Proof of Usefulness Report

summa

Analysis completed on 1/20/2026

+62
Proof of Usefulness Score
You're In Business

Summa is an early-stage, AI-driven investor matchmaking platform that recently gained recognition as a winner at the GenAI Genesis 2025 hackathon. While the project addresses a genuine pain point (fundraising efficiency) with relevant semantic search technology, it remains in the MVP phase with minimal verifiable user traction ('dozens' of testers) and no revenue. The solution shows promise through its hackathon success and functional prototype, but falls into the 'Minimal Traction' category compared to established market players.

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Score Breakdown

Real World Utility+18.75
Audience Reach Impact+2.4
Technical Innovation+9.75
Evidence Of Traction+15.0
Market Timing Relevance+8.0
Functional Completeness+4.75
Subtotal+58.65
Usefulness Multiplierx1.06
Final Score+62

Project Details

Project URL
summa-ai.ca/
Description
Summa is an AI-powered investor matchmaking platform that helps startup founders find the most relevant investors for their company. It uses NLP and semantic similarity to match founder pitch descriptions with investor theses, check sizes, stages, and geographies, saving founders time and increasing fundraising efficiency.
Audience Reach
Summa currently serves early users through direct founder outreach and demos, with dozens of founders testing investor matches monthly. We are in active iteration based on founder feedback and expect usage to scale as we expand our investor database and add messaging features.
Target Users
Summa is built for early-stage startup founders (pre-seed to Series A) who are fundraising and want to identify the most relevant investors efficiently. It is especially valuable for first-time founders, technical founders, and founders outside major VC hubs who lack warm investor networks.
Technologies
Bright Data, Neo4j, Algolia, Storyblok, Other, Python (Flask backend) Pandas (data cleaning & scoring pipelines) NLP embeddings & cosine similarity React + TailwindCSS (frontend) Google Cloud Run (deployment) Web scraping & data normalization pipelines Genesis AI (investor summary generation)
Traction Evidence
Live product homepage https://www.summa-ai.ca GitHub repo (public build + README story) https://github.com/nirek13/.Summa Devpost project page (public hackathon submission + likes/comments) https://devpost.com/software/summa-fnyl03 Devpost hackathon gallery listing showing it as a Winner entry (Useful as “social proof” that it placed/was recognized) https://genai-genesis-2025.devpost.com/project-gallery?ref_medium=email Devpost update page (shows ongoing activity + timestamped update) https://devpost.com/software/summa-fnyl03/updates/627230

Algorithm Insights

Market Position
Growing utility with room for optimization
User Engagement
Documented reach suggests active user community
Technical Stack
Modern tech stack aligned with sponsor technologies

Recommendations to Increase Usefulness Score

Document User Growth

Provide specific metrics on user acquisition and retention rates

Showcase Revenue Model

Detail sustainable monetization strategy and current revenue streams

Expand Evidence Base

Include testimonials, case studies, and third-party validation

Technical Roadmap

Share development milestones and feature completion timeline