Deal Abstract

Invest in AdWallet
Republic is a startup investing platform where you can invest as little as $10 in impactful startups
Republic

Get paid for your time watching advertisements. Cut out the Facebook/Google middlemen.

Financials (VRB)

Question Notes
1. Fundraising Target? $1070000
2. Fundraised So Far? $112500
3. Pre-Money Valuation? $15000000
4. Previous Year's Annual Revenue $432911
5. Previous Year's Annual Net Income (+ Profitable, - Burning Cash) ~$-2531221
Source

The 6 Calacanis Characteristics ("Sow Passion, Not easy mediocrity", or S2 P6 N18)

Criteria Yes/No
1. A startup that is based in SV? False: Albequerque, NM
2. Has at least 2 founders? False: Two
3. Has product in the market? True: Revenue generating
4. 6 months of continuous user growth or 6 months of revenue? True: Revenue meaningfully increased in last year
5. Notable investors? False: No one I recognize
6. Post-funding, will have 18 months of runway? False: Very high burn
Source

The 7 Thiel Questions (Every Time Man Profits, Don't Dismiss Serendipity)

Question Score Notes
1. Engineering? 2 Technology is fine, essentially a hosted ad watching service
2. Timing? 2 Ads are being exhausted, but you see Big Tech going paid subscription model instead
3. Monopoly? 3 $1.5m paid out and $432k earned is not bad
4. People? 3 Founder good but where's rest of team?
5. Distribution? 3 Good sales and good getting product (users)
6. Durability? 2 What if people watching ads are not people who ultimately turn into customers?
7. Secret? 2 In response to the adpocalypse, companies started paying customers money for the opportunity to pitch them

What has to go right for the startup to return money on investment:

1. Increase revenue to watcher pay out ratio; 2. Convinced more advertisers that this model is more effective; 3. Grow customer base and give segmenting more depth

What the Risks Are

1. Businesses are solving the ad problem by just paying people cash through referrals; 2. People watching ads and selling attn are least likely to be valuable customers; 3. Really high burn

Bonus Muhan's Notes

Super slick pitch video.

Updates

This is where I’ll post updates about the company. This way all my notes from offering to post-offering updates will be on one page.

Review these deal memos every time the startup raises a new round

Test if original thesis still applies

So, did I invest?

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Other thoughts, questions, comments, or concerns? Write me at mail@muhanzhang.com and let me know.