Yonder’s Post

2024 was likely the hardest year in the past decade to raise #venturecapital funds for #startups, which makes it all the more exciting to share that Alloy successfully raised $1.5M in seed funding! While this is a huge step forward for our company, what I feel most deeply is a profound sense of gratitude. First and foremost, I want to thank our investors, who are not only brilliant but also truly exceptional people. I mean that wholeheartedly. You have each brought so much more than just capital to the table - thank you for your wisdom, guidance, and belief. Major special shout outs: Unity Holdings, our original institutional investor and biggest supporter since day one, specifically Jonathan Lam Gordon Tsui Linda L. and Michael Chen! Unity has been a driving force behind Alloy since our earliest days - both in energy/enthusiasm and capital. True champions who continue to support us however they can. Our gratitude is overflowing. 11 Tribes Ventures for leading this round with an enormous sense of conviction. Mark Phillips Kristina Chapple Brett Verkaik Jeff Baxter, you are all truly blessings in my life. Working alongside you has been an honor and a pleasure from the moment I met the team! Hustle Fund, specifically Biao Boey, Shankarsun Sahu, and Brian Nichols for sourcing the deal and investing and Shiyan K. for committing. You helped build serious momentum behind our raise and we'll forever be thankful. Yonder, who is led by the inimitable Colin Gardiner, a self-proclaimed marketplace geek and early stage marketplace investor. With a rich history of launching and scaling marketplaces himself, Colin has served as a constant source of support and guidance to myself and many other leaders at Alloy. Any startup founder would be so incredibly lucky to have Colin on her/his cap table. A selfless mentor and advisor in the truest sense. Paul Appelbaum, co-founder of Grubhub Seamless, who made the decision to invest swiftly and with conviction. Having launched one of my all time favorite apps (and probably the app through which I've spent the most money!), Paul brings deep and holistic experience launching, scaling, and sustaining complex marketplaces. Friends & Family investors, who wrote checks as small as $5,000 in the beginning to keep Alloy alive, it goes without saying but we most certainly would not be here today without you. To our incredible Alloy team—your dedication has allowed us to serve tens of thousands of customers with a product that truly makes a difference. We have literally paid our customers millions of dollars in the name of transparency and disrupting a taboo industry. Congratulations! And to our customers: you are the heartbeat of everything we do, and we’re excited to use this funding to build an even better experience for you. This moment is one of deep appreciation, reflection, and excitement for what lies ahead. Thank you all for the support - big things ahead. Stay #golden!

Really and truly feel as though we've struck gold having the privilege to come alongside Brandon Aversano and his team at this juncture of Alloy's journey. Historically, the gold buying industry has been slimy, shady, and corrupt: notorious for deceptive practices, unregulated operations, and industry-wide fraud scandals like #Cash4Gold's toppling when truth surfaced that consumers were paid 10-30% of the gold's actual value. A couple of years ago, Brandon stumbled onto the gold buying scene in a particularly trying season of his life (founder story is linked in the comments) and discovered the industry to still be plagued with malpractice and a lack of transparency. Moreover, most individuals who are parting with a piece of gold jewelry are severing some emotional attachment to an item that holds sentimental value but has simultaneously collected dust. Often folks are selling their gold to forget, to declutter, or to have a few extra dollars on hand. Alloy wins through trust and a best price guarantee. Inviting all here on LinkedIn to experience #Alloy for themselves with a fast, safe, and easy process to exchange your gold, silver, and platinum jewelry or scrap metal for cash. Alloy pays out maximum value to customers, ensures radical transparency, and promotes sustainability across the metals supply chain. How It Works 1. Visit the Alloy website and request a free appraisal kit. The kit arrives at your doorstep within 2-5 business days. 2. Safely pack and ship valuables using the pre-paid, pre-labeled, and fully insured parcel included in the kit. 3. An expert from their lab assesses the purity and weight of your valuables using highly accurate x-ray fluorescence technology and licensed scales. 4. You are contacted via email, text, or call with an industry-best cash offer. Once the offer is accepted, payment is processed the same day. Alloy has successfully helped thousands of people get paid the maximum amount for their gold jewelry and other precious metals, earning them a score of 4.9 on #TrustPilot. So humbled for 11 Tribes Ventures to have led Alloy's $1.5M Seed round. Onwards!

