(7/8) The only platform you need to broadcast your passion with ease
Welcome to the 5th edition of the Geeks Of The Valley (GOTV) Newsletter where we share our written memo on startups that have yet to raise any funding or announce it publicly, new startup ideas from some of the most original minds in tech and VC’s, and also episode of the week from our own GOTV podcast!
🏢 Venture Insights
Team 👥
James Lo: Previously Investor @ Softbank, Strategic advisor @ UNICEF, Consultant @ Mckinsey.
Bobby Tang: Previously Head of BD & Partnership @ Factmata (backed by Mark Cuban, Biz Stone, Mark Pincus & Ross Mason), various roles @ Apple, Program manager @ Amazon Kindle.
The Sparks ✨
SaaS tools that enable professionals to run their own creative/skill-based works.
In the Early days of being a creator most activity took place through marketplace platforms like Twitch, Youtube and Instagram. These platforms were not entirely built with creators in mind. Why? Because these marketplaces tend to monetize through advertising which is mostly a one-time transaction. Creators can have millions of people who loved their videos, but only hundreds of dollars would be hitting their bank account. Besides, the number of hours they put in is also a prime factor that would determine how much they’d make.
Through the SaaS-model, the value creation is no longer induced by the hours Creators put in and in return, this helps them in focusing on creating a variety of offerings that could distinguish their value proposition.
Nailing the execution and initial traction.
While still in private beta, they have already managed to onboard experienced leaders including everyone from the Head of Strategy at Airbnb, MD at YouTube, PM at every FAANG company, bankers at every bulge-bracket bank, consultants at every MBB, to nano-influencers with 10K+ followers across verticals.
Strong growth momentum within the space and (massively) unknown value of TAM.
Last year alone we’ve saw a number of creator space startups that raised huge rounds, including Patreon, Superpeer (2x within 8 months), Karat, Circle and more. In fact, according to Li Jin (who coined the term “Passion Economy”) the TAM of Passion Economy is still unknown. While the new models are still redefining how the future may look by looking at the cost structure and value creation that can be built at scale, one thing for sure is that this space has a huge opportunity to return billion-dollar businesses in the next 5-10 years.
Note: This analysis was originally written in February 2021. More details can be found here.
💡 Startup Ideas
Rishi Tripathy, Chief of Staff @ On Deck
Al Harkan, Senior Journalist @ SEA Today
Cody Mccauley, Investor @ Bloomberg Beta
💡 Episode Of The Week
Avichal is a successful serial entrepreneur with executive experience at Google and Facebook, which acquired his previous company. At Facebook, he was Director of Product Management for the Local product group. Avichal is an investor in companies such as Airtable, Boom Supersonic, Color Genomics, Cruise, Figma, Newfront Insurance, Notion, Nova Credit, Threads, and others.
Electric Capital is a venture firm that invests in cryptocurrencies, blockchain-based businesses, fintech companies, and marketplaces. Electric Capital and its founders have invested in crypto companies such as Anchorage, Bitwise, Celo, Coda, Coinbase, Derivadex, Mobilecoin, Oasis, and NEAR.
Thanks for reading! See you next week, geeks 👋
If you know anyone that you’d like to be featured in our podcast, feel free to send a note to geeks@geeksofthevalley.com!
This article was edited by Roshan