Deal Abstract
Serial entrepreneur takes his drone experience to re-engineering the electric scooter.
Financials (VRB)
|Question|Notes|
|---|---|---|
|1. Fundraising Target? |$0|
|2. Fundraised So Far?|$102650|
|3. Pre-Money Valuation?|$19000000|
|4. Previous Year's Annual Revenue |$0|
|5. Previous Year's Annual Net Income (+ Profitable, - Burning Cash) |~$-954050|
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? | False: No revenue |
| 4. 6 months of continuous user growth or 6 months of revenue? | False: See above |
| 5. Notable investors? | True: I recognize Sean O'Sullivan's accelerator SOSV but confess to not remember any famous investments they've had |
| 6. Post-funding, will have 18 months of runway? | False: At present it's not looking like it |
The 7 Thiel Questions (Every Time Man Profits, Don't Dismiss Serendipity)
| Question | Score | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Engineering? | 1 | Marginally better than existing electric scooters at first blush |
| 2. Timing? | 2 | Why is now the best time to compete with Bird? |
| 3. Monopoly? | 1 | No product in the market |
| 4. People? | 2 | Good entrepreneurial background but no one with B2B or B2C sales experience in hardware mobility |
| 5. Distribution? | 1 | Online sales? Distributors? Not in market. |
| 6. Durability? | 1 | Not much recurring revenue also bikeshares? |
| 7. Secret? | 2 | The future isn't bikeshare/scootershare networks but privatized scooters instead |
What has to go right for the startup to return money on investment:
1. More of the world is ready for privatized electric scooters instead of sharing economy/leasing economy; 2. Go to market successfully; 3. Service for the scooters
What the Risks Are
1. Hardware play and risks that the money isn't the scooter but the mobility service; 2. Customer service costs scale upwards; 3. Bikeshare and other mobility share systems make an engineeringly inferior but network stronger solution.
Bonus Muhan's Notes
Very cool and wish I could ride one to test it!
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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