Iterra is rebuilding the scientific publishing stack — compressing the 6-18 month peer-review cycle to weeks via an AI multi-lens screening engine, researcher-owned reputation, and a Bloomberg Terminal-style intelligence layer for science. The wedge: incumbents (Elsevier, Springer, Wiley) charge authors $3K-$10K per publication while relying on unpaid, overworked volunteer reviewers; Iterra inverts the model — free for individual researchers, monetized via university licensing, biotech subscriptions, and journal screening partnerships, with reviewer credibility tracked through ORCID and prior art protected via Bitcoin timestamping.
Early traction is unusually sharp for a solo founder six weeks in: 42 peer reviewers from Harvard, Stanford, and Cambridge signed up from a single $20 LinkedIn job posting (median 10-11 publications each), with ~800 papers and 25K-35K reviews in the system, $0.62 CAC over three cycles, and zero rejections. The AI multi-lens screener reportedly beat Stanford's single-lens equivalent 13-0-1 on quality metrics in a head-to-head on the LK-99 paper. Jeff Atwood (Stack Overflow) has passed the concept to a technical partner; institutional pilot talks are underway with Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, and the University of Pittsburgh; Brad applied to a16z Speedrun and now needs an urgent bridge to capitalize on the momentum. SH is in early evaluation via Fund II — no terms set, next step is reviewing the a16z deck and a second call.
Email update from Brad Heaton \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ > Josh, > > Great call, thanks for going over. Really want to hear more about you and StoryHouse on our next call. We pivoted at some point and I didn't even get to the most exciting part of the business model after the free tier and enterprise. Can't wait to share that with you. Here's the deck I sent to PWV. Let's get that call on the b...
Source: Meeting Notes rec8sZNuOAWcXiqwy
INTRO AND INTEL SOURCE: LI Sales Nav & Cold Outreach DEAL STATUS: In Conversation NEXT STEPS: Brad said he'll send over the deck he used when he recently applied to a 16z speed round. We'll probably need to schedule another call with him to determine whether this is worth our time. SUMMARY OF CALL: Somewhat bizarre but also interesting first call with the new founder from our scrapes. He's a form...
Source: Meeting Notes rec1wDdv9XBV73ab8