quarterly update 🌞

setting the scene

• music icon, Jimmy Iovine was walking on the beach when he saw his buddy Dr. Dre sitting on his oceanfront patio 🌊
• Dr. Dre invited Iovine to come upstairs, and he began to tell him about a sneaker venture that wanted his endorsement 👟
• Iovine responded, “f**k sneakers, you should do speakers”
• a week later, the first prototype for Beats by Dre was created, and we all know how that story ended 💰💰
• for startups, progress and change come quickly and unexpectedly; this week we’ll be checking in on past startups we’ve covered
  

the basics

• 📈 startup success: many of the startups we covered this quarter are seeing…
  • strong revenue growth and even profitably
  • thousands of new users and customers
  • new features added at a rapid pace
• 💪 bulletpitch boom:
  • our subscriber count has grown 120% this quarter, we’ve been talking with dozens of founders each week, we now operate as a team of five, and our new website is 🔥
  • plus, check out our recent feature in Entrepreneur Magazine!

if you missed any q3 letters, check them out here

quarter in review

◉POSH 🎟

POSH is an online events platform that provides tools for hosts to curate events and guests to discover new experiences

• it was an eventful summer for POSH
  • they achieved profitability in August and are scaling 25% month-over-month, broke $2m ARR, and reached 400k monthly site visitors
• additionally, POSH has been used for events on 6 continents 🌍
  • let’s make it 7; anyone know a host in Antarctica?

◉Xoma 🍸

Xoma is a pulcatta, a sustainably produced agave spirit made from distilled pulque

• Xoma is actively seeking an alcohol brand, distributor, or importer of spirits to potentially acquire the company
• true story: we brought a bottle of Xoma to a dinner party this summer; it was finished so quickly it made the rosé look bad 🥂

◉Next Gen HQ ✏️

Next Gen HQ is an educational technology company that teaches entrepreneurial thinking through an app and in-person experiences 

• Next Gen HQ is launching some major products and updates including revamped learning curriculum and delivery, networking features, and more
• the company is opening a fundraising round with limited allocation for new investors
  • if interested, connect with founder Dylan Gambardella here
    

◉Whipnotic 🍨

Whipnotic is a modern take on whipped cream that adds a colorful swirl of flavor to each can 

• Whipnotic can be found in 22 states and 200+ stores
• the company has been creaming its competition, turning shelves 3x faster than other brands 

◉Summer ☀️

Summer is a real estate platform that allows prospective homebuyers to try a property before they buy it and offers homeowners property management services

• since launch, Summer has built an email list of 15k interested individuals and has signed one new customer a week
• Summer also launched two new houses on their platform: Treasure Drive and Park Avenue
  • in summer-y, you could say things are going quite well

◉Danvas 🖼

Danvas provides a tech-enabled display that showcases NFTs and digital art

• the product was officially unveiled at a show in NYC; you can check out the product here
• the starting price to buy the digital canvas: $34k 
  • sorry, no bulletpitch discount code at this time 😄

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trends we are following

what we’ve noticed through continuous chats with founders across industries

• 🤳 creator economy: VCs are ramping efforts to invest directly in today’s 50m content creators; we’re equally bullish on the tools and platforms that allow creators to make content easier than ever
• 🏘 proptech: the industry is hot, just ask Adam Newman who raised a casual $350m for his new startup; while the housing market is seeing a drop after record highs, we’ve noticed continued interest in software that enables subletting, rentals, automated tenant management, and to foreshadow next week’s letter: community interaction
• 🎆 NFTs: the NFT market is oversaturated, with the average sale price dropping more than 92%; while we are bearish on PFP NFTs, we’re keeping an eye on products that connect NFT technology and tangible solutions like event tickets, certifications, and trading cards

previous quarter updates

bite-sized updates on companies from previous quarters

• 👏🏽 PumpML, a software company that allows developers to make devices responsive to non-voice sound, changed its name to WAV AI and just closed a check from 1517 fund, bringing their total amount raised to $675k
  
• 👨🏽‍💻 beehiiv, a newsletter platform that provides tools for creators to send out customized content, raised an additional $1.6m
• 🍽 Tablz, a restaurant booking platform that allows diners to reserve specific tables through a 3D view of the restaurant, raised $2.5m and loved their weekly bulletpitch cartoon so much, they’ve made it their LinkedIn backdrop
• 📷 BeReal, a social media platform where users have two minutes to capture a candid photo, was put on our radar when they were only on two college campuses; today, BeReal’s popularity has forced Instagram and TikTok to try and compete