(2nd November) Previous Benchmark, 8VC & CRV-backed founder building "Shazam for birthday"
++ Seasoned fintech ops-executive building financial tools to power the service worker economy
Welcome to the 51st edition of the Geeks Of The Valley (GOTV) Newsletter, where we curate interesting early-stage/pre-funded companies every 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: Ferry
Geography: US
One-liner: Financial tools to power the service worker economy.
Founder(s) Background: Senior Director of Ops @ Petal ($800m+ val), VP of Ops @ Power Finance (Backed by Anthemis & CRV).
Raised $$ / Backed By (Public Source): NA // stealth
Startup Name: Birthday App (Please reach out to aizuddin@geeksofthevalley.com / reply to this email, for intro request)
Geography: US
One-liner: Shazam for birthday.
Founder(s) Background: Founder of Laurel & Wolf (backed by Benchmark & CRV), Founder of Showroom (backed by 8VC and MetaProp), VP of Technology @ Hubble Contacts (backed by Founders Fund, FirstMark, Greycroft), Global Director of Strategy @ TBWA\Chiat\Day (clients include adidas, Apple, Hilton Hotels, McDonald's, Nissan and Singapore Airlines).
Raised $$ / Backed By (Public Source): NA
Interesting thought: This idea could resonate to below tweet under the “Personal CRM” space.
and would be interesting to see if they would be *in the future* working on gift card integration / collaboration as well.
Startup Name: Explainpaper
Geography: Global
One-liner: Upload *any paper* and start instantly getting explanations!
Founder(s) Background: Founders @ Lui (Command Line for Figma), Data Engineering @ Warner Bros. Games.
Raised $$ / Backed By (Public Source): NA
Product Demo:
Traction:
