(18th September) "Figma for Photo Editing" by Snap's alum
++ General Catalyst investment perspective on Fitmint
Welcome to the 42nd edition of the Geeks Of The Valley (GOTV) Newsletter, where we curate exciting ideas/insights on web3 + interesting early-stage/pre-funded companies per week. If you enjoy and want to keep abreast with insights and interesting early-stage startups before they go big, subscribe to this newsletter ✌️.
Geeks of the week
Startup name: Modyfi
One-liner: Photo editing designed for collaboration, community, and creativity.
Founder(s) background: Principal PM @ Quibi, Snr. Manager (Creative Engineering - L7), Group PM @ Snap.
Raised $$ / backed by: NA
Into the 🐰🕳️
In this edition of “Into The Rabbithole,” we’ll feature an interesting web3 investment memo made by a VC firm.
Investing in FitMint
(This article was initially written by Anand Chandrasekaran and Niko Bonatsos from General Catalyst)
It is no secret that some of the fastest growing software companies today are being built globally, including out of India. This “Built in India for the world” theme, focused on high quality products built by some of the most ambitious founders, has a growing set of believers. We believe that Web3/Crypto will be one of the growing categories that these founders will choose to build in. These founders will be “crypto native” and deeply understand which models work (and which ones don’t), take the time to study a space deeply to create a “second mover” advantage and will focus on building a real business driven by consumer need, not on web3 hype.
Enter Fitmint - co-founded by Rohit Sharma, Anurag Meena and Viren Baid, the company has launched a ‘move to earn’ game after over 12 months of iteration that makes working out and staying fit a rewarding and fun activity. It is crypto meets fitness and India web3 meets world. Having done their primary research to understand why many people don’t stay fit despite aspirations to do so - they found that in addition to the well-known motivation issues (we’ve all made those new year’s resolutions!), there was also a) lack of community nudges and b) lack of instant gratification unlike so many other activities today. These insights led to some of the gameplay + defi design as well as incentivization through crypto tokens and NFTs.
Their product is in BETA and live now. The 100k+ community currently on waitlist is excitedly joining and minting sneakers that serve both as proof of workouts and as a way to reflect their identity and lifestyle in the metaverse. On the back of early traction and 85% of new users using the product on a daily basis, Fitmint is growing quickly on a revenue basis. If you are intrigued and would like to try Fitmint, head on to their website and sign up for their beta waitlist.