IDEA #1 | VENTURE STARTUP

Simplified Crypto Self-custody 🔐

Not your keys, not your coins

1. Problem/Opportunity❓

Crypto has had a pretty rough ride of late.

The market has been dogged by pump and dump schemes, shitcoins, money laundering issues and the collapse of a number of major exchanges, most notably FTX.

At least it looks like Sam’s making some new friends.

But in the last few months crypto has seen something of a resurgence.

Bitcoin has soared past the $60k mark, the crypto maximalists have re-emerged on Twitter and demand for the recently launched Bitcoin ETF has been off the charts, with Blackrock holding (or HODLing if you will) around 11,500 Bitcoin at the moment.

But with more and more people pouring into the market security of these assets is more important than ever.

The collapse of multiple exchanges has proved that, just like my Grandma used to say, "not your keys, not your Bitcoin."

Self-custody hardware wallets are a solution to this, but they come with their own set of challenges. They have a messy user experience and users are responsible for managing their own setup, security, and backup keys.

They also represent a single point of failure, just like my right shoulder whenever I try to max out my bench in the gym.

So let’s create a better alternative.

2. Solution ✅

Here’s the idea…create an easy-to-use, multisignature wallet which can safely store cryptocurrencies.

Here’s how it works. Customers sign up for the platform on their phones and can deposit their crypto funds on the platform. The platform then generates three keys, 2 of which are kept by the user and a third one by the platform.

The platform acts like a digital safe where you need multiple keys to unlock it, in this case 2 of 3 keys. In order to spend any funds from the platform two out of three keys are required to approve a transaction. The third key, held by the platform, is a recovery key in case the user replaces one of their 2 keys, but on its own cannot be used to transact.

This service is incredibly resilient to phishing and hacking to ensure that users keep control of their coins.

On top of this solution the platform could also expand to offer lending, investments etc.

3. Business Model 🏦

Go-to-market: start by focusing on a single cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin or Ethereum, and individuals with larger holdings who would be worried about this and go from there.

Monetisation: Subscription fee relating to the value of the stored crypto.

Startup Costs: You’ll definitely need to do a raise here since the build is complex and security is incredibly important. If you have any security issues in the early days it’s game over.

4. How You’ll Get Rich 💰

This business would complement a large established crypto wallet business, such as Metamask, folding nicely into their product offerings. Assuming the crypto recovery continues you should get a good multiple for an exit here.

IDEA #2 | STARTUP

Unbiased Review Platform ✍️

Making reviews accurate again

1. Problem/Opportunity❓

Online reviews are incredible.

From the person who loved their scissors purchase…

…to the person who clearly never learned how to read a 24 hour clock.

While online reviews are an endless source of entertainment their primary purpose is to help inform purchasing our decisions. In fact studies show that 95% of people read online reviews before buying a product.

But online reviews are littered with issues. From fake customer reviews which litter e-commerce platforms to dedicated review websites which are more interested in selling products through affiliate links than actually properly reviewing them, you can’t really trust online reviews anymore. Many review websites don’t even try out the products, they just aggregate the reviews of a few customer reviews (which may not even be real).

In fact a lot of brands go out and buy review websites related to their product then review their own product. Take Casper, a DTC mattress company, who sued a mattress review website (Sleepopolis) for writing negative reviews and settled the lawsuit by taking over the website. Then they only wrote positive reviews about their product.

Online reviews can’t be trusted anymore, so let’s create a review site which can be trusted.

2. Solution ✅

Here’s the idea: create an unbiased review platform which gives customers accurate product information that they can trust.

Here’s is how it works. When users sign up to the platform they’re able to get access to video and written reviews across a wide variety of products.

In order for the reviews to remain unbiased the platform operates under a set of rules which it does not deviate from. All product reviews on the platform are completed by experts on the particular product. All reviews are completed by people who have actually tried out and used the products they’re reviewing. The site also does not sell any products or make money through advertising products or through affiliate links, meaning there is no incentive to lie about products.

In exchange for this users of the platform pay a small subscription fee, like $5 per month, which is the only way the platform makes money.

This isn’t necessarily a technology innovation, this is a business model innovation.

3. Business Model 🏦

Go-to-market: Start off by picking a single niche to start with where products are sold at a high price point and consumers heavily research before purchasing, such as technology or sports wear/supplementation

Monetisation: monthly subscription fee

Startup Costs: this is a pretty simple review site so not much dev cost. Only startup costs would be to compensate the reviewers and pay for the products to be reviewed.

4. How You’ll Get Rich 💰

This review data would be extremely interesting for a large e-commerce platform. There could be a path to an exit there.

NO BRAINER IDEA

Sleep Tracking App for New Parents

New parents always speak about how they wish they could get more sleep.

Well why not create an app which shows them exactly how little sleep they’re getting?

A sleep tracking app for new parents is just what they need!

BIG DECK ENERGY

Fyre Festival’s $25m Deck

Year: 2017

Stage: Seed

Amount: $25m

The story of Billy McFarland’s Fyre fest is legendary. Fyre Festival was a failed music festival that was promoted as a luxury experience on an island in the Bahamas, but due to poor planning and execution, it became a disaster. There was even a Netflix documentary about it. He raised $25m in 2017 from over 100 investors for the project. This is the deck he used to do it.

THE MONEYSHOT

The New Elon Musk

Elon Musk’s entrepreneurial exploits are the stuff of legend.

Sure some of his views and a lot of his tweets are a little questionable, but the roster businesses he’s built or helped to create is staggering: Tesla, SpaceX, Solar City, Paypal, the Boring Company, Neuralink, Open AI.

It’s hard to think of anyone who even comes close to him. Although, this guy might…

This is Brett Adcock, a man who must have been terrorised in the playground as a kid with that second name. He’s 37 years old and in 2013 he founded Vettery (today called Hired), a talent marketplace that matched job seekers with employers who needed technical expertise. In 2018, the Adecco Group bought Vettery for a cool $100 million. The same year, Adcock started Archer Aviation, a company building and designing electronic vertical takeoff and landing jets. Today Archer is a public company worth $1.4bn.

Not content with all of his success in 2022 Brett founded Figure AI, the first-of-its-kind AI robotics company bringing a general purpose humanoid to life. Just last week the company raised $675m from some heavy hitters including Microsoft, OpenAI, Nvidia and Jeff Bezos.

Electric jets, humanoid robots, sounds pretty Muskesque to us. What will he do next? Who knows, but we’ll be watching out for whatever it is.