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