Raising at too high a valuation is bad for a startup. Common wisdom. Often touted by those of us kicking around startupland (advisors, VCs, founders etc etc) when a company has subsequently not ‘shot the lights out’ and is now facing a down round. Especially as the 2021 and 2022 class of VC backed companies is looking to raise again. BUT THE ISSUE AT PLAY ONLY RAISES ITS UGLY HEAD IF THE PEOPLE AROUND THE STARTUP (FOUNDERS & INVESTORS) DON’T ACT RATIONALLY. AND THEN TRY (AND FAIL) TO CONVINCE PEOPLE THAT TODAY’S VALUATION SHOULD BE DRIVEN BY THE PREVIOUS ROUND!! Cos this is when the crazy stuff happens. When the 3x(+) Prefs raise their ugly heads. When good (but not great) businesses run headlong into the cash-out wall and flame out. But if everyone around the company is sensible, this needn’t be the terrible thing people say it is. Founders, in this situation, you should be reframing it as a positive that you got some ‘cheap money’ in the past and have benefitted from reduced dilution. But now you have face reality and raise at a level dictated solely by your growth, numbers and prospects. Not your prior round. And VCs should, if they are long term partners and good custodians of money, be thinking about the right price now for the company not how to save face with their LPs or how to avoid having a write-down. And potentially re-upping to bring their average in-price down. But sometimes that doesn’t happen because ego gets in the way. So if this is your reality as a founder, your biggest job is to get the egos out of the room and drive a sensible conversation about valuation with investors prior to going out to market. Do that, and the higher prior round is not an issue. Don’t, and that 2021 vintage round will be a noose around your neck. It’s all about how you frame it. What do you think? Tooo simplistic? Are things more complex than this? Or does this strike a chord? #founders #startups #vcfunding

OpenSky is actively funding founders who want to build for a strategic exit in the $50-$250M range by raising a few million dollars of equity and then scaling with profitability in mind. Not every startup needs a > $1B outcome to be a "win." Here's a real example of what that looks like. Levanta is one of my favorite deals we've made at OpenSky Ventures since we started. Their founders Ian Brodie and Rob Schab think differently than 99% of founders I've met looking for funding– it reminds me of my personal investment strategy. When founders and investors are aligned on a specific vision for building a company, everything falls into place. That’s exactly what happened when we invested in Levanta. So first, what's the product? Levanta focuses on promoting your listings on Amazon by connecting creators, publishers, and influencers to promote products from brands on Amazon in a way that is very straightforward and monetizes well. And the product is exploding. We invested in Q1 2023 at a ~$3m valuation. At the time, they were pre-product. Just 18 months later, they're north of $4 million ARR! One aspect of Lavanta that resonated with us was their thesis about the type of exit they were looking for. Here’s what they came to us with: “We think we have something here that’s going to catch on quickly. We think it's going to be worth at the minimum $50m and the maximum maybe $200m - but here’s the kicker - in the next 3 to 5 years.” If you think about that timeframe, it's quick. Most VC-backed startups are looking to build on a 7-10+ timeline. So many startups taking VC money are trying to become unicorns and land a $1B+ sale. Mostly because their fund structure makes it so they have to chase these outcomes. Levanta's “reasonable” valuation allows for a higher likelihood of acquisition and still substantial returns for them and for investors in a shorter timeframe, creating win-win situations for everyone. Raising less money means: ➝ Buyers can acquire promising tech at a fair price, not $500M+ ➝ Founders see significant rewards from the lucrative exit ➝ Investors see 10-15x returns in a short timeframe So what’s the takeaway here? Raising VC isn't one-size-fits-all. Align with investors early on a reasonable valuation and specific exit timeline. It avoids misalignment while still allowing founders, investors, and buyers to achieve great outcomes together. Have you seen other startups with a similarly ambitious yet practical vision for rapid growth and exit? I'd love to hear about them. Shoutout to Wilson Patton for the inspo on this post!

Zip has been one of the fastest-growing SaaS startups, reaching a $1B valuation just 18 months after being founded in 2020. What drove VCs to invest in Zip early on? Here are some of the key reasons according to investors themselves: - Exceptional founders with proven track records at Airbnb, YC and running prior startups. Their abilities were the primary draw. - Large and dull procurement software market ripe for disruption by a slick, consumer-grade solution. - Right timing to solve rising complexity in procurement workflows and systems. - Technical innovation resulting in dramatically better user experience and visual workflows. - Strong early customer traction and demand even before product demos ended. #startups #entrepreneurship #investors

♦️“The only way to win in a casino is to own one.” – Steve Wynn … or, you know, invest in a VC fund. Everyone dreams of building the next unicorn, but let’s face it — going all-in on one startup is like betting everything on a single hand of blackjack. Sure, some VC funds don’t hit big either and even some big casinos went under (RIP Dunes Las Vegas), but here’s the difference: most VC funds still show positive returns because they play it smart — spreading their bets across multiple startups, and stacking the deck in their favor with advantages like liquidation preference (they get paid first). Starting a company is exciting, but investing in a VC fund either directly, through a Fund-of-Funds or via secondary markets is like owning part of the casino — much better odds, and built-in protections to mimimize downside risk. So, what’s your take? Betting everything on one startup, or playing it smart and investing in the startup ecosystem across the board? #Startups #VentureCapital #Entrepreneurship #BusinessStrategy #Investment

