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|

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?	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

Source

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?

Click here to find out.

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