Know who you are

Happy Friday Doriot Community!

High five to the 4 new members this week! ✋ 

🤓 Official Pronunciation of Doriot: dor-ee-oh (What’s up with the name?)

Our Mission:

Channel elite venture deal opportunities through a retail investment pathway to accelerate financial growth for non-professional and non-millionaire investors, while also providing high-potential founders—who don’t fit traditional venture—with access to capital.

Central to this mission is our Venture Alchemy formula: A disciplined process used to transform bold ideas and capital into valuable outcomes, where mindset, strategy, and execution converge.

Thus, each week, we intend to explore a component of Venture Alchemy, applicable to many areas of life, along with key lessons on the business of venture as the foundation upon which a new venture system might emerge.

Venture Alchemy - This Week’s Discussion

“Change your conception of yourself and you will automatically change the world in which you live. Do not try to change people; they are only messengers telling you who you are. Revalue yourself and they will confirm the change” - Neville Goddard

Neville Goddard was a 20th-century mystic and teacher who emphasized the power of imagination and consciousness. He believed that our inner beliefs shape our outer reality, meaning that by changing how we perceive ourselves, we can influence the world around us. In the quote above, Goddard highlights the idea that we create our reality through our thoughts and beliefs.

More intriguingly, Goddard suggests that others reflect back to us what we believe about ourselves, not the other way around. This means that if we want to see our external environment change for our benefit, we must first transform our inner view. People and circumstances will adjust accordingly, confirming the internal shift we have made.

Most of us have been conditioned to focus on changing our external environment, which inadvertently shifts the responsibility to others rather than ourselves. Therefore, if we reverse this process and spend our time reshaping our inner thoughts about who we are, the external environment will realign to reflect our new belief system.

Applying the Venture Alchemy Formula to Neville’s quote:

• Mindset: For the next 30 days, take a few minutes each day to envision yourself as the person you aspire to be. Focus not only on your thoughts but also on your feelings. If this version of yourself were real, how would others perceive you? How would they treat you? Most importantly, how would it feel to embody this new reality?

• Strategy: As you plot out your action steps for the coming weeks and months, assume that you are already the new version of yourself. This approach will empower you to think bigger and bolder, allowing you to take actions aligned with your elevated sense of self.

• Execution: Begin walking through the world and interacting with others as though you are already this new version of yourself. Affirm any external validation you receive, reinforcing your belief without allowing self-doubt to undermine your progress.

By visualizing yourself as the successful version you wish to become, you're essentially training your brain to adopt this identity. If Neville Goddard's claims are true, your external environment will ultimately be a reflection of the new you. Good luck!

Venture Lesson: Brands and URLs

By: Gerry Hays

Last week, we discussed the power of free. This week, we’re going to focus on the power of brands and URLs.

An often overlooked area for startup founders (and investors) is the importance of building a strong company brand and protecting it through a trademark. Some might argue that market and product are more important, and in the short term, they might be right. However, over the long run, a brand can endure indefinitely, and if not made a high priority, founders risk losing a massive competitive advantage.

To clarify, a “branding strategy” differs from a brand. Branding is a dynamic process—startups present something to the world, and their customers reflect that back. If there’s alignment between what you offer and what customers perceive, you’ve got a successful branding strategy. But here, I’m really focusing on the core elements: the company name and the URL.

For me, even before meeting a founder, my first impression of a startup starts with its name and URL. I ask myself, Can I see this brand existing two decades from now? If not, then I’ve already placed an “x” in the pass column.

How to name a startup

There are two main approaches to naming a company.

The first approach is to name your business after your product, the goal is to have the market adopt your brand as the product’s default name. Consider these examples:

• “May I have a Kleenex?” (instead of tissue)

• “Did you Google it?” (instead of conduct a search)

• “Can I have a Band-Aid?” (instead of bandage)

• “Can I have a Coke?” (instead of a soda)

Think about how many people ask “Did you Google it?” each day. Google doesn’t spend a dime on that marketing, but their brand is constantly mentioned. This is why Google’s trademark is so valuable—they would never let anyone merge “Google” with another word to create a new company.

In 2010, I had an idea that people would start wanting more private conversations online, so I found a technical co-founder and we launched a product. I chose the brand name Caves and secured the trademark for it, covering anything related to the internet. At the time, "Cloud" was a popular term, but no one owned exclusive rights to its use. So, we secured the exclusive rights to the word "Cave," with the idea that people would say, "Create a cave." The project didn’t work out 😿 , and I eventually gave up the trademark, but it was worth a shot.

The other approach to naming a startup is to choose a brand name that can act as a platform for multiple product extensions.

This is common in sectors like finance. Take Robinhood, for example—the name has nothing to do with stock trading but implies giving the common person a shot at beating the rich. Amazon is another example. The brand allows the company to release a wide range of products, from retail to cloud computing. (Fun fact: Jeff Bezos’ first choice for the name was Cadabra!).

Oh and one last point. Founders should avoid geographic references at all costs if they’re aiming to build a large, scalable company. Geographic-based brand names should be primarily reserved for local businesses serving local customers.

Securing a URL

URLs are tough. I’m old-school, and I still think sticking to a .com domain is best. To me, it’s like owning real estate in Manhattan. Web 3.0 companies are using .xyz or .eth, and AI startups are using .ai. Venture funds often go with .vc. But if you look at the biggest, most enduring companies, they’re usually on a .com. I doubt Elon Musk would have rebranded Twitter as X if he hadn’t been able to secure the X.com URL.

While it’s ideal to have actualname.com, acquiring it can be difficult and may sometimes require writing a big check in a private transaction. However, if a founder lands on a potentially enduring brand and secures the actualname.com, it signals to me that they’re serious about the brand and, by extension, serious about building a lasting company.

Next week, we’re going to discuss attributes of founders.

Doriot Portfolio Updates

We haven't provided updates in a while, but suddenly, there's been a lot of activity!

Timeplast (Deal #46), which is developing a water-soluble plastic solution, announced that they're raising another round at double the valuation from when we invested.

Pirouette Medical (Deal #82), developing revolutionary auto-injector technology from treating severe allergies and opioid overdoses to addressing IVF, glucagon, and flu vaccines, just announced receiving their 22nd patent and raising $6.5MM in their most recent round.

Qnetic (Deal #39), which is developing a non-lithium battery that offers a longer lifespan and is more environmentally friendly, is raising another round on Wefunder at a $20MM valuation, up from $15MM when we invested 18 months ago.

This Week’s Diligence Report was delayed

For Premium Community Members, we hit a bit of a hiccup releasing the Fierce Foundry report this week (they’re currently raising on Wefunder) We’ve been hoping to get in contact with the Founder to bring some clarity on their business model and fundraising status. So expect the report next week.

Have a great weekend, everyone! We’d be grateful if you could forward this newsletter to anyone in your network and invite them to join the Doriot Community!

Sincerely, Team Doriot!