Future Acres Deal Memo (Closing Date: 2021-05-31)
Deal Abstract
Robots to help farmers pick crops. Hard tech to solve hard problems.
Financials (VRB)
Question | Notes |
---|---|
1. Fundraising Target? | $3000000 |
2. Fundraised So Far? | $414065 |
3. Pre-Money Valuation? | $7000000 |
4. Previous Year's Annual Revenue | $0 |
5. Previous Year's Annual Net Income (+ Profitable, - Burning Cash) | ~$-659139 |
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: Austin, TX |
2. Has at least 2 founders? | True: Two |
3. Has product in the market? | False: No product launched |
4. 6 months of continuous user growth or 6 months of revenue? | False: No revenue |
5. Notable investors? | True: Love Wavemaker Labs |
6. Post-funding, will have 18 months of runway? | True: Needs only $750k for 18 mths of runway |
The 7 Thiel Questions (Every Time Man Profits, Don't Dismiss Serendipity)
Question | Score | Notes |
---|---|---|
1. Engineering? | 4 | Super cool engineering |
2. Timing? | 2 | Not sure when the product is done and ready to be shipped |
3. Monopoly? | 1 | No product in market |
4. People? | 3 | Very strong team, but no one with agricultural robotics before hand |
5. Distribution? | 2 | Wavemaker and farms is fine |
6. Durability? | 4 | Super durable, no one wants to build this business |
7. Secret? | 2 | Farms are going to keep competing on labor costs and will eventually be forced to adopt this technology at venture speed |
What has to go right for the startup to return money on investment:
1. Launch product; 2. Service costs have to remain low/reliability high; 3. Learning from Carry's computer vision data has to help R&D of new features
What the Risks Are
1. Robotics is expensive; 2. Growth not fast enough for venture returns; 3. Commercializing technology is very capital intensive
Bonus Muhan's Notes
Lovely technology, love what Wavemaker backs in terms of actual solutions to actual problems
Updates
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So, did I invest?
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