Deal Abstract

RedSwan
Blockchain commercial real estate marketplace

Real estate professionals building a tokenized platform to invest in commercial real estate. Pre-product, pre-revenue.

Financials (VRB)

Question Notes
1. Fundraising Target? $5000000
2. Fundraised So Far? $421012
3. Pre-Money Valuation? $55000000
4. Previous Year's Annual Revenue $0
5. Previous Year's Annual Net Income (+ Profitable, - Burning Cash) ~$-261856
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: Wilmington, DE
2. Has at least 2 founders? True: Two
3. Has product in the market? False: No revenue for 2020
4. 6 months of continuous user growth or 6 months of revenue? False: Declined in 2020
5. Notable investors? False: None
6. Post-funding, will have 18 months of runway? True: Though burn was very high at $261k
Source

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

Question Score Notes
1. Engineering? 2 Product doesn't exist yet though would theoretically be tokenized powered marketplace
2. Timing? 2 Lots of demands for alternative real estate
3. Monopoly? 1 No revenue
4. People? 2 Team seems good but not much outcomes from the business itself
5. Distribution? 2 No obvious access to customers
6. Durability? 3 Marketplaces have good network effects esp if you can guarantee access to dealflow
7. Secret? 2 Blockchain is the secret to building tokenized commercial real estate investing options

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

1. Make money; 2. Proprietary dealflow; 3. Distribution channel

What the Risks Are

1. Crypto is a feature not a key differentiator; 2. Marketplaces are hard to build; 3. Dealflow gets commoditized with other platforms

Bonus Muhan's Notes

$55m valuation is pretty large for something that made no money in the last year.

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.