Skip to main content
This walks you from a founder API key to your live CRI score and a ranked list of exactly what to improve. The headline workflow - iterating your deck to Caplia Verified - builds on this and has its own guide: The deck loop.
The Founder API is live in production. The examples below use the sandbox host (api-sandbox.venture.caplia.ai) with a cap_fnd_test_* key so you can build safely; swap to api.venture.caplia.ai and your cap_fnd_live_* key for your real company.
1

Get a founder key

Mint a company-scoped key in the Caplia founder portal: account menu → API Keys → Create key, pick a read (or read + write) scope, and copy the plaintext - it’s shown once. You must be a company admin. See Authentication for the key model.Store it in an environment variable - never paste it into a browser or commit it:
export CAPLIA_FOUNDER_KEY="cap_fnd_test_..."
2

Confirm what Caplia has on record

Your key is your company - no id needed. Check the profile Caplia currently shows investors:
curl https://api-sandbox.venture.caplia.ai/v1/me/company \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CAPLIA_FOUNDER_KEY"
Response
{
  "id": "e3507d3e-...",
  "name": "Metronome",
  "website": "https://process-metronome.com",
  "industry": "Operations software",
  "stage": "Seed",
  "problem_statement": "High-value, human-driven processes decay the moment they're implemented.",
  "created_at": "2026-05-12T09:14:00Z"
}
3

Read your CRI score and recommendations

This is the founder’s primary signal - your score, how far you are from Caplia Verified, and the rubric’s concrete fixes:
curl https://api-sandbox.venture.caplia.ai/v1/me/scores \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CAPLIA_FOUNDER_KEY"
Response
{
  "cri": {
    "score": 624,
    "max": 1000,
    "verified": false,
    "points_to_verified": 76,
    "scored_at": "2026-06-25T18:02:11Z",
    "domains": [
      { "domain_name": "Team", "points_earned": 168, "points_possible": 200 },
      { "domain_name": "Market & Customers", "points_earned": 172, "points_possible": 220 },
      { "domain_name": "Product & Competition", "points_earned": 96, "points_possible": 130 },
      { "domain_name": "Financial", "points_earned": 120, "points_possible": 200 },
      { "domain_name": "Foundational", "points_earned": 68, "points_possible": 100 },
      { "domain_name": "Platform Actions", "points_earned": 0, "points_possible": 150 }
    ],
    "recommendations": [
      {
        "signal_id": "financial_model",
        "priority_rank": 1,
        "expected_points_increase": 75,
        "summary": "Upload a financial model (monthly P&L, CAC/LTV build, runway) to the data room."
      },
      {
        "signal_id": "som_math",
        "priority_rank": 2,
        "expected_points_increase": 30,
        "summary": "Show bottoms-up SOM math: reachable sites x ACV x capture rate."
      }
    ]
  },
  "thesis_matches": [
    { "thesis_id": "...", "thesis_name": "Future of Work Seed", "score": 81 }
  ]
}
The CRI is on a 0-1000 scale. A company is Caplia Verified at score >= 700; points_to_verified tells you the exact gap. Each recommendation carries an expected_points_increase so you can attack the highest-leverage fixes first.
4

Iterate your deck to 700

The recommendations tell you what to fix. To actually move the score, submit a revised deck for private scoring, read the new CRI, and repeat - without investors seeing the drafts. That loop is the whole point of the Founder API:

The deck loop →

Submit a draft, poll for a private CRI, regenerate, resubmit - then publish one clean update once you clear 700.

​
Do it from Claude instead

Every step above is also an MCP tool, so you can run the whole thing in natural language from Claude Desktop, Cursor, or ChatGPT - “what’s my CRI and what should I fix?” See MCP server.

​
Next steps

The deck loop

The full iterate-to-Verified workflow.

API reference

Every /v1/me/* endpoint, with schemas.