Spotlight #11 - Startups & Operators

Batko OS - increase your surface areas for luck to strike.

Lots of startups raising big rounds this time around.

I also need to get more balance in the interest of being featured for this fortnightly email :) Last time it was only Angels, this time it’s only Startups.

If you know anyone looking for a job in a startup or a founder who is raising. Do them a favour and send them the below links 👇

😇 Angel Spotlight

Do you want to be featured as an Angel? Fill this out (10mins)

💸 Startup Spotlight

Do you want to be featured to Angels/VCs? Fill this out (10mins)

🛠 Operator Spotlight

Looking for a job? Get featured in the next Operator Spotlight - fill this out.

Have a job you want featured? Hit reply and send it my way.

What’s in this Edition?

1. Get Investment - Angels keen to connect

2. Invest - Startups keen to connect

3. Hire - Operators ready for a startup job

4. Apply - Latest startup jobs

5. Join - Startups that just raised

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1) Get Investment - Angel Spotlight

No spotlight this week.

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2) Invest - Startups Keen to Connect

🚨 Disclaimer* 🚨  This is not financial advice, nor a recommendation. Please connect with the founders directly to hear more.

📊 Functionly

Intelligent org & accountability chart.

Problem

Organizations lose billions of dollars as a result of the poor org design and resource structure. Org structure & resource change is a persistent problem in every organization at scale (30 - 30,000+ people). More so now with the impact of COVID and moving remote-first increasing the pain & symptoms.

Solution

We launched an MVP in 2019 flew around the world and sat with customers leading change, we identified a strong demand for a new product lead way of designing org structures and accountabilities we launched that in May 2020.

We built an intelligent org chart that is approachable & intuitive. It democratizes the templates & patterns that institutional consulting firms have kept locked up for their high fee-paying fortune 5000 customers.

Leaders use it to design, structure, and lead change in their own organizations. It's collaborative & remarkably simple at 1% of the cost of large institutional consulting firms.

How do you know it's a problem?

We have 38 paying customer orgs and we are growing Trials 40% m/m currently signing one per day (cc req). Early acquisition testing showing a 6-month return on blended CAC.

User demanded (product lead growth) features earmarked to ship next year incl. collaboration, sharing, data integrations, and cost drivers/salary all improve initial activation, usage, and stickiness for users.

High calibre global leaders & orgs are organically finding us, following our story, and championing the mission like Real Ventures, 6ix.com (Canada), Facebook, PrimeClass, Livetiles (US), Netstar (UK) ThinkandGrow (AU).

What's your central unique insight?

The typical institutional consulting restructure playbook cost millions of dollars and takes months of effort. For most mid-sized companies, it’s just not an option to engage institutional consultants, so they try and attempt it themselves with drawing tools & excel.

>> Get in touch here.

🏗 Hyra iQ

A.I. powered digital contracting platform for commercial construction

Problem

The pain, frustration, errors, slowness, cost, risk, sleep deprivation, poor health & more caused by the inefficiencies of Word, Email & Excel as the primary weapons of choice faced by Construction Companies for procurement / subcontract management.

Solution

Hyra iQ is the WORLD’S FIRST purpose-built, digital contracting platform for Commercial Construction. We help Construction Companies drive efficiencies and reduce risk in their supply chain.

“There are two ways to make money on a job - buy well, or finish early. Hyra iQ ensures the former.”

How do you know it's a problem?

From a non-technical sole founder, built & launched (Jan 2020) our enterprise contracting platform for Commercial Real Estate, in market, generating revenue (~$20k total) & positively endorsed/enjoyed by our early customers (“saving me at least a day per week” - McConaghy Properties).

Shortly after launch, pivoted (Apr 2020), re-building tech for new market (Commercial Construction).

Signed on 4x Foundation Customers, successful beta testing, validated pricing model (high ticket offering), planned launch (Jan 2021) on live projects.

Currently finalising $1m Seed capital raise (driven by strategic investors & customers) to accelerate product dev, speed to market and growth.

Accelerating Commercialisation Grant, Qld Govt Grants (Ignite Ideas, 2x more), University of Queensland ilab accelerator alumni, B2B Rocks pitch winner, Westpac Innovation Challenge People's Choice, Startup Catalyst, various other startup awards

What's your central unique insight?

The world's first construction (domain) specific contract management platform, uniquely designed, hitting a gap in the market & a blue ocean opportunity

>> Get in touch here.

🏐 Valaar

TripAdvisor for mass participation sporting events

Problem

Taking the pain away from finding, entering, training, organising, attending mass participation sporting events (eg marathons, ocean swims, trail runs).

Solution

With a multi-sided market place that helps people on their journey. We use open api's to connect to partners (ticketing, results, accommodation, ecommerce), giving the participant one place to come to get organised so they can focus on training and competing.

How do you know it's a problem?

800 monthly users on our tiny little test case website, demanding more events, more tools, more help. We run a lot of 1-1 customer interviews....100s.

What's your central unique insight?

20 years as a participant frustrated by the experience we have to go through. We just want to train and compete, the other stuff should be easy.

