🗳️ Monday Poll Results

This week, we launched a series tapping into the insights of founders and seasoned angel investors in our network. Each week, we'll feature a community member sharing lessons from their experience.

To kick things off, we asked: "What's the most important lesson you've learned?"

🔍 What you work on matters most. Then tackle the challenge of distribution.

👤 Member Profile: Multi-exit entrepreneur and CEO who has grown a tech business to $25m ARR.

We also asked our community:

Why does it have to happen in that order?

• The more it matters to you, the more you'll be willing to own it and persevere through difficult times.

• The more it matters to your customers, the more they will engage in supporting your research, testing, and feedback. This means distribution can be more effectively managed by the time your product is complete.

• The more it matters to you, the more focused you'll be on product development, iteration, and improvement. And usually, the best product wins.

I could go on forever, but let me share a relevant story. Over the weekend, I was discussing with a close friend, who is now a CRO, how this applies this applied to Airbnb (a company very similar to his). As regulatory barriers diminish, more companies are resorting to unethical practices. Despite competitors catching up quickly, his team has focused on building long-term infrastructure.

TL;DR: Rocket Internet attempted to replicate Airbnb across Europe, aiming either to surpass them or force an expensive acquisition. Brian Chesky of Airbnb (advised by Marky Z) chose to focus on delivering the best possible experience to their core users. This strategy was pivotal in outlasting competitors with different motivations. History shows that companies compromising ethics and user experience eventually fall behind, leaving customers to those with a more sustainable, ethical vision.

Keen to share your experience? Reach out at [email protected]

🔍 Community Due Diligence

As the year draws to a close, we’ve been busy conducting DD on our final two companies for 2023: Grow it Local & Sonnant!

🌱 Grow it Local (GIL)

We're super excited to share that our DD journey with GIL has reached the finish line. The final memo is out and packed with insights (access here). This release aligns perfectly with their crowdfunding campaign which will help drive some exciting growth initiatives including launching a retail product line. Keen to be part of this? Details and contribution options can be found here.

Summary

GIL gives individuals the unique opportunity to learn from the world’s best growers, chefs, and local food heroes. So no matter who you are, where you live, or how much space you have you can learn to grow. Their platform guides and supports growers through every step in the food-growing process. Leveraging a community of 30,000+ members, GIL have built unique insights and data to create:

• A Local & State Government Subscription service;

• A direct-to-consumer subscription service; and

• The Grow it Local Impact Report. 

For further details visit the GIL offer document here. 

Key Insights

Based on our findings, we recommend extending your due diligence on GIL by diving deeper into the community’s interactions, platform useability and potential for scale. We believe this is pivotal for the business's success, as user engagement, learning from their interactions, and anticipating their needs will serve as a critical competitive advantage.

Founder Insights

• Utilising community gardening to address systemic community challenges.

• Aspiring to reach $4 million in annual recurring revenue within the next 12 months (or 8x growth in 6-12 months).

• Recent market research shows 4-5 million households or an estimated 9 million people in Australia interested in homegrown produce.

• Completely bootstrapped, achieving $500,000 in revenue to date primarily through government contracts.

Community Insights

• Managing the challenge of potentially cannibalising their own government contracts.

• Focus should be on personalisation and cycling new seasonal education contracts and seedlings.

• For further research explore opportunities in computer vision opportunities.

• There is huge potential for community-building in regional areas as a future social network.

Wrap-up

As you continue your due diligence journey beyond CVC, we recommend diving deeper into the following areas:

• Customer Engagement: Explore how GIL keeps customers engaged and coming back, particularly through initiatives like seasonal education programs and seedlings.

• Technological Advancements: Investigate the potential of GIL's progress in computer vision software for diagnosing plant diseases and issues, considering possible applications in the health insurance space and beyond.

• International Expansion: Understand the intricacies of replicating GIL's success in Australia on a global scale, considering the unique conditions and nuances of different overseas markets.

Key links:

• Grow it Local DD Cheatsheet

• Grow it Local Offer Document

Acknowledgements 🌟

Huge shout-out to our incredible GIL DD team!

• Charlotte Connell: Climate Tech | Ecosystem Builder - Ambassador and Advisory at Greenhouse and Seabin. 

• Jess Pattison: Dirt Lab Ventures, Venture Studio and Educational platform for Agtech around Australia. 

• Mazie Juang: Program Director at SproutX supporting over 43 startups, 55 future Ag/Foodtech founders.

• Matthew Anderson: Advisor and partner at the Pollen Investment Community - Retail and Wholesale investment community for Agtech in Australia.

  

  Our community session in action!

🎙️ Sonnant

We've almost wrapped up our DD! After our founder interview with Tony Simmons and an insightful community session featuring Chris Johnson of LiSTNR and other CVC members, we're excited to share some key highlights with you. These are just a sneak peek of what's to come, so keep an eye out for the full memo in next week's newsletter. Just a heads-up, this private DD will be available only to our newsletter subscribers!

Summary

• Growth: 90% growth in 2023.

