RBV Weekly Newsletter🧔📖: Dec. 8

Open Deals, Portfolio Updates, Crypto News, RBV Fund I Closing & More

Author

Joshua Howard
December 08, 2023

Subject: RBV Weekly Newsletter🧔📖:  Team RBV

Open Deals, Portfolio Updates, Crypto News, & More

—-------------------------------------------------------------------

Welcome to the latest edition of the Red Beard Ventures newsletter, where we dive into exciting updates and insights from all over blockchain, frontier tech, and the angel investing landscape. 

In this week's RBV Weekly Newsletter:

📻NEW EPISODE of Red Beard Radio 📻:

On this episode, Elana and Drew are joined by the CEO & Founder of Alto, Eric Satz, as they discuss everything alternative assets. Tune in as Eric describes how Alto aims to democratize access to alternative assets by making the process of self-directed IRA investing simple, accessible, and easy for anyone to do (think what TurboTax did for self-filers). The conversation also delves into Eric's future plans and goals for Alto, like expanding the types of assets, partners, and investors on the platform. This is a jam-packed episode with so many pearls of wisdom for anyone interested in alternative assets, especially for long-term investors who want to diversify their portfolios and take advantage of tax benefits.

Each Wednesday at 3pm, Join us for a weekly dose of investing knowledge and industry expertise.  Subscribe now! →  @red-beard-radio 

Red Beard Radio is Sponsored by Alto. Alto makes it easy for individuals to invest in alternative assets with their retirement funds through a self-directed IRA. Access private deals on Alto Marketplace, their new platform for accredited investors.

—------------------------------------------------------------


📣 As a reminder, Red Beard Ventures has a syndicate, fund, and a tokenomics accelerator:

  • The Red Beard Ventures Syndicate is stage agnostic and invests in Frontier Technology with a focus on Web3, Space, FinTech, Sports, Robotics, Biotech, and Climate. We invest anywhere between $100k - $1.5M.

  • The Red Beard Ventures Fund I invests $100k - $1M in Pre-seed and Seed blockchain-based companies.

  • Denarii Labs is a tokenomics accelerator in partnership with Horizen Labs Ventures, where we invest $100k into companies interested in designing and launching a token, over a twelve-week hands-on program.

In the latest update on the Denarii Labs accelerator, our founders dug deep into their Go To Market strategy.  First we had mentor Kevin Jung of Horizen Labs Ventures in to talk about his own strategy for token GTM, involving target audiences, understanding market landscape, and more.  Later Itai Elizur from Marketacross handled everything our cohort needed to know about PR and marketing for an upcoming token launch, with all the considerations that come with it. Read more about the past few weeks!

----------------------------------------------------------

🚨 TL;DR: This Week in Crypto 

This Week:

  • Coinbase launches “money transfer link” service

  • Zero Tech announces airdrop program

  • Megadeth releases details on NFT collection

-----------------------------------------------------------

🪙 Crypto News: 

  • Users will be able to send money with a unique URL

  • This will be built into the Coinbase Wallet app, and both counterparties will need to have one

  • Send funds are refunded in two weeks if not claimed

  • The nascent lobby base has spent nearly $19M in the first three quarters of 2023

  • Last record was set by heavy spending from FTX to repair relationships pre-trial, $22M

  • Similarly, this year Coinbase launched a grassroots advocacy campaign

—-----------------------------------------------------------

🗃️ Portfolio News:

  • The uncirculated tokens are being reallocated to be more efficient and transparent to community members

  • Vested team supply is moving to a team-controlled multisig

  • The CEX/Faucet allocation is also becoming team-controlled

  • This is in the background of the $TOPIA tokens rocketing up 86% this week

  • The native Zero Tech token, Zero ($MEOW) will be taking registrants for their early access airdrop

  • To pre-register, a wallet must have at least 1 $MEOW or 1 $WILD 

  • The “Launch Sequence” roadmap includes a “ZNS” domain registration, a block explorer, testnet, and mainnet, among other things

