RBV Weekly Newsletter🧔📖Week of 3/8/23

Team RBV Open Deals, Portfolio Updates, Crypto News, & More

Author

Joshua Howard
March 08, 2024

Subject: RBV Weekly Newsletter🧔📖Week of 3/8/23:  Team RBV

Open Deals, Portfolio Updates, Crypto News, & More

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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. 

📣 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 where we invest $100k into companies interested in designing and launching a token, over a twelve-week hands-on program.

  • Fidelity Private Shares equity administration and cap table solutions: serving founders and their stakeholders throughout the company lifecycle all inside a single platform designed by and for the innovation economy.  Shoobx | Equity Management | Cap Table Solutions | 409A Valuations. Through a partnership with Red Beard Ventures, we are offering a 20% discount to any company that signs up for a paid subscription. For more information, please contact Jason Hammond – [email protected].

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RBV Media

Elana sits down this week with Aidan Gold of Hyper Guap to discuss the hot investing market, with tips on some of the biggest growth-potential stocks and alternative assets!

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.

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RBV Spotlight

Denarii Labs is Accepting Cohort 2 Applications, Partnerships, and Hiring for Three Positions!

Cohort 2

The Red Beard Ventures official accelerator program, Denarii Labs, is announcing the second cohort!  After the success and widespread acclaim of Cohort 1, Denarii is opening the application funnel once more to onboard startups that want a robust token plan to be part of their business.  We are also accepting for a dedicated Futureverse Track of the Denarii Accelerator, 

Partnerships

As part of our development for Cohort 2, we are expanding our network of partners to better benefit all types of startups and token projects looking to develop with us.  We are seeking companies with ecosystems that want to cultivate new growth on their platforms, support companies that our cohort could become customers of, and venture partners that want to invest alongside RBV in the cohort.

Hiring

We are expanding our team by adding three more onto the staff between now and the start of Cohort 2 in June.  The positions we are hiring for are Web3 Venture Analyst, Tokenomics Designer, and a Marketing/Community Manager.  If you are interested, or know of an individual who may be interested in this opportunity, please direct them to our hiring link.

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Portfolio News

  • Close now to the SAGA mainnet event, this is the third and last airdrop event

  • Token stakers for ATOM, Celestia, Polygon, and Avalanche are eligible according to how they staked and when

  • SAGA is also continuing the Play-to-Airdrop game with The Three Kingdoms

  • The companies were selected as part of the Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node (TITAN) ground station program

  • Anduril will be leading the hardware design, development, and manufacturing of TITAN vehicles

  • Each vehicle will be deployable as a mobile command station, with Army-quality capabilities and strength

  • NVIDIA, the world’s leading GPU manufacturer, will be enabling PC gamers to use remote high-powered GPUs

  • Midnight in Wiami, the first Wilder World game, is now available on the NVIDIA GeForce Now marketplace

  • Any gamer with a high speed internet connection will be able to play the game as if they had a top-of-the-line gaming rig

  • A first for DARPA, Venus Aerospace recorded a successful test of their Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE)

  • The engine achieved a significant 15% more efficient than traditional rocket engines, ran on a cooled system

  • Deployed at ETH Denver, the points system is a way to showcase Ceramic’s unique ability to host and record points for airdrop systems

  • The codebase for Ceramic has several functions key to a robust points program, like [findEvent] and [useEffect]

  • Their robust private PostgreSQL system is ideal for associating whitelisted codes and user IDs

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🔔 Active Investment Opportunities:

Travelswap: Denarii Labs Alumni and the Only Crypto-Native Expedia Partner

  • Building the lowest-cost and -friction crypto travel platform, with future token plans developed by Denarii 

  • Backed by RBV and angels, the platform is already post-revenue

  • Link to invest

Atmos Labs: Web3 Gaming Developer Powerhouse

  • This is the seed extension, receiving both equity and tokens, is supporting the 2024 launch of their flagship game, ExoGP

  • Atomos is building a narrative and economic ecosystem around their game series IP

  • Led by Sora Ventures, Sfermion, GSR, Tectona, and more

  • Link to invest

FranShares: Fixing the Franchise Model

  • They are fixing the operator-to-franchisee model by applying an equity share and crowdfunding model

  • Live today, FranShares has already facilitated $18M in investments with a pipeline of $200M more

  • Backers include Chicago Ventures, VU Venture Partners, and Shawntae Spencer 

  • Link to invest

Deep6 AI: Clinical Trials at Turbo Speed using AI

  • The costliest and longest bottleneck of bringing new health treatments to market is being accelerated by their AI matching system

  • By speeding this delay, Deep6 is able to save billions in revenue, massive drug cost increases, and potentially hundreds or even thousands of lives

  • Backed by Point72, GSR Ventures, Samsung NEXT, 3M ventures, and more

  • Link to invest

Blocklords: GoT Meets Axie - Revolutionizing Play-To-Earn Gaming

  • Blocklords already has 120k pre-registered for their play-to-earn game

  • The medieval-based game allows players to craft their narrative while simultaneously earning cryptocurrency for tasks they complete within the game

  • Blocklords is focusing on delivering value to the user first to build up the user base and ecosystem first - This approach seems to be working by their massive sign-up and connection numbers

  • Bitscraft, Delphi Digital, and Animoca Brands are all investing

  • Token sale: SAFT, $100M FMV

  • Link to Invest

Carro: Embedded Marketplaces for Influencers, Streamers, and Creators

  • Carro's platform allows anyone to sell products from the world's best brands without spending capital upfront, making inventory commitments, or handling fulfillment.

  • Rev to date, $2M; 3.x2 GMV growth Sept to Nov; partnered with 20k brands

  • Investing alongside PayPal Ventures, Alpha Edison, 11:11 Media, and more

  • 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

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🥳 Upcoming Events: 

Events are a great way to stay informed in our industry, so we are planning for a very full 2024. 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! 

If you are interested in attending our Los Angeles Founder & Investor Pickleball event, we will be holding one on March 19th. Please reach out if you are in the area and are interested in meeting fellow LPs and startup founders in the LA area.

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🤝 We are hiring! 

Red Beard Ventures is seeking a Venture Capital Intern to join our team. The intern will focus on identifying and evaluating potential investment opportunities, writing deal memos, and helping with the operations of the syndicate and fund. This internship spans 6 to 12 months, requiring at least 20 hours per week of remote work. For those interested in this position, here is a link to our application.

We are also 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

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Onwards 🚀 

Drew, Elana, Mitchell, and Lauren