Linen Deal Memo (Closing Date: 2022-01-01)
Deal Abstract
Mint.com/Acorn for crypto. Pre-revenue with a pretty app, but will it be able to overcome BlockFi/Coinbase/Voyager's various network effects?
Financials (VRB)
Question | Notes |
---|---|
1. Fundraising Target? | $4900000 |
2. Fundraised So Far? | $2583406 |
3. Pre-Money Valuation? | $22000000 |
4. Previous Year's Annual Revenue | $0 |
5. Previous Year's Annual Net Income (+ Profitable, - Burning Cash) | ~$-428144 |
The 6 Calacanis Characteristics ("Sow Passion, Not easy mediocrity", or S2 P6 N18)
Criteria | Yes/No |
---|---|
1. A startup that is based in SV? | True: San Francisco, CA |
2. Has at least 2 founders? | True: Two |
3. Has product in the market? | True: In the App Store, only 62 reviews |
4. 6 months of continuous user growth or 6 months of revenue? | False: No revenue |
5. Notable investors? | True: Coinbase ventures |
6. Post-funding, will have 18 months of runway? | True: Already has 5 years of burn at present, if full raise 10 years |
The 7 Thiel Questions (Every Time Man Profits, Don't Dismiss Serendipity)
Question | Score | Notes |
---|---|---|
1. Engineering? | 2 | More friendly UI/UX but not fundamentally better tech |
2. Timing? | 2 | BlockFi, Voyager, Kraken, Robinhood Crypto, Coinbase of course... |
3. Monopoly? | 1 | Very few users |
4. People? | 2 | Fine team but only having these two cofounders at this valuation and capital burned makes me wonder if they can cross the chasm |
5. Distribution? | 1 | Haven't heard of this despite running a paid community of investors many of whom love crypto |
6. Durability? | 2 | Like Coinbase, wants to become financial platform |
7. Secret? | 2 | Doing something like Mint.com/Acorn for crypto could get a big market. While Mint and Acorn are both fine businesses, I don't find them to be venture backable. |
What has to go right for the startup to return money on investment:
1. Get more users; 2. Monetize; 3. Develop a moat
What the Risks Are
1. Too late to be building this compared to BlockFi/Voyager/etc., 2. No business model that works for venture sized returns; 3. No moat/what makes people use Linen over BlockFi and such
Bonus Muhan's Notes
Super cool to see a Coinbase ventures company. Makes one wonder what the next wave of investment will look like.
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
Notice trends in how you think
So, did I invest?
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