Deal Abstract

Two tech workers in Brooklyn are planning to build a newsletter/article based professional education service, starting with product managers.

Financials (VRB)

Question	Notes
1. Fundraising Target?	$250000
2. Fundraised So Far?	$13150
3. Pre-Money Valuation?	$2000000
4. Previous Year's Annual Revenue	$0
5. Previous Year's Annual Net Income (+ Profitable, - Burning Cash)	~$-46965

Criteria	Yes/No
1. A startup that is based in SV?	False: Brooklyn, NY
2. Has at least 2 founders?	False: Two
3. Has product in the market?	False: Trying to be newsletter education for professional upskilling
4. 6 months of continuous user growth or 6 months of revenue?	False: Nothing in the market
5. Notable investors?	False: No one I recognize
6. Post-funding, will have 18 months of runway?	False: Would need half a mil

Question	Score	Notes
1. Engineering?	1	Not convinced it's 10x better
2. Timing?	2	Newsletter/articles are indeed the right thing to build in this time
3. Monopoly?	1	No rev, no users, I'd probably be the target market
4. People?	2	Cool techies, but no product
5. Distribution?	2	Fine distribution through Internet and network but no overpowered advantage
6. Durability?	2	Hard to say since product isn't launched eyt
7. Secret?	1	E-learning is going to be monetized through curated articles and Homeroom will play the curriculum designer

1. Ship a product; 2. Monetize; 3. Demonstrate stickiness and solve the curriculum problem at scale

1. Not even a million dollar startup yet; 2. Feature not a business; 3. The education space can definitely be messy, see /Viveka

Made me wonder about how I level up in my own learning. Mostly audiobooks! Shameless plug:

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.

Click here to find out.

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