30 November 2021 |

Week of 11/30/2021: Perpetual’s Perspective

By Adam Ryan

Inside.com is raising on Republic

TLDR:  Inside.com, Jason Calancis’ media company, is raising another crowd funding round. The goal is set between $25K and $5M. Inside previously raised $2.7M via SeedInvest. As of the afternoon of 11/30, they’ve raised $14,050 on the platform between 46 investors. The valuation cap is $25M and the company crossed just over $1M in revenue last quarter.

Perpetual’s Perspective

I hate to be the guy that says this, but yikes. Inside.com was launched in 2016. Jason said he planned on launching 250 newsletters at the time, today they have 14. With revenue just crossing $1M a quarter, they’ve grown quite slowly, even with a spurt of growth the last couple of quarters. Only raising $14K in about 24 hours shows the power (or lack thereof) of their audience. For comparison, The Hustle raised more than $300K+ within 48 hours back in 2017 from their audience via SeedInvest. I think this is a last attempt to try and save the business by asking investors who don’t do diligence to invest. Whether they raise or not, I don’t see a promising future for this business.

The top solo investors on AngelList are all creators 

TLDR: It was recently announced that 7 of the top 20 investors on the fundraising platform AngelList are solo capitalists. Solo-capitalists are able to earn allocations in great deals by making quick investment decisions, offering founder-friendly terms, and providing a different set of services than what a founder might receive from a traditional VC firm. Almost all of the top solo capitalists built audiences by being a content creators first.

Perpetual’s Perspective

Moving VC money into the hands of content creators is a huge power shift. Think about this: In 2014, an “influencer” was paid a few grand for an Insta post. In 2020, the “influencer” launches their own product, but doesn’t have the expertise to scale. In 2023, the “influencer” will have invested in the top company in their space and used their influence to make millions with little to no work. Kobe proved this, Packy’s proving this, and this trend will only continue. My question: What happens to mediocre VC funds?

Netflix releases a new rating system

TLDR: In the past, Netflix has been criticized for how they report on their streaming numbers and data (i.e. delayed reporting, biased measurements). Now, they’re reporting weekly numbers by how many hours a program is watched and how many weeks it’s in the top 10. This isn’t the first time Hoffman and the crew released new viewership metrics, but this time around there’s a lot less grey area — and they’ve partnered with EY to verify metrics.

Perpetual’s Perspective

78% of consumers in the US are subscribed to a VOD service, a 25% increase in the last 5 years. With box office numbers trending the other way, this may be the best way to determine the blockbuster hits going forward. I also expect filmmakers will start to build compensation packages that will pay them an additional $ by the number of hours watched or weeks in the top 10.