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831 Stories

Building the Marvel Universe of Romantic Fiction

FoundersClaire Mazur and Erica Cerulo

Romance is the top-selling fiction genre in America — an $18.9 billion global market with no household brand. 831 Stories is building it: original novels engineered for adaptation, a devoted membership, and a content flywheel spanning books, audio, streaming, and live events.

Total raise

$1,500,000

Industry

Media & Entertainment

Terms

SAFE · 20% discount · no cap · converts at Series A

Reach out with questions

$18.9B

Global romance market

and no household brand owns it

Titles optioned at Hulu

2 with showrunners attached

800+

Waitlist

for RomCon, NYC's Romantic Fiction Convention

Deal terms

Instrument

SAFE

Total raise

$1.5M

Discount at conversion

20%

Valuation cap

None

Converts at

Series A — target March 2027

Already committed

~$800K

Min Check in SPV

10,000

This SAFE carries no valuation cap: investors convert at a 20% discount to whatever price the Series A clears. See memo for full details

Why we like it

BookTok is at peak attention on romance. Search interest hit the maximum score of 100 in February 2026, and the audience driving it has no brand to anchor to except individual authors. 68% of romance readers now discover titles through social platforms.
Hulu conviction is building. Six titles optioned through the first-look deal with Disney's 20th Television, two with showrunners attached, and the founders serve as co-executive producers.
Target is coming. A 1,800-door chain-wide rollout is in active negotiation for Q1 2027 — ReaderLink approached 831, and the buyer meeting has happened. Capital now funds the readiness work that makes it executable.
The author pipeline stepped up. Casey McQuiston and Hannah Brown are signed for 2027 — a step-change in commercial profile ahead of the Series A.
Last entry before the Series A reprices. The $6–8M Series A is targeted for March 2027. This bridge is the final chance to enter at the current structure, converting at a 20% discount to whatever the round clears.

What they do

831 Stories is a romance publishing imprint with a brand strategy closer to A24 or Hallmark than to a traditional publishing house. The insight: romance readers are a massive, ferociously loyal fan base with no brand identity to attach to. They congregate on BookTok, they buy in volume, and nobody has given them a home.

831 fills that void with taste-making content, a curated author roster, a premium membership program (The Ones), multimedia partnerships, and a growing merchandise offering. Books are the go-to-market entry point — the larger business is the universe those books create.

Meet the founders

Claire Mazur and Erica Cerulo

Claire Mazur and Erica Cerulo have been friends since 2002 when they met as undergrads at the University of Chicago, and business partners since 2010, when they launched the fashion e-commerce and content business Of a Kind and earned a reputation for creating consumer demand through innovative storytelling.

They subsequently sold the company to Bed Bath & Beyond in 2015 and ran it until 2019.

They’ve been named to Forbes’ “30 Under 30,” InStyle’s “Best of the Web,” and Fashionista’s “Most Influential People in New York Fashion Right Now.” They authored the Random House book Work Wife and currently run the taste-making media enterprise A Thing or Two, which connects with design and book enthusiasts through its weekly podcast and newsletters.

They are voracious consumers of romantic fiction who see the potential for the genre to shift attitudes toward women’s sexual and romantic lives in consequential ways.

Note: Claire and Erica also have a popular podcast A Thing or Two, as well as a newsletter by the same name. They know media, how to move product, and understand fandom. We believe they are uniquely qualified to build this brand.

The market

The global romance market reached $18.9 billion in 2024 and is projected to hit $28 billion by 2033. Romance has held the top position in U.S. fiction for 16 straight years — 39 million print units in 2023, up 52% year over year — and behind it sits a reader base of roughly 30 million Americans.

And yet no company owns the space. Traditional publishers treat romance as a volume play. Indie authors own their individual fanbases but not a shared identity. Platforms provide access but not community. 831 is the first imprint designed from day one to be a fan brand first and a publisher second.

The most loyal readers in publishing

Average monthly spend

$38

above most streaming subscriptions

Books read per month

11.2

insatiable demand

Buy at least weekly

46%

recurring, habitual spend

Follow authors religiously

69%

loyalty that transfers to a brand

Prefer series to standalones

75%

built-in multi-title commitment

Fans for 20+ years

35%

a generational customer

The product

Featured press

Gross revenue by stream

2024 and 2025 are actuals; 2026 and 2027 are the company's bridge-period projections. The memo's own advice — which we share — is to underwrite on these numbers and treat the out-years as directional. The full model is in the memo.

BooksMerchandiseBrand eventsEntertainment / IPPartnerships & other

EBITDA — path to profitability

Investment years through 2027, turning EBITDA-positive in 2028.

Where the growth comes from

Revenue by channel, this year's plan against next year's. The bridge exists to shift this mix — subscription growth, RomCon, and readiness for the planned Target rollout. Watch the Target and membership columns appear in 2027.

2026E2027E

Use of funds

The $1.5M buys 6–9 months of runway and funds three specific pushes ahead of the March 2027 Series A.

Subscription growthThe largest allocation — scaling The Ones membership under the growth program built with Valerie Kaplan (ex-Hulu, Headspace). Membership is the metric the Series A will be underwritten on.
RomConProduction, venue, talent, and marketing for the first annual tentpole event in NYC this fall — sponsors already confirmed at the $250K level.
Target retail readinessSupply chain, inventory, and marketing to execute the planned 1,800-door rollout the moment it signs.
Publishing cadenceWorking capital to sustain monthly releases across print, e-book, and audio through the Series A.

Risks & considerations

No valuation cap. Bridge investors convert at a 20% discount with no ceiling — if the Series A prices high, there is no cap protection. Come in with a view on where the round clears.
Membership revenue is early and lumpy. The monthly pattern so far looks like promotional spikes, not compounding subscription growth. The bridge exists to change that — it hasn't yet.
RomCon is a first-time event. Essentially all of this year's events revenue rests on a single event that has never been run before.
Target is not signed. The 1,800-door rollout is in active negotiation, not contracted. Until it signs, that revenue should not be assumed.

These are the four we weigh most heavily. All eight risk factors are discussed candidly in the memo — read them.

“This is the rare team that understands both fandom and finance — and the Hulu and Target deals are a strong signal.”

— HALO