Home / Strategy / Funding and Investment

Affirmology Money List (v1)

Updated Jun 24, 2026 · Affirmology_MoneyList_v1.md

Affirmology Money List (v1)

The running list of everything we need or might need to spend money on to build, run, and scale Affirmology. This is a living doc. Jeff drops items here (including voice notes), Claude prices them, sorts them, and keeps the totals honest.

This doc does double duty: 1. Internal tracking. What we need to buy, what it costs, what is committed vs. still to price out. 2. Investor-facing financial needs vision. The clean, categorized version of this feeds the "use of funds" PDF and answers the "what does the money go to" question when investors ask.

Last updated: 2026-06-24. Owner: Jeff. Maintained by: Claude.

Note on figures: items marked [confirmed] have a verified current price. Items marked [estimate] are a working number to firm up. Items in the Inbox at the bottom are captured but not yet priced.

How to use this doc

• Drop anything here, however rough. A line, a voice note transcript, a "we probably need X." It lands in the Inbox and Claude prices and files it.
• Each item shows: what it is, one-time vs. recurring, the amount, status, and a short why.
• The Quick totals block at the top stays current so we always know the immediate cash need and the monthly run rate at a glance.

Quick totals (keep current)

Immediate one-time buys (next 30 days): ~$1,925 to $2,425 - Mac mini (always-on engine host): ~$800 - Sol's MacBook (replacement): ~$1,000 to $1,500 - Claude Team account: ~$125 first month (counts under recurring below)

New recurring run rate being added now: ~$100 to $125/mo (Claude Team, 5-seat minimum)

Existing lean monthly overhead (pre-scale, no ad spend): ~$53 to $73/mo (Source: affirmology-cost-estimate.html)

Full raise "use of funds" target: $150K to $250K round (Source: Affirmology_ExecSummary_v3.html, Affirmology_BuildVsHire_UseOfFunds_v1.md)

1. Immediate buys (Jeff's current list)

Notes / decisions to make on these three: - Mac mini spec: base $799 model is fine for an always-on host. If it will also do heavy local rendering, consider bumping RAM (adds a few hundred). - Sol's laptop: pick the model so we can lock the exact price. Tell me the use (audio work, design, travel) and I'll recommend the right one. - Claude Team: 5-seat minimum means ~$100/mo is the floor even if only 2 of us use it now. Worth confirming we want Team vs. keeping individual Pro/Max seats for the moment.

2. Technology & infrastructure (recurring)

The tools that keep the engine and pipeline running. Most of this is already live and cheap; it scales with users.

Lean monthly overhead total today: ~$53 to $73/mo before any paid music library or ad spend.

Music licensing (optional upgrades, only if we outgrow Suno): - Lyria 3 Pro $29.99/mo or Ultra $99.99/mo (Google AI music) - Epidemic Sound business ~$100 to $220/mo (or ~$1,100 to $2,400/yr) - Per-track buyouts (PremiumBeat) ~$29 to $199 each (Source: Affirmology_MusicLicensing_v1.md)

Per-audio production cost (so we know unit economics): ~$0.13 to $0.27 per audio on the standard path. Premium ElevenLabs path runs up to ~$1.00. (Sources: affirmology-cost-estimate.html, Affirmology_FieldBriefingAudio_CostMemo_v1.md)

3. App build & maintenance (the big tech line)

This is the funded line in the raise. We build v1 ourselves, then pay to harden and maintain it.

The plan: Jeff vibe-codes v1 cheaply, then a fixed-scope contract hardens it (payments, auth, birth-data security, audio delivery at scale, uptime), rolling into a light maintenance retainer. The hire owns reliability so Jeff does not carry it alone.

4. Demo room / hardware / equipment

Event & team raise allocation: $20K (Source: Affirmology_ExecSummary_v3.html)

Action: Jeff to list the specific marketing equipment he has in mind (camera body, lenses, mics, lighting, capture gear) so we can build a real demo-room + content-studio kit budget instead of a placeholder.

5. Team & living (Jeff full-time in Korea, founder runway)

The point Jeff made: he needs to be able to live and pour all of his time into this.

Action: Put a real monthly number on Jeff's Korea living cost (housing + living + occasional travel). That figure should sit inside the founder runway line, not on top of it, so the raise math stays clean. Tell me your monthly Korea budget and I'll fold it in.

6. Marketing & ad spend

Deployed only after inner-circle validation.

7. Legal, admin & IP

8. Content production (raise line)

Reference: full raise use-of-funds ($200K example)

The clean investor view, straight from the Exec Summary. This is the "where does the money go" slide.

(Source: Affirmology_ExecSummary_v3.html. Round target $150K to $250K at $1.5M post-money. See also Affirmology_TermSheet_v1.html and Affirmology_FriendsAndFamilyRound_v2.pdf.)

Inbox (captured, not yet priced)

Drop raw items here. Claude prices them and moves them up into the right section.

• [ ] Marketing equipment, specific kit list (camera, mics, lighting, capture). Jeff to detail.
• [ ] Jeff's Korea living budget, monthly number. Jeff to provide.
• [ ] Sol's laptop, exact model to lock the price. Jeff to choose use case.
• [ ] Claude Team, decide Standard vs. Premium and seat count.
• [ ] Cloud Studio hosting (Render + storage), get real monthly quote.

Sources mined for this list

Affirmology_BuildVsHire_UseOfFunds_v1.md, affirmology-cost-estimate.html, Affirmology_ExecSummary_v3.html, Affirmology_TermSheet_v1.html, Affirmology_FieldBriefingAudio_CostMemo_v1.md, Affirmology_MusicLicensing_v1.md, Affirmology_CashCowReturns_Note_v1.md, Affirmology_MacMiniSetup_Guide_v1.md, Affirmology_CloudStudio_BuildSpec_v1.md, Affirmology_FriendsAndFamilyRound_v2.pdf. Current pricing for Mac mini and Claude Team verified via web 2026-06-24.