>> Get in touch here.

🗣 Cascade Languages

Comprehensible foreign language content sooner than anyone else can provide it.

Problem

Foreign language education. How inefficient it has historically been, how tedious it has been and also how unentertaining it has been.

Solution

By turning language learning into an entertainment service. Picture a streaming platform that provides content tailor made for language teaching.

How do you know it's a problem?

It's a problem because humans have been trying to solve it since they could speak. Traction over 1000 customers at a customer acquisition of $2-4 dollars.

What's your central unique insight?

I went back to the drawing board and came up with a method that teaches concepts in an unorthodox order but yet which can deliver comprehensible content sooner and more continuously than others.

>> Get in touch here.

💨 ScentGod

Monthly Perfume Subscription

Problem

Designer perfumes are expensive, not everyone can afford to spend over $500 to build a collection. Another problem is that people buy big bottles from the retailers and don't like them later so that's simply money wasted.

Solution

ScentGod is a subscription for designer perfumes that sends the customer a 31 day supply of their chosen designer perfume starting at just $17.45 per month.
We use technology to help the customer find their perfect match. They just take a short quiz and get recommendations based on their taste, occasion, season and mood. They can try a different perfume every month or try as many as they like and build their unique perfume collection for a fraction of the retail price.

How do you know it's a problem?

The feedback and Google reviews we've got from our subscribers is nothing but positive. We literally have some of the happiest customers on earth. We have around 980 paying subscribers and over 8500 leads. Last month's revenue was $27,000 and this month we are on track to go over $30,000.

What's your central unique insight?

People don't like to waste money on perfumes that they don't end up liking after a few uses. People love variety when it comes to fragrances, especially women. The market for perfumes is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 5.5% during the forecast period, 2020 - 2025, with this growth, comes the unique opportunity to offer people a chance to sample perfumes as per their taste, before they decide to invest in bigger bottles.

>> Get in touch here.

💌 Letter

Letter is a platform for civil dialogue.

Problem

There has been a breakdown in civil discourse online.

Social media silos individuals into echo chambers, leading to political polarization, tribalism, extremism, and violence.

Intellectual influencers are incentivized to play to their audience, rather than engage across ideological divides.

Solution

We’ve designed a new and original crowdfunding mechanic which
1.) Enables readers to crowdfund conversations
2.) Pays writers for their participation
3.) Generates revenue for Letter

How do you know it's a problem?

We ran our first crowdfunding experiment in October, and generated USD$23,000 in donations within two weeks.

What's your central unique insight?

People want to see their favorite intellectuals and public figures lock horns with their intellectual enemies. Fans can support their favorite intellectual influencers via Patreon, but they have no way to directly influence who they engage with, and what content they produce.

>> Get in touch here.

☀️ SolarGridX

SolarGridX is a green crowd-investing platform that lets people buy/sell “fractional” asset-backed tokenized ownership of Solar Panels starting at $3 and earn up to 15%* ROI from sale of electricity generated by the projects

Problem

The key reason for the slow adoption of Solar Energy is the high upfront installation costs, which can take up to 8 years to break even. On the other hand, retail investors in MENA region are actively looking for safe investment options in stable markets with low entry point and high returns.

Solution

The ownership of solar panels is sold in the form of digital tokens on the basis of area,
1 Solar Cell = 1 SGX Token (Which is just a fraction of Solar Panel),
Just like you buy shares of a company from a stock exchange, you buy tokens from our exchange platform which gives users digital ownership of solar panels. By not physically owning solar panels and getting electricity benefits, we will be using their funding to install solar panels at feasible locations at zero-cost for consumers, electricity generated by those solar panels is sold to consumers at pay-per-kWh basis at a cheaper rate than a conventional source with Power Purchase Agreements (PPA’s) and returns flow back to SGX holders, making it an attractive green investment option.
SolarGridX lets anyone wishing to see their wealth increase with a sustainable investment option, invest their money so that community centres, schools, businesses, factories and even whole neighbourhoods can achieve their goals of going solar without any up-front capital and reduce their running costs.

How do you know it's a problem?

Out of 200+ customers, we interviewed 95% of them felt UAE/ MENA doesn’t have stable "green" investment options.
Business Traction:
- Strategic partnership with Solar EPC in India with access of 5MW/$3 Million worth of signed deals bringing our solar CAC to be almost zero.
- Pilot test: 6kW Solar Plant ($3150) in Gujarat India; 1090 Solar Cells/ SGX Tokens; 14.01% p.a Projected Returns for SGX Holders; 173 Investors; $105 dividends distributed to investors; 100% Funded in 9 days; 30% Electricity Savings for consumer, generating recurring revenue for next 20-years.
- 7 Letter of Intents signed with commercial consumers in India
-353 early sign-ups on website
- 80,000 AED/ $22,000 USD in grants
-Launched our iOS alpha investment app
- 200+ customer interviews done

What's your central unique insight?

