VC: The next OpenRouter won't be a router but a brain, offering $250k+ pre-seed
MartinGTobias · x · 2026-09-24
Investor Martin Tobias argues OpenRouter succeeded as a 'phone book with a billing system' — one API collapsing hundreds of endpoints, but with zero intelligence: developers still pick the model, price, and latency themselves.
His thesis: the next OpenRouter won't be a dumb pipe but a brain that intelligently matches tasks to models and costs. He's offering $250k–$500k pre-seed checks to founders building this and asking for referrals.
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