. The honest qualifying criteria:

·

Pre-seed to seed-stage

You're <18 months in, with a real idea (validated or not). If you're already at Series A scale, our paid services fit better.

·

Technical or technical-adjacent product

SaaS, infra, security, fintech, devtools, AI. We don't do consumer social, gaming, or hardware. We'd be miscasting our team.

·

Plans to raise within 0–6 months

You're actively fundraising or starting within the next two quarters. Our VC scout economics need you in the room with our partner funds and ready to take the meeting. If you're 6+ months out, apply when you're closer and we'll keep your spot warm. If you're going pure bootstrap or lifestyle, the program isn't a fit. Pay us as a regular client instead.

·

Commit to the stack for 12 months minimum

You agree to use our recommended partners across the directory for at least 12 months after setup. That's the window the vendor affiliate economics need to work. After 12 months you're free to swap anything; we keep your discounts intact regardless. If you have strong opinions about specific tools we don't partner with, the program isn't a fit. Pay us as a regular client instead.

·

Founder availability

30 minutes a week of your time, minimum. We can't replace founder judgment, and we won't try.

Apply to Launch

15-minute application. We respond within 48 hours with a yes, no, or "let's talk to learn more". We accept ~20% of applicants. Not because we want to gate-keep, but because the program only works for the right shape of founder.

By applying you agree to a brief follow-up call. We never share your application with anyone outside the traztech team without your explicit consent.

Common questions

Is this really free, or is there a catch?

Really free, with one catch: you commit to using our recommended partners across the directory for 12 months minimum. That window is how the vendor affiliate economics break even on our setup work. After the 12 months you're free to swap anything; the discounts we negotiated stay yours. If that commitment bothers you, the program isn't for you. Pay us as a regular client instead.

Are you a VC, an accelerator, or a consultancy?

A consultancy. We don't take equity. We don't have a cohort or demo day. We're not in your cap table. We just run a structured setup program for founders we like, and we get paid by the ecosystem on the back end.

What VCs do you scout for?

Our anchor program is LvlUp Ventures, where we're an official deal scout. It's one of the most active VC firms in the world, with 1,000+ startups backed and a $12.5B+ portfolio. If you're a fit, we can refer you straight into their program. We also scout for a small set of other funds we trust, and we'll walk you through which ones fit your stage and sector on the call.

How long does the program last?

Typically 8–12 weeks of active setup, then a handover. After that you're a Launch alum: lifetime access to our tooling discounts, community, and a standing offer to come back as a paid client.

What if I don't end up raising?

Totally fine. Most VC scouting fees are lottery-ticket economics for us; we don't budget around them. If you bootstrap or get acquired before raising, that's a great outcome, and your stack stays intact either way.

Do you compete with my other vendors?

No. We don't sell tools. We deploy them. If you already have a stack you love, we'll integrate around it (you may lose access to some affiliate-funded discounts, but the program still runs).