Most founders expect forming a company and closing a first round to be two separate slogs that stretch across a quarter. Mistos, a Neo startup building AI-native engineering for power, energy, and industrial infrastructure, did not have that kind of time. Working with Fellow, Andrew took the company from formation to a funded round across nine investors in about a week and a half, with team equity in place and a clean corporate foundation ready to scale on.
"For a startup, speed is everything. When we need something, we usually need it the same day, sometimes within the hour, and Fellow works at that pace. What stands out is that they don't just do what I ask. When there is a better route, they give me that advice immediately and explain why it makes more sense for me and the company. In a short window, that has already paid off more than once."
Andrew Zbytek, Founder and CEO
The situation
Andrew came to Fellow at the moment most founders find hardest to get through cleanly. Mistos was ready to become a real company, take on capital, and start building a team, and all of it needed to happen at once. The company is going after a large, technical problem in power, energy, and industrial infrastructure, and the pace of the business did not leave room for a slow legal process running in the background.
What Andrew needed was well-rounded support at startup speed. Not just incorporation, and not just a financing, but the full path from founding the company to closing a first round, handled as one continuous motion. The work had to keep up with a founder who was moving quickly and could not afford to stall the round while paperwork caught up.
The challenge
Compressing formation, team equity, and a multi-investor round into a week and a half is not simply the same work done faster. Each piece depends on the others. The company has to exist before it can grant equity or take investment. The equity framework for the team has to be set up correctly so it holds up under later diligence. And a round with nine investors means nine sets of questions, nine sets of know-your-customer requirements, and nine timelines to manage in parallel, any one of which can slow the whole thing down.
What we did
Fellow ran the full early-stage stack as a single, coordinated effort rather than a series of handoffs.
Formation and post-incorporation
We incorporated the company and put the post-incorporation building blocks in place, so Mistos had a clean corporate foundation ready to take on investment and support a team from day one.
Team equity
We set up a stock option program for the team, giving Mistos the structure to bring people on and reward them without creating problems for a future round.
The fundraise
We drove the financing across nine investors, managing the documents, the moving pieces, and the closing mechanics so the round could come together quickly rather than dragging out over weeks.
Investor relations and diligence
Throughout the round we kept investor-side friction low. We turned around know-your-customer requests, data room questions, and diligence follow-ups quickly, and closed open negotiation points within hours rather than days, so no single investor became the bottleneck for the rest.
How we work together
The speed matters, but so does the way the work happened. When Andrew needs something, he often needs it the same day, sometimes within the hour, and the engagement was built to move at that pace. Just as important, Fellow does not simply execute instructions. Where there is a better path, we say so, explain the reasoning, and let Andrew make the call with the full picture in front of him. That combination of pace and pushback is what lets Mistos move fast without moving carelessly.
The result
Incorporation, team equity, and a first round across nine investors all came together in about a week and a half. Mistos raised its first capital and was ready to scale quickly, with a corporate foundation and an equity framework in place to keep building on. Instead of a formation and a fundraise that stretched across a quarter, Andrew had a funded company ready for its next stage in a fraction of that time.