  • The legendary small-press publisher is teaming with Alexandria to release limited digital editions

  • Chosen titles will be curated by bestselling author Luca Veste

  • BSPG just recently celebrated their 40th anniversary

  • ZED RUN is bringing out another great holiday themed collection with three Christmas skins

  • ‘Frost,’ ‘Elf,’ and ‘Gingerbread’ skinned horses will get to enter daily themed races from December 11 until December 22

  • Racers will compete for a total of $25k in prize tokens and 6 ‘Christmas Tree,’ 6 ‘Christmas Eve,’ and 2 ‘Reindeer’ skins.

—------------------------------------------------------------

💸 NFT Alpha:

  • First minted back in March 2021, the project is sitting at 7 SOL floor price

  • The initial 687 Kreechures were minted prior to the second NFT project on solana, Solarians

  • The most rare, ones minted in the last few days of March 2021, can go for anywhere between 50 SOL to 250 SOL and more.

  • It will be a generative collection featuring the zombie-like mascot Vic Rattlehead

  • The 5000-piece collection will go live on December 22 

  • Ownership will include access to limited-access physical experiences

  • Parallel Finance has added a variety of DeFi services in addition to their NFT-collateralized loans

  • The two new focuses are liquid staking, and a dedicated L2 for lower gas fees

  • All Parallel protocols will soon be able to use this L2 and the zero-knowledge proofs they use to secure the chain 

—------------------------------------------------------------

🔔 Active Investment Opportunities:

Moviepass: the relaunched cinema subscription platform with nearly 1M waitlist

  • This series A is after the original founders repurchased the company post-acquisition

  • Investing alongside Animoca, Kelly Ventures, Caritas, and Sand Hill Angels

  • Est. $100M+ ARR sitting on waitlist for full relaunch 

  • Link to invest

Discord: 175M MAU communication platform with IPO looming

  • We are acquiring shares at an implied valuation of $6.5B, 56% discount to previous round

  • Discord previously rejected an acquisition offer for $12B

  • Expected to cross $640M revenue this year

  • Exclusive deal with gen AI company Midjourney, only available as a Discord app

  • Link to invest

Kraken: secondary shares for one of the largest, oldest crypto exchanges

  • Trusted by over 9M traders worldwide, they are #2 in total spot volume in the US

  • Shares are trading at implied valuation of $2.1B, a 15x upside against Coinbase

  • Kraken holds 47% of the top 10 altcoin pair market depth

  • They are also launching their own own bank, announced in March

  • Link to invest

Lightship: The Tesla of EV Recreation and Camping Vehicles

  • The groundbreaking company is raising a Series B round after selling out of 700 towable RV pre-orders at SXSW

  • Thor Industries, the current leader in conventional RVs, has an order backlog of $18B and a valuation of $5.3B

  • Like Tesla, everything about a traditional RV has been reimagined to be as efficient, modern, and comfortable as possible

  • Link to invest

Versus Game: Gamified Ads using Gen-AI

  • This B2B tech helps media, publishers, and brands use generative AI to make interactive content

  • Eric Schmidt, investor and board member, said “This is the most powerful real-world AI application” he’s seen

  • Almost 1000 digital media partners including Forbes, USA Today, ESPN, ABC, Microsoft, and more

  • Link to invest

Emerge: Follow-On with the Cutting Edge in Virtual Reality Touch Technology

  • Emerge has developed a mid-air haptics for users to ‘feel’ objects in the virtual world

  • They use precise ultrasound to create 3D forms

  • Past and current investors include Steel Perlot, Soma Capital, M13, Vulcan Ventures, and more

  • Link to invest

Oort: Decentralized AI-Powered AWS

  • Also investing out of Red Beard Ventures Fund I, where we have committed $500k

  • Oort offers 80% savings, AI-powered smart search, and blockchain integrations

  • Their no-code LLM is able to act like an expert on any dataset available, with simple conversational commands

