VC Funding:
- Early stage seed funds can be more flexible in their investments compared to traditional VCs
- Investing in early-stage startups at a modest valuation allows for potential high returns even with smaller outcomes
- The goal of venture firms and seed funds is to support founders and help them build large, successful businesses
Founder University:
- Founder University is a 12-week course that teaches the fundamentals of starting a company and finding product-market fit
- Over 1,250 companies have gone through the program, with 46 investments made so far
- The program focuses on building teams, as solo founders face challenges in scaling their startups
- Two developers and a designer are seen as an ideal team composition for building a startup
Newcomer Games:
- Newcomer Games is a cross-platform story-driven video game that immerses language learners in their target language
- The game uses phrase-building and translation features to help beginners practice speaking and improve their language skills
- The founder has raised over $24,000 on Kickstarter, has 7,000 people on the waitlist, and has received positive feedback on Reddit posts about the game
Scrumly:
- Scrumly is an AI planning coach that helps teams maximize performance in Agile project management
- The platform offers interactive planning tools and real-time insights to assist teams without the need for a facilitator or manager
- Scrumly's business model is SaaS-based, with plans to start at $3 per month for beta users and eventually increase pricing based on additional document analysis features
Homescore:
- Homescore provides personalized AI-powered home management for homeowners' entire ownership journey
- The platform allows homeowners to upload relevant documents and categorize outfits based on occasion, weather, etc.
- Their go-to-market strategy includes SEO content marketing, online community participation, digital ads, targeting serious homebuyers and recent homeowners
Fitted:
- Fitted is a social shopping platform for Gen Z that allows users to share outfits and get feedback from friends and AI stylist
- The app aims to create a low-stakes space for creativity, culture, and commerce in the fashion industry
- The business model includes native checkout and generative try-on features, with plans to reach $10 million in revenue by capturing 0.5% of the market
Primary behavioral loop of the app:
- Fit check with friends and AI stylist Fiona
- Feedback received in a feed from friends
- Separate tab for conversations with Fiona
Behavioral device in the app:
- Users take outfit pictures and get a fit check
- Friends can like, save, or comment on outfits
- There are options to swipe left or right and provide feedback such as cute, meh, try again
Engagement metrics of the app:
- 1300 people currently on the app
- 20% of users come on every day (approximately 200 people)
- Around 10-20% of active users share an outfit each day
Potential improvements and future plans:
- Consider adding more playful devices for feedback such as swiping left or right with specific prompts
- Allow users to upload other people's outfits for commenting and feedback
- Use street team marketing approach to engage potential users in real-life scenarios