DVC Weekly Wrap Up: How bout them Cowboys!

Happy Friday TGIFers!

We’re pushing the boundaries this week by challenging the Community. But first:

A consortium of Dallas businessmen, backed by $120 Million from Blackrock, Citadel, and others announced the creation of the Texas Stock Exchange in an effort to take on the Wall Street exchanges (i.e. NYSE, NASDAQ), citing high fees and overreach on social issues. 🤠 

Blackrock’s participation is curious, to say the least, as it's not a significant investment for them. However, rumors suggest it gives them a seat at the table to push their agenda of tokenizing all equity listed on the Exchange, as opposed to the traditional listing of common shares.

For now, the consortium should keep the Dallas Cowboys in mind — securing home-field advantage and winning Super Bowls are two different animals steers. 🏈 

Venture deal for the books?

The Wall Street Journal published an in-depth piece on Sam Altman’s expanding investment empire. What stood out to us was that, back in 2009, Altman was introduced to two individuals who wanted to start a payments company. Although he wasn’t an accredited investor at the time, Altman was able to invest $15,000 for a 2% stake.

Fast-forward 15 years and Stripe is valued at $65 billion. Assuming 50% dilution, Altman's $15,000 investment is now worth $650 million—a 43,333x return 👀 To break the economics down further:

• If 15 people had each invested $1,000, they would each have $43 million today. 💵 🫡 

• If 150 people had each invested $100, they would each have $4.3 million— a dream come true for FIRE evangelists. 🔥 

• If 1500 people had each invested $10, they would each have $433K today - life-changing money for 99%. 😂 

After reading that, you might be thinking…. 🧠 

“Yeah, well, Sam Altman gets to see deals like this, and everyday people like us would never get the same opportunity.”

But let’s flip this around for a moment. From what we can tell, Altman wasn’t loaded with cash at the time, and when he invested, Stripe was at the idea stage. To his credit, he was “prepared” to cut the check with limited data and he did.

That’s the key to startup investing: Investors simply have to be committed to cutting checks to gain access to increasingly higher quality deal flow.

And we can say this without hesitation: if the Doriot Venture Community had 1,000+ committed members each prepared to stroke $100-$500 checks into 3-5 deals a year, we would be playing a different game than we’re playing right now. If we had 10,000 members committed to deploying $300 - $1000 each year, we’re a powerhouse.

And this plays into last week’s Mental Mind Map Exercise #5: 100% of you that responded want to see proprietary seed deals, but would also like exposure to proprietary pre-seed and genesis deals as well. (16 responses from last week). 

We believe this is absolutely possible, but as mentioned above, we need to decide whether we can scale as an investing community and, if so, how do we do it? (Mental Mind Map Exercise #6).

For this discussion, we’re going to host it on a more interactive setting! Join the conversation on our Discord (#future-of-doriot) and let the ideas and opinions flow!

So, when is the best time to start investing in venture? 🌱 

In all candor, the best time to invest in venture was 10 years ago. The second best time? Today. Ask us this question a year from now, and you’ll get the same exact answer.

While not every investment will be a Stripe-level success, properly priced genesis, pre-seed and seed startups that do succeed can achieve 50-500x returns.

And, if historical trends continue (and we have no reason to assume otherwise), a 25-startup portfolio of “credible” deals ($2500 | $100 per deal) should yield a $7,500 - $25,000 financial harvest a decade from now, with the “outside” chance of scoring a life-changing win (1000x return).

Venture Education Bites

Doriot Founder & IU Venture Professor term of the week: Pro Rata Rights

DVC Deal Review #81 Summary: Zoop

This week, we released deal analysis #81: Zoop, currently raising on Republic. We evaluated the market, team, risks, and potential opportunities of this company. The offering ends on June 13th, so DVC members have less than a week to decide whether to invest. Best of luck with your decision!

DVC Portfolio Updates:

Overplay (Deal #55) -💥 

Overplay is simply on fire right now. First, they were voted one of the most innovative startups in New York, and they were just featured in Benzinga, a leading financial publication with approximately 25 million readers each month. Overplay’s current valuation is $52 Million. DVC members invested at a $15 Million valuation (346% increase in value)

Pirouette Medical (Deal #80) - Extending their round! 🥳 

Due to demand, Piroutte Medical has announced a short extension to their current funding round. Which means there’s still time to get in. As a free gift to those that don’t yet have a membership to DVC Pro, here’s a free analysis. If any of the Pro Members want us to open a new deal pool (where you can invest as little as $10), just reply to this email.

RAD AI (Deal #9) 🚀 

RAD AI held an investor update yesterday and had some exciting things to share. First, they just landed FreshDirect, an online grocery company. Additionally, they are being integrated into Omnicom, which is reselling Rad AI’s platform. Lastly, they are now on the acquisition hunt for small and medium-sized agencies, ranging from $5-$50 million in revenue, that would strategically benefit from integrating Rad AI’s technology platform. They are very focused on rolling up smaller firms so they can attract larger investors and an eventually IPO (Initial Public Offering). Rad AI is privately raising money at an estimated $50MM valuation. DVC members invested at a $18 Million Valuation. (277% increase in value)

Thank you for reading & participating! Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

Team Doriot

And, if you are like us and can imagine a new form of retail venture that truly gives us a an advantage in the market, help us grow the network!