Date: 2026-07-27 5:30 PM EDT Attendees: Michael Houck (Rye Valley), Deo (Riffle, deo@riffle.studio)
Summary
Intro/diligence call with Deo, founder of Riffle - a DAW (digital audio workstation) targeting beginners and “DAW-curious” users aged 16-24. Riffle raised $1M+ led by Asylum Ventures and is currently closing a $3M round. Michael is evaluating a potential angel check alongside Andrew (mutual).
Decisions
No investment decision made. Next step: debrief with Andrew on alignment before responding to Deo, who is trying to close this week.
Action items
| Owner | Action | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Michael | Debrief with Andrew on Riffle; align on whether to participate | This week |
Notable details
- Positioning: “CapCut plus Cursor for music” / “Canva plus Cursor”
- ICP: 16-24 year old beat makers (hip-hop, afrobeats, piano) bouncing off FL Studio complexity
- Agentic co-pilot (Sous Chef) handles effects without menus; simple MPC-style sampler planned
- Sharing layer: modern SoundCloud-style listenable links, Figma-style real-time collab
- Early traction (45 days post-launch, no marketing): 7,200 users, 5,309 active makers, 1,157 Sous Chef users, 14,140 messages, 239 WAU, 23% lifetime retention, 209 power users averaging 28 tracks and 29-min sessions
- Prior investors: Asylum Ventures (lead), builder of Ray-Ban Meta glasses, Kareem from Clay
- Current round: $3M target, approx $100k closed, $2.5M remaining; Gabe from Mischief and head of product at Kriya joining as angels
- Flybridge likely out due to Splice conflict (Jesse led Michael’s Launch House seed)
Transcript
Transcripts not available on current Granola tier. Full notes in Granola: meeting id 9f8ccef7-2cd9-494a-9418-36388a46a800.