PRD: Thesis Tab

Fundraising OS Feature Specification. August 2026.

1. Purpose

The Thesis tab is the founder's fundraising pitch, distilled into a single page that serves two audiences. The founder reads it to prepare for meetings, rehearse the verbal pitch, and keep the narrative sharp. An investor who receives a deep link reads it as a self-contained memo that answers "what is this company, how much are they raising, and why."

The page must feel like a document, not a dashboard. One page, one thesis, with structured depth available on demand.

2. Page Layout

The thesis page has three vertical zones, rendered top to bottom in a single scrollable view.

Zone 1: The Pitch (always visible)

The verbal thesis narrative. This is the part the founder reads out loud. It answers the question "what is your company and why should I care?" in the founder's own voice.

• One-liner callout. A 1-2 sentence thesis statement rendered in an accent-bordered card (fos-thesis-oneliner). This is the elevator pitch.
• Narrative body. Multiple paragraphs of the full pitch. Rendered in fos-thesis-body-p paragraph blocks at 0.95rem, ink-soft color, 1.7 line-height. This is the verbal version of the thesis, not a summary, not bullet points. It should sound natural when spoken aloud.

The pitch is always visible. It never hides behind a tab or disclosure. Scrolling past it is the only way to move beyond it.

Zone 2: Section Pills (sticky navigation)

A horizontal row of pill buttons that segment the structured detail of the thesis. The pills stick to the top of the section area as the user scrolls, so navigation is always available.

Behavior:

• Tapping a pill shows that section's content below the pills bar and hides all others.
• The active pill has an accent background (is-active class).
• The first pill is active on load.
• Pills scroll horizontally on mobile with momentum scrolling and hidden scrollbar.
• The active pill auto-scrolls into view on activation (smooth, center-aligned).
• Pills only render when the thesis has at least one distilled field or section. An empty thesis shows the empty state instead.

Zone 3: Section Content

The content panel below the pills. Only one section is visible at a time, switched by the pills. No animation, instant swap via hidden attribute.

3. Data Model

Table: thesis_docs

Column	Type	Purpose
id	TEXT PK	Random hex id
founder_id	TEXT FK	References founders(id)
title	TEXT	Display title (default: "Fundraising thesis")
source	TEXT	Provenance line (e.g. "Prepared by Boo")
summary	TEXT	The pitch narrative (Zone 1 body)
sections	JSONB	Full research memo: [{heading, body}]
distilled	JSONB	Structured fields for pills
sources	JSONB	Source documents: [{label, url?}]
raw_markdown	TEXT	Complete thesis as markdown (export format)
created_at	TIMESTAMPTZ	Insertion time

Distilled JSONB schema

{
  "one_liner": "string",        // The elevator pitch (Zone 1 callout)
  "ask": "string",              // The Ask pill content
  "why_now": "string",          // Why Now pill content
  "use_of_funds": ["string"],   // Use of Funds pill content (list items)
  "why_us": "string",           // Why Us pill content
  "anchors": ["string"]         // Anchor Plan pill content (list items)
}

All fields are optional. Pills render only for present, non-empty fields. The summary column holds the pitch narrative (Zone 1) separately from the distilled card fields.

Query

SELECT * FROM thesis_docs
WHERE founder_id = $1
ORDER BY created_at DESC
LIMIT 1

The most recent thesis doc wins. No versioning in the current model. Each POST /api/thesis inserts a new row. Historical versions are queryable but the UI always shows the latest.

4. API

POST /api/thesis

Bearer-authenticated (Boo API token). Inserts a new thesis_docs row.

{
  "founder_slug": "boolab",             // required
  "title": "Fundraising Thesis",        // default: "Fundraising thesis"
  "source": "Prepared by Boo",          // nullable
  "summary": "...",                     // The pitch narrative (Zone 1)
  "sections": [                         // Full memo sections
    { "heading": "...", "body": "..." }
  ],
  "distilled": {                        // Structured pill fields
    "one_liner": "...",
    "ask": "...",
    "why_now": "...",
    "use_of_funds": ["..."],
    "why_us": "...",
    "anchors": ["..."]
  },
  "sources": [                          // Source documents
    { "label": "Deck", "url": "https://..." }
  ],
  "raw_markdown": "..."                 // Complete thesis as markdown
}

Returns { "ok": true }.

5. Rendering Rules

Pill construction order

1. The Ask (from distilled.ask), rendered as paragraphs.
2. Why Now (from distilled.why_now), rendered as paragraphs.
3. Use of Funds (from distilled.use_of_funds), rendered as a list. Uses fos-thesis-list-rich for extra padding per item.
4. Why Us (from distilled.why_us), rendered as paragraphs.
5. Anchor Plan (from distilled.anchors), rendered as a list. Only shown when anchors are non-empty.
6. Full Memo (from sections[]), rendered as a sequence of heading + body blocks. Each section body supports markdown-style bold (**text**) and bullet lists. Only shown when sections exist.
7. Sources (from sources[]), rendered as a linked list. Only shown when sources exist.

