Weekly Roundup: Pop-Tart PR 📰

Happy Friday, DVC! Last week the first-ever college football “Pop-Tarts Bowl” game made headlines after a Pop-Tarts mascot descended into a giant toaster while holding a sign saying “Dreams really do come true”. The stunt went viral, generated $12.1M worth of exposure for Pop-Tarts, and potentially sparked a new category of viral advertising.

I’m not a football fanatic, but I’ll definitely tune into the National Championship game on Monday. Rumor has it the Jimmy Dean’s Breakfast Sausage mascot will jump 13 buses like Evel Knievel into a giant cast iron skillet.

Club Admin & Next Week’s Deal:

Wishing you a Happy New Year! We’re excited to kick off 2024 with our next Deal Review dropping next week on Tuesday, January 9th! Be sure to vote for the deal you’d like to see, and add our DVC calendar below so you never miss a Club update.

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Startup News & Weekly Poll:

First, some obligatory reporting on headlines from the world of AI…

1. OpenAI’s ChatGPT Store opens next week… and no it’s not a popup shop for buying data-themed streetwear. Anyone will now be able to list and sell their ChatGPT-based apps to a broad audience (like in the App Store or Google Play), though it’s unclear if OpenAI will take any cut of the sales.

2. For the first time in 30 years, Microsoft is changing its keyboard layout by adding a key to immediately summon “Copilot” - its AI assistant natively integrated with Bing search. It’s a brilliant yet evil move. Microsoft knows that my poor typing skills and missed keystrokes are the only chance it has to revive Bing usage…

And now news from the “regular” startup world:

I almost missed it in the incessant flood of AI reporting, but earlier this week The Information broke the news that Canva - the Australia-based graphic design startup - is looking to facilitate a “secondary sale” of $1+ billion of its stock at a valuation of $26 billion.

It’s important to note that Canva itself won’t raise any money. Rather, the goal is to give early investors and “longtime employees” a chance to cash out by selling their shares to new investors (mostly institutions and wealthy individuals) in the private market instead of waiting for an IPO.

The news is notable for a couple reasons. First, it highlights the impressive business that Canva has built by helping artistically challenged individuals (like yours truly) create simple designs for their businesses. Canva currently generates $1.7B+/year in revenue and has a history of profitability, which in many ways lets it control its own destiny. I.e. it doesn’t “need” to go public to survive. It’s telling that the company has consistently allowed employees to cash out and has declined to comment on a timeline for an IPO.

It also highlights the fact that “secondaries” are becoming increasingly common amid the decline in tech IPOs. Notably, Space X and OpenAI each recently held secondary sales allowing company insiders to take some money/risk off the table. Note: For context, the $3 million that VC fund Blackbird invested in Canva in 2012 is now worth over $1 billion.

“Good for them. So how do I get in on the deal?”

Unfortunately, secondaries (learn more) are still a difficult/confusing market to gain access to. The lack of transparency means most investors need to be “Accredited Investors” to participate. And while options like StartEngine Secondary are emerging for retail investors, other secondary platforms are struggling due to a lack of predictable demand, consistency, and even cooperation from startups themselves (see Stonks/Sandhill Markets’ recent pivot).

I’m not Accredited, but I’m a big Canva fan. If any of you know of a way into this deal, feel free to reply to this email🙏

Time for a poll… Choose an answer below and see how you stack up next week!

Last Week's Results:

Last week we covered the most notable and wildest tech events of 2023 and asked you to pick a winning story. Perhaps unsurprisingly, 60% of you voted for the OpenAI saga (including Drippy Pope’s AI fashion line 🧥)

You know it was the Year of AI when the story of Sam Bankman-Fried stealing billions of dollars of user funds to finance a drug-fueled crypto trading operation in the Bahamas is just a footnote 🤯 

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