Unlike typical crowdfunding platform, SolarGridX offers liquid secondary-market enabling investors to exit anytime. We have major geographical advantage to be based in UAE in terms of regulatory ease allowing us to launch security-tokens to retail investors.

>> Get in touch here.

🏡 Patch

Patch lets you put offers on any house.

Problem

Patch connects buyers directly to homeowners without the need for an agent.

Solution

Buyers connect directly with owners. Use the anonymous AI powered negotiation if the price is right, and process the sale online, paperless at a fraction of the current price.

How do you know it's a problem?

MVP test had the first offer in 2 hours.

MoM Growth
Registered users 10%
Searches 67%
Homes claimed 10%
Homes viewed 81%
Offers on homes 180%

CAC $13
Active users 1300 per month (growing at 67%)
Registered users 350 (growing at 10%)

What's your central unique insight?

Buying and selling properties should have less friction, more transparency and be simpler.

>> Get in touch here.

🛍 Smartify

Personal shopping assistant that get the best price for the things you want from the brands you love

Problem

Reduce customers paying too much for products and services they want as well as saving them time searching for the best price and deals.

Solution

People currently pay too much because they can't be bothered or don't have the time to hunt for the best price. For users who are more price conscious they have to spend time searching for the best price, active promo codes and subscribe to dozens of retailers newsletters to sift through the best deals.

We remove those pain points by being there through their shopping journey to help them get the best deal without the effort. We consolidate all promotional alerts into one notification only for the things our shoppers care about, automatically apply promotional codes at the checkout and offer real-time price comparison for products people want.

How do you know it's a problem?

Fully released in AU market. We have over 60 partners onboard who we are monetizing. Initial test & learn marketing over a 28 day period resulted in +7K user increase to the platform and a 30% increase to app downloads. Resulted +$28,000 in partner generated revenue, +$1,800 in sales and a strategic cash injection of $10,000 from eBay Australia to continue our marketing efforts. We have several strategic partners who are interested in investing.

What's your central unique insight?

Worked in the retail industry modelling, building and deploying pricing and promotional intelligence tools and programs that enable businesses to dynamically change price depending on competitive activity and strategic rational. As more companies deploy these tools we saw a clear loser in this situation, the end customer. We are now using our experience to take these tools to the end customer to help them always get the best price.

>> Get in touch here.

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3) Hire - Operators ready for a startup job

No new ones this fortnight.

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4) Apply - Latest startup jobs

These are new roles which were posted in the last two weeks.

Startmate Alumni

• Graphic Designer @ Work180 (remote)

• Graphic Designer @ Ovira (SYD)

• Senior Product Designer @ Drawboard (MEL)

• Performance Marketing Manager @ Amber (MEL)

Startups

• CRM Manager @ Finder (SYD)

• Board Directors @ Fishburners (SYD)

• Program Coordinator @ Atto (MEL)

• Director of Marketing @ Flurosat (FT, US)

• Lead Mechanical Engineer @ Ao Air (AKL)

• Chief Commercial Officer @ Baraja (SF)

• Business Development Associate @ Joyous (Sydney)

• Lots of Product & Marketing Jobs @ Mad Paws (Sydney)

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5) Join - Startups that just raised

Pro tip: Companies often time their fundraising PR when they are ready to hire.

• Shippit - US$22m led by Tiger Global - delivery startup

• Sharesies - $25m led by K1W1 - trading

• Metigy - $20m led by Cygnet Capital - marketing platform created to help small businesses automate more of the decision making in their online ad campaigns

• Healthmatch - $18m led by Square Peg - connecting patients and trials

• Coviu - $6m - telehealth

• Mod.io - $US4m led by Sequoia - online gaming customisation

• Trellis Data - $3m led by Mainsequence - real time explanation of deep learning

• SwarmFarm Robotics - led by Tenacious Ventures - more efficient agtech robots

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* The information contained in this Startup Spotlight Series (the Information) is provided for information purposes only. No warranties or representations are made by Startmate or myself with respect to the accuracy, completeness or currency of the Information and no part of the Information may be relied upon for any purpose whatsoever.

The provision of the Information to any person does not constitute, and may not be used for the purposes of, an offer of securities or interests of any kind to that person or an invitation to any person to apply for the issue of securities or interests of any kind. In preparing the Information, neither Startmate or I have taken any account of the investment objectives, financial situation and particular needs of any particular person, and prospective investors must not construe the Information as tax, legal or financial product advice. Before making any decision to invest, prospective investors should:

(a) connect directly with the founders of each portfolio company to find out further information;

(b) seek and rely on their own professional advice, in particular by obtaining appropriate tax, legal, financial and investment advice in light of their own circumstances; and

(c) conduct their own independent investigation and analysis regarding the Information.

No responsibility or liability is accepted by Startmate, its related bodies corporate, or any of their respective officers, employees, agents or advisers, for any of the Information, any omission from the Information or for any action taken by any person on the basis of or in reliance on the Information; and

The Information is only intended for persons who are “wholesale clients” within the meaning of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and to US persons who are “accredited investors” as defined in Regulation D of the US Securities Act 1933.