Deal Abstract

Repeat founder and AgTech syndicate are building a two handed strawberry picker solution that should automate fruit harvesting.

Financials (VRB)

Question	Notes
1. Fundraising Target?	$1070000
2. Fundraised So Far?	$440864
3. Pre-Money Valuation?	$
4. Previous Year's Annual Revenue	$12500000
5. Previous Year's Annual Net Income (+ Profitable, - Burning Cash)	~$-1240626

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: SoCal
2. Has at least 2 founders?	False: Two
3. Has product in the market?	True: Picking strawberries
4. 6 months of continuous user growth or 6 months of revenue?	True:
5. Notable investors?	True: Farmhand Ventures
6. Post-funding, will have 18 months of runway?	False: Needs $1.8m and not quite there yet

Source

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

Question	Score	Notes
1. Engineering?	4	Using arms and cameras to execute on two arm solution
2. Timing?	3	Robotics good, but not sure if the technology is ready for prime time yet
3. Monopoly?	4	Not yet, but if it is the only deployable strawberry picker at scale then that's somethin
4. People?	4	Repeat founder with strong adviser
5. Distribution?	3	Has an anchor customer, good advisors, but uncertain how they would distribute efficiently than others
6. Durability?	4	Hard market to capture but if captured should be defensible
7. Secret?	3	Two handed robot picking is more efficient than other methods

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

1. R&D technology scales out well to franchised model; 2. Robot companies start rolling out at scale e.g. there are customers; 3. Other automation companies don't come into this or have a good alternative

What the Risks Are

1. Technology risk, can other vendors use the AI that easily; 2. Defensibility risk, is the hardware or software more defensible; 3. Do costs of servicing clients go up as team scales?

Bonus Muhan's Notes

Cool technology, would be curious to see testimonials from farmers.

Updates

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