Empty state

When getLatestThesis() returns null, the page renders a centered empty state with the prompt "No thesis yet" and a copy-paste command: @Boo write my fundraising thesis memo.

Fallback rendering

When distilled is empty but summary or sections exist (legacy data), the pitch section shows the summary and the sections render in a single scrollable view without pills. This preserves backward compatibility with thesis docs created before the pills redesign.

6. CSS Architecture

Class	Element	Purpose
fos-thesis	Container	Max-width 780px wrapper
fos-thesis-pitch	Zone 1	Pitch narrative wrapper, margin-bottom 28px
fos-thesis-oneliner	Callout	Accent-bordered card for the elevator pitch
fos-thesis-narrative	Body	Container for pitch paragraphs
fos-thesis-body-p	Paragraph	0.95rem, ink-soft, 1.7 line-height, 12px margin
fos-thesis-pills	Nav bar	Flex row, horizontal scroll, sticky, z-index 10
fos-thesis-pill	Button	Pill button, rounded 20px, 0.78rem
fos-thesis-pill.is-active	Active pill	Accent background, white text
fos-thesis-section-panel	Section	Content panel, hidden/shown by JS
fos-thesis-list	List	No bullets, border-separated items
fos-thesis-list-rich	List variant	Extra padding for multi-line items
fos-thesis-memo-section	Full memo section	Heading + body, 28px margin-bottom
fos-thesis-memo-heading	Section heading	1rem, bold, ink color

Mobile (max-width 768px)

• Pills gap reduced to 4px, font-size to 0.72rem, padding to 5px 11px.
• Oneliner font-size reduced to 1rem, padding to 12px 14px.
• Pills bar scrolls horizontally with hidden scrollbar and momentum scrolling.

7. Client-Side Behavior

File: src/client/thesis.ts, imported in app.ts.

Initialization

1. Find .fos-thesis-pills. If absent, exit (empty state or no pills).
2. Collect all [data-thesis-pill] buttons and [data-thesis-section] panels.
3. On pill click, set is-active on the clicked pill, set hidden on all non-matching panels, remove hidden from the matching panel.
4. Auto-scroll the active pill into view on mobile (smooth, center-aligned).
5. Activate the first pill on page load.

Data attributes

Attribute	Element	Value
data-thesis-pill	Button	Section key (e.g. "ask", "why-now", "full-memo")
data-thesis-section	Panel div	Matching section key

8. Content Generation (Boo's Role)

When a founder says "write my thesis" or Boo detects an empty thesis tab, Boo generates the thesis through a multi-phase process.

Phase 1: Research

Parallel web research across five streams: VC landscape (what top firms are writing about the category), competitor deep dive (who competes and their funding), comparable rounds (real deal data at similar stage/size), founder story (verifiable track record), and market timing evidence (spending data, adoption rates, macro signals).

Phase 2: Compose

Write the full investor-grade thesis using the founder's narrated input as the soul and the research as the foundation. The thesis must read as a pitch the founder can say verbatim, not a research report. Follow the content-writing skill rules: no em dashes, no contractions, no generic AI vocabulary, every claim backed by a specific fact.

Phase 3: Review

Adversarial review from a skeptical VC partner perspective. The reviewer checks whether the memo would earn a meeting, flags gaps (missing revenue numbers, unaddressed risks, weak competitive positioning), and suggests specific rewrites. The thesis is revised based on this feedback before posting.

Phase 4: Post

Structure the thesis into the API payload: summary for the pitch narrative, distilled for the structured fields, sections for the full memo, and raw_markdown for export. Post via POST /api/thesis.

Content rules

• The pitch (summary) is the founder's verbal thesis. It should sound natural when spoken aloud to an investor. Not corporate, not breathless.
• The distilled fields are structured depth, not a summary of the pitch. Each field answers a specific investor question with specifics.
• The full memo (sections) is the research-backed deep dive with real data, competitor names, comparable rounds, and sourced market data.
• Do not include investor pipeline names in the thesis. The thesis is the pitch, not the pipeline.
• Verticals are described as organic adoption ("where Boo is being used"), not strategic choices.
• Founder credentials are verifiable facts, not praise. No employee counts unless relevant. No "shipped AI features" unless it directly supports the Boo thesis.

9. Future Considerations

• Versioning UI. The table supports multiple thesis docs per founder (ordered by created_at). A version history dropdown or "Previous versions" disclosure would let the founder see how the thesis evolved.
• Inline editing. Founder edits directly on the page (contenteditable or modal) with auto-save via PATCH, rather than asking Boo to rewrite.
• Deep links to pills. URL hash fragments (#why-now, #full-memo) so the founder can share a link that opens directly to a specific section.
• Deck export. Generate a pitch deck (PDF or PPTX) from the thesis distilled fields.
• Source document upload. Drag-and-drop a founder's existing memo (from ChatGPT, Claude, Google Docs). Boo parses it, distills the structured fields, and links the original as a source.