# Eight Minutes on Deal Insider: A Fast Showcase Conversation | RISEUP AT WORK LLC

- Canonical URL: https://wefunder.com/feed/328080
- Entity ID: wefunder:feed_item:328080
- Published at: 2026-05-28 14:00:00 UTC
- Updated at: 2026-05-29 04:08:29 UTC

## Author
Dr. Deepak Bhootra

## Subject
RISEUP AT WORK

## Content
Why this matters for investorsThis update is built for the way most of you actually consume founder content: fast. I sat down with Mazar at the Deal Insider Capital Deal Showcase for an eight-minute conversation, and he ran me through the questions every investor cares about at this stage of a round. The problem, the moat, the bottlenecks, the revenue model, the three- to five-year horizon, the use of proceeds, and the reason this is investable at all. Below is each question exactly as he asked it, the headline of how I answered, and a short read of where it lands for the round. If you only have ten minutes today, the video is a better use of them.Watch the conversation here:1. The problemMazar: “So could you provide us with a deeper insight into RISEUP@work?”The problem is not what most people assume. RISEUP@work is not a wellness initiative for burned-out professionals. It is a system for protecting the net worth they have not yet earned. Our modeling shows that a knee-jerk approach to the first decade of a career leaves roughly 37 percent of lifetime net worth on the table. That is the cost of treating the Launch Stage of a career as a series of reactions instead of a plan. The honest version of the pitch is this. We are building the operating system that turns the Foundation Stage of a career into a compounding asset, not a series of expensive mistakes that someone has to spend their forties trying to undo.2. The moatMazar: “What would you identify as your biggest differentiator compared to others in this marketplace?”From a distance, the space looks crowded. From inside, it is mostly white space. LinkedIn is a career identity, which is not the same thing as career progression, and it only knows what you choose to tell it. Every other player is a point tool. A resume builder here, a LinkedIn optimizer there, an interview tool somewhere else, each behind its own subscription. RISEUP@work pulls the seven or eight tools a professional actually uses into one unified environment, wires them together with an AI orchestration layer, and runs them across a relationship that is longitudinal, meaning a platform that walks alongside a professional for years rather than selling them a one-time fix. The moat is the integration, not any single feature.3. The bottleneckMazar: “And what key challenges are you currently facing in the business?”Funding velocity is the bottleneck, and that is by design. We are heads down on a July 2026 platform launch, and the two months in front of that date are the highest-leverage two months we will have all year. Engineering is already funded through our partner agreement. The pressure now is on marketing reach and waitlist pace. The wait list is about to cross the thousand mark, and the indicator I want investors to see is a few thousand wait list ahead of launch, because that is the difference between launching with a bang and launching with a whimper. The challenge is not whether the platform will work. It is making sure the audience is the right size on day one.4. The revenue modelMazar: “And can you tell us a little bit about your revenue model?”Recurring subscription with a coaching upsell on top. The reason this matters is that a professional in the Launch Stage of a career does not have $2,000 lying around for a coaching package, so the traditional model prices the right buyer out at the exact moment guidance compounds the most. AI lets us push the entry price down to a subscription that fits a real budget, and then we step in with human coaching as the customer grows economically. We move from human in the loop, to AI in the loop, to humans wrapping the AI again at the highest tier. The model grows with the individual instead of forcing the individual to outgrow the model.5. The three-year pictureMazar: “And where do you project seeing the company going in the next three to five years?”I am not running this to flip it. The honest planning horizon is daily, with a very clear three- to four-year line of sight. By the end of 2026, the target is 1,100 to 1,500 paying subscribers, with the post-launch validation point at 1,100 to 1,500 paying subscribers. Over the next three years, I want to be at 5,000 to 10,000 paying customers, with a total platform pool of around 50,000 people. That is the inflection where the unit economics start to extrapolate rather than crawl. That is the line where the business graduates from validated MVP to scale.6. Use of proceedsMazar: “Obviously, you mentioned the need for capital. How are the proceeds from the current capital raise going to be allocated?”The biggest win we have already booked is a $65,000 partner-equity engineering investment that pulled our launch date forward to July 4. That solves the build side. The next half a million dollars goes to marketing reach, product depth, and the influencer and ecosystem layer that keeps customer acquisition cost under control. The customer I serve is reachable on YouTube, and through the kind of conversation a TV format can carry. That is why we have already launched RISEUP@work, our career development show on NowMedia TV. It is the lead magnet for the platform's ecosystem, and it is paid for and running while the round is closing.7. Why this is investableMazar: “And ultimately, why do you believe this represents a strong investment opportunity?”Because humans matter, and because the puck is moving. The painful version of the answer is that the same problems I faced when I was starting out three decades ago are the problems my own children describe at the dinner table today. After all of the infrastructure and all of the AI, the human work of building a career has barely moved. What has shifted is the buyer. The corporate coaching market that used to sell to enterprises is being disintermediated by a population that has used Gamma, Canva, and the rest and now expects to own the tools that shape their careers, and now expects to own the tools that own their career. RISEUP@work is built for where the puck is going, not where it has been.How you can helpThe single highest-leverage thing you can do for the round right now is a warm introduction to another investor who backs founder-led, AI-native consumer software. Every quality introduction shortens the path to July 4.If you are already in the round and want to increase your position ahead of launch, reach me directly at deepak@riseupatwork.com.If you have a professional in your life in the Launch Stage or Foundation Stage of their career, point them to riseupatwork.com so they are on the waitlist before the doors open.Thank you for being in the boat.Dr. Deepak BhootraFounder and CEO, RISEUP@work