Richard Leu, PhD
Founder & Principal
Founder, board member, and business and technical executive. Inventor on four granted AI patents and technical lead on $6.63M in SBIR and STTR awards.
A clearer view of early-stage technology, for the founders who build it and the investors who back it.
Cosmic Lens works with startups and the people who fund them. We've built companies, raised capital, and shipped technology ourselves, and we bring that experience to yours.
For founders
Good technology deserves to become a great company. We help you get there: test the idea, fund it, lead it, and take it to market.
- Validation and market research
- Fundraising
- Fractional leadership
- AI, data, and prototyping
- Go-to-market
- Security and AI governance
For investors
Back the right technology with conviction. We tell you what's real, what's hard, and where the market is heading, and we help the companies you fund grow into the bet you made.
- Technical due diligence
- Market and landscape research
- Ongoing sector tracking
- Portfolio company support
What we bring
- We've done the jobWe've been company presidents, CTOs, product leaders, and board members. We've hired teams, shipped products, and answered to investors, so our advice comes from the work itself.
- We focus on tractionAdvice only matters if it moves the numbers: customers, revenue, and the next round. We've taken products from zero to revenue, and we judge our work by your growth.
- Both sides of the tableWe work with founders and investors, so each side gets advice shaped by what the other needs to see.
Where founders need help
Every startup has gaps a small team can't cover yet. These are the ones we fill most often, alone or together.
Strategy and validation
Testing the idea, sizing the market, and mapping the competition before you commit.
Fundraising
Venture rounds and non-dilutive funding alike: investor-ready materials, technical diligence prep, and SBIR, STTR, and grant proposals.
Leadership
A fractional CTO, CPO, or other senior leader until the full-time hire makes sense.
Technology
AI and data strategy, architecture reviews, and 3D prototypes for hardware teams.
Go-to-market
Choosing your first customers, positioning, pricing, and the channels to test.
Enterprise readiness
Security questionnaires, SOC 2 readiness, and AI governance that larger buyers expect.
What clients say
Cosmic Lens operates as a true extension of our development team and is able to work independently with minimal oversight. After a successful initial engagement, we brought the team onto a much larger project to optimize our operational processes.
They offer extensive knowledge of machine-learning techniques, statistics, and an understanding of software design implications. They are flexible, responsive, and sensitive to customer needs.
Richard was extremely knowledgeable and provided clear, strategic guidance during our 1-hour AI strategy consultation. He quickly understood my goals, asked thoughtful questions, and turned complex concepts into practical, actionable next steps.
Richard is an extremely smart and talented consultant who helped me determine the direction of my company.
The team
A small, senior team that has built and led technology companies, with a network of trusted specialists we bring in as each engagement needs.
Kezia Frayjo
Principal
Product leader at Microsoft and Stack Overflow, where she led the customer experience across millions of pages of developer documentation. She has held product leadership roles at multiple startups and Fortune 500 companies over more than a decade.