  • We are receiving a 1:1 Token warrant for our investment

  • Link to invest

Veremark: Global Background Checks for the Remote-Worker World

  • This Series B round is with Stage2 Capital, Samaipata Ventures, Triplepoint, and more

  • Veremark stores encrypted background check data on the blockchain as a verified digital credential

  • Experiencing massive growth and giant clients like McDonalds, Grant Throton, Pepsi, and more

  • Revenue for 2024 projected to be $9m, up from a projected $4.2M this year

  • Link to invest

Minima: The Future of the “Internet of Things”

  • Minima is purpose-built for device-to-device or device-to-blockchain communication

  • This is the first solution that’s economical, scales well, and is technologically advanced enough to handle mass data through extremely small hardware

  • The IoT landscape is projected to hit $5,000,000,000,000 (five trillion) by 2030

  • IoT infrastructure has been lacking innovation, hindering this growth

  • Link to invest

Canva: Deeply Discounted Shares in a Quadruple-Deca-Unicorn

  • We are bringing this amazing allocation to our LPs at a significant discount

  • Last round valuation was $40B; these shares are at a 36% discount

  • Canva has significantly higher revenue than their main competitors 

  • Millions of users and growing, adding AI tools, and more

  • Link to invest

Tactogen: Mental Health Medicine using MDMA Therapy

  • Science is now learning of the therapeutic effects of MDMA, and Tactogen is developing non-psychedelic ‘enactogens’ that provide a more focused, gentle healing

  • Conservative estimates suggest up to 25% of adults could benefit significantly from MDMA therapy

  • First patent awarded in April, on the road to FDA approval

  • Investing alongside Lifeforce Capital, and co-syndicating with Gaingels

  • Link to invest

National Cycling League: an NFL-Style Fan-Friendly Facing Format

  • NCL is a revolution (get it, like a bicycle) in a sport ripe for racing fans of all types

  • Expansion plan in place expected to generate $5.2M in revenue from 8 events

  • 10 signed teams, 2 year broadcast deal with Warner Bros., and Discovery+ listing

  • Low CapEx model for a high participation sport is a recipe for success

  • Link to invest

Tafi: The Global Leader in 3D Assets and Text-to-3D genAI

  • Largest commercial library of 3D assets in the world; customers include Coca-Cola, HBO, Warner/DC, Coinbase, and others

  • Their product DAZ 3D (link to demo here) creates ultra-HD fully compatible and customizable characters

  • Exclusive partnership with NVIDIA to train even greater AI capabilities

  • Link to invest

GET Protocol: The Premium NFT Ticketing Solution

  • GET has been building NFT ticketing since 2016

  • They have a full range of ticketing products for event holders, from self-service to full concierge, and also whitelabel solutions

  • Issued nearly 3.4 Million tickets (1.7M in 2022 alone), over 17k events

  • Investment includes a token grant AND discounted token purchase rights

  • Link to invest

—------------------------------------------------------------

🥳 Upcoming Events: 

In-person events are a great way to stay informed in our industry, so we are planning for a very full 2023. We would love to hear about any other conferences you will be attending this year, so please let us know as we are still planning our event calendar! 

We hosted another Pickleball event in LA for Founders and Investors - Thank you to everyone who came! Thank you to our sponsors, Sequoia, Escalon Services, and Stifel.

If you are a founder and want to come to the next one RSVP here. 

—------------------------------------------------------------

🤝 We are hiring! 

We are looking for part-time syndicate vertical leads in the following categories - if you are interested please reach out and we can discuss the opportunity in greater detail:

Biotech 

Space 

Robotics & Automation

Climate 

Fintech & SaaS

—------------------------------------------------------------

Onwards 🚀 

Drew, Elana, Mitchell, and Lauren