Solo VC: The rising trend in the VC & the Startup World. Part - 4 The Link to Part 3: https://lnkd.in/gYhhCVFc Let us look at a few more Solo VCs based out of the US: 1) Ford Street Ventures: Founded by Matthew Brezina, Ford Street Ventures is a San Francisco-based VC firm with some notable investments like Dropbox, Mercury, Ring, Tonal, & Function of Beauty. 2) Darkmode Ventures: Darkmode Ventures is a VC firm by Amir Shevat, Kat Orekhova, & Raphael Danilo. Some of their notable bets include Drata, Merge, Bluesky, Tabnine, & Puzzle. 3) Mischief: Co-founded by Zachary Perret & Lauren Farleigh, this San Francisco-based fund has made some spectacular investments like Blackbird, Stark Bank, Chaos Labs, Faire, Propel, Merge, & others. 4) Stellation Capital: Stellation Capital is a Brooklyn-based VC firm founded by Peter Boyce II. Some distinguished bets include Balanced, Hopscotch, Chill Pill, Hearth, Authentic, & others. 5) Wayfinder Ventures: Founded by Yuri Sagalov, this San Francisco-based VC firm has made some noteworthy investments like Supabase, Stoke Space, Fey, Vimcal, & others. #VC #VentureCapital #investment #startup

🕚Here’s a flashback to an exciting and bold VC fund launch from earlier this year. 💸 In Q2 2024 San Diego, USA based solo GP Behind Genius Ventures raised $8.9 million for its second fund, with backing from notable investors including Arash Ferdowsi, Pankaj Kedia, Michael Kim, among others. 💡 Behind Genius Ventures is an early-stage venture firm focused on investing in the #futureofwork and #futureofplay. They write checks ranging from $150k to $250k, with a portfolio that includes companies in gaming, wellness, development tools, fintech, and creator tools. 🌍 #UnitedStates with a geographical focus on #NewYork and #California 📈 The VC has previously invested in companies like Coastal Carbon, Aidaly, Coast, Break Sports, Statusphere, Coldcart, Roots Homes, among others. 💭 “Part of art is just practicing the leap, right? There are so many risks you have to take to start a business or a fund. You have to practice the leap, put yourself out of your comfort zone. Life is too short not to continuously do that.” - Paige Finn Doherty, Solo GP Behind Genius Ventures. 🗞️ Fortune via Yahoo Finance https://lnkd.in/ezY-KQ5Z 👏 For the #AudaciousInvestors unleashing innovation and empowering tomorrow🚀 Paige I Tyler I Mariano I Team Behind Genius Ventures … #venturecapital #vc #funds #startups #entrepreneurs #funding #tech #usa #entrepreneurship #technology #innovation #SanDiego #venture #fund

Yesterday I was on a panel with CJ Fayne, Jonny Price, and Lasawni Reynolds talking to early stage founders about capital. Here are some of the big topics we covered: 1) Investors don't want to invest in startups that need the capital, but they *want* the capital to fuel growth. 2) VC is super narrow and specific and doesn't make sense for the majority of businesses because they are looking for hyper growth. Alternatives like crowdfunding on Wefunder are a great option to raise from angels, family, and friends and not have as big of a target on your back to grow fast. 3) Venture capital is not a blessing, it's a curse. As soon as you raise venture, there is a ton of pressure to hit metrics and be able to raise capital again at a higher valuation (or you must hit profitability). Startups often die because of bad cap table management rather than building a bad business. If you raised before, but can't grow fast enough to get new investment at a higher valuation, you risk having to recap and being forced into a corner that could be detrimental. 4) Go out and test the market and find out what metrics you need to hit to get VCs interested. If you aren't there yet, pop them on a monthly investor update and get back to building instead of wasting your time. The best businesses are built, not fundraised.

The REAL Investors = always bring in a Dollar+ Value into the business Money = Commodity, & smart founders will always be able to raise rounds, but bringing the ‘Right Investors’ who add $+ Value is THE GAME. Back in 2021 when we were just getting started - Huddle Ventures was one of our earliest believers. From crazy brainstorming to > customer access > preparing our 1st pitch & eventually > raising our first round — we had a lot of fun building our 0-1 with the folks at Huddle (they were an accelerator back then) They’re out with their Fund II now & will be backing the next generation of entrepreneurs. If you’re a founder building an early-stage venture - feel free to reachout to them at Huddle Ventures or email them on sanil@huddleventures.vc 🚀 Sanil Sachar | Ishaan Khosla | Sarthak Rastogi