• Customer Base: Partnerships with broadcasting giants like SCA, Nine, Nova, Salem Media Group, and Libsyn.

• Market Opportunity: Projected $4 billion podcast ad revenue by 2024.

• Revenue Forecasts: Targeting $2 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) by 2025, with the potential to reach $10 million.

Founder Insights

• Their product enables highly targeted advertising, such as creating specific ads for distinct demographics - significantly boosting ad relevance and effectiveness.

• $6.5 billion global radio market and opportunities to target streaming, video, and podcasting industries in the future.

• In the interview, Tony touches on Sonnant’s unique approach to integrating the entire audio ecosystem through APIs.

Community Insights

• “Sonnant is positioned at a critical junction in the ad tech space, mirroring opportunities we've seen in display and video.

• "The ventures approach to contextual advertising is not just innovative; it's transformative for the audio space"

• The platform’s empowerment of creators through data-driven insights indicates a strong user growth potential. "Creators are at the heart of Sonnant’s strategy, which is key for sustainable growth"

• "The ability to diversify content and revenue streams significantly enhances Sonnant's investment appeal”

Acknowledgements 🌟

What a line up we had for our community session!

• Chris Johnson: head of LiSTNR product and strategy at Southern Cross Austereo aka SCA.

• Ben Johnson: Josephmark Venture Studio and Flower Ventures ESVCLP founder with 3 major exits in the media space.

• Cam Yuill: Multi founder with an exit in Adtech through Sillicon Valley with early investments in companies such as Spotify

• Steve Allan: M&A and Investment specialist and CEO of Parent Company JV with Jay-Z/Roc Nation

Make sure you’re subscribed so you don’t miss the final Sonnant memo in next week’s newsletter!

🚀 New Companies

Check out the companies that are new to our pipeline this week:

Fenn Foods 🌱

Fenn Foods was the brainchild of Michelin star chef Alejandro Cancino, based at three hatted restaurant Urbane in Brisbane at the time of conception. Paving the way toward a healthy plant-based future for Australians since 2015, Fenn Foods has now become the first certified carbon-neutral, plant-based food producer in Australia.

🌍 Country: Aus

🎯 Type: Foodtech

🎲 The Bet: The big guys have exited the market and are awaiting the emergence of successful new players to acquire.

🌟 The Wow: Impressive journey and progress to date, an end-to-end production facility & IP, backed by solid revenue and distribution channels.

Klink 💸

Klink is a leading prize-linked crypto investment platform that serves the mass market of passive investors.

🌍 Country: US

🎯 Type: Crypto platform

🎲 The Bet: That crypto going to become a stable asset for retail investors. The venture is betting on the increasing acceptance and integration of crypto into mainstream finance, envisioning it as a reliable asset class for investors.

🌟 The Wow: For every $25 held in crypto you get a ticket into a 0-4000% uplift yield prize

📚 Weekly learning

No doubt, VC really is a game about PR and deep pockets. It's almost like 'picking' who will win and giving them all the talent and capital they need. Take Mr Yum, for example. I’ve always said that all markets are efficient. That is, if you're a small player looking for B2B Enterprise SaaS, you're at a disadvantage. Sequoia, for instance, has more scouts out there than we can imagine, searching for these opportunities. Therefore, we need to look at startups more creatively and laterally – deeper and beyond the conventional scope. Never forget, VC is about finding the OUTLIER. You can't find an outlier where everyone else is looking. Also, going the alternative route is beneficial because it avoids dilution, and remember, it’s the nuances and the insiders that count like community due diligence - insights from employees often tell a compelling story.

📣 GET IN TOUCH 

🎖Calling all current and future angels

Access global, pre-vetted, VC-quality deal flow and supercharged Due Diligence: pop your name down here.

🎯Calling all pre-seed/seed Ventures

Submit your decks for a free public or private review to support your capital-raising or improvement efforts: pop your name down here.

✨ VALUE ADDS 

🗝 Experienced Investor Certificate (EIC)

Not all of us can invest in every deal type globally and that's because we don't all have $2.5m in net assets or have earned $250k/pa for the last 3 years.

Some of us however love venture and know lots about it. If that sounds like you, let me know and I can hook you up with an (EIC) form that allows you (if you pass the test) to invest in all kinds of deals (including through syndicates).

Choose the EIC link here.

Since posting opportunities for accessing some of the investment community roles through Carry, I've had a number of questions come through about how to calculate it.

Please find an example calculator here.

Often people think Venture is uber-risky or out of their depth. It's not true, anyone can do it - you just need a model to get you going. Check out the Venture portfolio model attached - and reach out if you need more context!

Grab your model here.

At the Community VC, we believe investing should be accessible to everyone, not just those in the know. We believe everyone deserves the opportunity to invest and contribute to vetted ventures that move the world forward.

Jock 

Please do not take this as Financial advice or a guide of what any outcome will be. This isn't financial advice, nothing in this email is, I am not guaranteeing or recommending an investment or outcome in anything. I am simply just listing opportunities I believe should be accessible to everyone.