Hi WFW VC Teardowns,

I’d like to introduce HoloMeet, a next-generation communication platform that makes remote meetings feel like people are physically in the room together — without VR headsets or special equipment.

Traditional video calls flatten presence, remove body language, and make complex collaboration harder. As a result, onboarding takes longer, sales demos convert poorly, and distributed teams frequently miscommunicate.

HoloMeet uses AI to turn a user’s webcam video into a full-body, life-sized “cut-out” that appears in the other person’s space through their laptop or AR-supported device. It creates the feeling of true in-person interaction while using the same hardware teams already own.

Teams using HoloMeet reduce miscommunication by 30–50%, cut onboarding time by 40%, and see 20–35% higher conversion in enterprise sales demos due to increased presence and clarity.

We’re raising a $4.5M USD seed to scale our spatial video engine, expand early pilots in architecture, automotive, and SaaS sales, and build deeper integrations across major collaboration platforms.

Best regards,

Lucas Reyes

Founder & CEO, HoloMeet

www.holomeet.ai

HoloMeet

Makes remote meetings feel in-person — life-sized presence, no headsets, no hardware.

1. Intro Email

Strong, clear, and compelling for a cold inbound, but it slightly undershoots by not fully helping me visualise the product or understand who the first real buyer is. I’m not yet convinced this is a venture-scale company rather than a technically impressive feature that gets quickly commoditised by incumbents like Zoom but I’m keen to read on! By commoditised, I mean that HoloMeet becomes a standard feature that’s easy to replicate so instead of HoloMeet being “the new category leader in spatial meetings” it becomes “the cool feature Zoom added in their 2028 update”.

2. Problem

The problem framing is strong and well-articulated. I don’t need further convincing that the problem exists.

3. Solution

The hardware-free angle feels like the right positioning - anything requiring new hardware is challenging for enterprise because it adds friction, cost, and risk for both the buyer and the startup. For customers, it complicates procurement (often shifting from simple OpEx to CapEx), triggers IT and security reviews, requires on-prem deployment and training, and introduces behavioural resistance that slows adoption. For an early-stage startup, it increases capital intensity, compresses margins, ties up cash in inventory, adds manufacturing and supply chain complexity, and can slow product iteration - all of which make scaling harder than a pure software model. That said, venture absolutely does invest in hardware when the upside justifies the complexity - it just requires exceptional execution and isn’t for the faint hearted!

However, I still don’t have a concrete mental model of the product – i.e. is this a 2D video composited into space? Is it AR only or laptop only? Do both parties need HoloMeet? What does the receiver actually see and where do I stand to see and be seen etc?

The impact numbers are super vague and unsupported. How are they calculated? From what baseline are the %s calculated? How many customers and how measured? They read like optimistic pilot anecdotes rather than solid case studies/evidence.

4. Traction

Great to see $64k of MRR from 12 pilots - suggests someone is willing to try this and to pay. It would be good to understand pilot usage metrics in more detail - is usage increasing week over week inside accounts? What does onboarding / rollout look like? Who is the economic buyer and user? What causes pilots to stop using it? More detail on LOIs and partnership discussions and how they’re thinking about protecting IP.

5. Market

The market sizing is a bit hand wavy - is there a bottom-up TAM of each segment? What will be the initial wedge use case and each market sizing? Could this stall as a niche novelty product?

6. Competition / Alternatives

The “next version of zoom” framing worries me – if this works, will Zoom, Teams, GoogleMeet etc. copy or acquire – history shows they copy. What is the protectable differentiated unique IP here that create a competitive moat? This section is mostly features rather than defensibility. Why can’t this be replicated by zoom/teams within 12-24 months? What is the durable moat beyond “we built it”?

Would you invest in a startup that has the potential to be acquired by one of the incumbents listed above?

Yes - we would absolutely invest in a company that has credible potential to be acquired by a major incumbent like Zoom, Teams, or Google, provided the business can demonstrate real product-market fit, meaningful revenue traction, and defensible differentiation; strategic acquisition is a highly viable venture outcome, but ideally its not the only path to success. We need confidence that the company can build standalone value, create leverage in any acquisition discussion, and avoid being easily replicated before it reaches meaningful scale.

7. Team

Unreal Engine, Google Research and Figma PM is a believable team for this problem and increases my willingness to believe that the tech might be good and the team can execute. I’m hopeful Amara is a woman too.

8. The Ask

US$4.5m for a seed round is quite large in NZ and for the stage company is at without clear PMF in one vertical. Runway and more detailed use of funds would be helpful. Not focusing on one vertical or geography so could be spreading themselves too thin. We’d definitely need to see more granular/ considered milestones for the round too.

9. Overall

Primary reason you’d pass:

I’m not yet convinced this is a venture-scale company rather than a technically impressive feature that gets quickly replicated or absorbed by incumbents like Zoom or Teams.

Primary reason you’d lean in:

If the product experience is as strong as claimed, this could represent a genuinely new communication category with early enterprise traction and a credible team to execute.

10. 30-Minute Meeting?

Yes, but narrowly – contingent on a live demo (I want to be turned into a hologram!! Is the experience actually just weird & awkward?) and sharper answers to some initial questions.