Measure

Overview

Measure is a startup that offers drones as a service to corporate customers in the Energy, Telecommunications, AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) and Media industries.  They focus on developing full drone solutions to improve processes at these companies and then sending their own pilots out to the field to perform these services for their clients.  Some examples include capturing live shots for media companies or doing infrastructure inspection. 

Measure does not build it own drones but instead buys them off the shelf and incorporates them with their backend systems and processes.  They are technology agnostic and will use the most optimal products on the market for client's use cases.  Especially unique from a startup perspective is that Measure has a franchise business model to help it quickly cover wide swathes of the country.  

The company is headquartered in Washington D.C and currently has under 100 full time employees.

Why I like Them

I have never quite run across a business model like theirs and I really like the innovation here.  Measure is taking a well established business model of the franchise and combining it with a rapidly advancing technology in drones.  Most startups achieve scalability via software but in this case to scale they need more pilots in the field covering more territory.  The company recognized this and realized in the green field that is drones as a service the fastest way to expand would be to franchise since it requires minimal capital investment.  The drone industry as a whole and demand for its services will continue to grow rapidly (currently globally drones are a $100B+ industry) especially as more autonomy in units is developed and regulations broadened.  Especially huge is what the industry calls BVLOS (beyond visual line of sight) which will allow much faster scaling when regulations allows it commercially.  Measure is at the forefront of these trends and posed to benefit as they take off.

I further like that the company knows who its customers are - it is focused on 4 industries and targets small and medium sized businesses for its services.

Disclosure:  I have spoken to members of the team.

What I Find Interesting in Kleiner Perkins 2017 FinTech Trends Presentation

Venture Capital firm Kleiner Perkins recently put out a presentation looking at the current state of FinTech and where it is headed.  You can find the full deck here.

Below are some points that I found interesting:

• The rise in the last few years of FinTech startups globally, not just in the old finance centers of the US and London with Asian FinTech seeing the most growth in the shortest amount of time.
• No surprise, in the last two years the biggest area of FinTech investment has been Crypto related startups with consumer and enterprise lending coming in as a close second and third.
• They make an interesting point that the seemingly endless scandals from traditional financial services companies (Equifax breach, Wells Fargo fake accounts, etc.) leaves sector incumbents unusually vulnerable to startups.  
• Software is  eating the sector with the number of new APIs multiples higher in Finance (~2,000) than other sectors being disrupted by software.
• The most interesting trend Kleiner calls out is the disappearance of payment friction both online and offline, making the point that the App economy has been driven largely by this trend.  The end game of all this is FinTech completely disappears from the customer's perspective as illustrated by shopping at the Amazon Go store with no lines or check out required, payment is ambient with zero friction.
• Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) have truly exploded raising $2.9B USD in September 2017 alone.  With the explosion in crypto currencies we are seeing a complete ecosystem emerge around them including financial media (Coindesk, Bitcoin Magazine), hedge funds (Polychain Capital, MetaStable), exchanges (GDAX, Kraken) , and consumer services (Coinbase, Ledger).

Mizzen+Main

Overview

Mizzen+Main is a consumer apparel eCommerce startup focused on using advanced performance fabrics to make affordable, high quality, and good looking clothing.  They are constantly pushing the edge on fabric technology.  Currently their fabrics are water resistant, comfortable, wrinkle free, moisture wicking, stretchable, and do not look like normal performance fabrics.  The company primarily sells its products online but has in the last few years expanded to 400+ retail locations and popup locations.

The company is based in Dallas, Texas and currently has around 30 employees.

Why I like Them

Mizzen+Main is following the playbook that has made new consumer companies like Bonobos or Warby Parker such large successes - a reimagining of a long established product that is cool, good looking, and comfortable with an advanced design.  They have a die hard customer base among professional millennial males and have built their brand entirely online with social media.

I also like that the company is experiencing large traction with their biggest challenge their supply chain in order to match the product demand.  I would not be surprised if they are scooped up soon in the large retail and eCommerce war that is being waged between Amazon and traditional retailers currently.

Disclosure:  I have spoken to members of the team.

New Wave Foods

Overview

New Wave Foods is a food startup working on sustainable seafood created from plant based components.  Their first and only currently available product is lab created shrimp made from algae and other vegetables.  Currently their shrimp alternative is available through 20+ restaurants and food distributors with the company targeting general retail availability within the next couple of years.  In developing the product, the team has been able to generate the same nutrition profile, taste and texture as fresh caught from the ocean shrimp.  The company is already at work developing fish and shellfish alternatives.

The team is based in San Francisco and currently has 3 full time employees.

Why I like Them

This is an innovative product that fulfills a large unaddressed need in the market.  Seafood-like alternatives have been mostly ignored by FoodTech companies to date, many of whom are focused on creating meat and egg alternatives.  However, there is obvious interest in these types of products with a growing number of consumers looking for their food to be environmentally sustainable, antibiotic free, allergen free, kosher, vegan, and mercury free.  More than 10% of college students today identify as vegan 

It was also smart that the team chose their initial distribution channel as restaurants directly since +70% of seafood is eaten out of the home. 

Disclosure:  I have spoken to members of the executive team.

Monzo

Overview

Monzo is a startup that styles itself as the bank of the future.  They are building modern retail banking services  with the smartphone as your hub with all the features people constantly wonder why their traditional bank doesn't already include.  Initial features on launch include instantaneous money transfers, current accounts, zero charges when spending abroad, automatic bill splitting, easy spending tracking, and initial alerts on unusual activity or higher than average bills.  Unlike most FinTech startups who (such as Simple.com) partner with a bank, Monzo has gone all in and is a fully licensed bank in its own right.

The 100+ member team is based in London, England and the company was launched in February 2015.

Why I like Them

Most of all I like their ambition.  The retail banking industry has existed in its current form for more than 50 years - I am extremely excited to see a team reinventing banking around technology from the ground up, something that is long overdue.  

This ambition and innovation is revealed with their implementation of what they call "smart" banking features - software that automatically optimizes on behalf of their customer.  Customer accounts will automatically switch your bank services to the best deal - including with savings accounts.  Other examples of "smart" banking features include automatically budgeting for their customers and telling them what they are overspending on.  These features are noticeable differentiators and potentially future moats, only possible because the company is writing all its bank infrastructure software from scratch.  I am extremely curious see what upcoming smart banking features look like.

I also like their rapid growth.  Monzo unashamedly knows and goes after mobile first millennials as its customers and this targeted customer base has responded in the first 6 months with 400,000 initial customers, a 25,000 person waiting list, and a cult like following.  

Disclosure:  All information is from publicly available sources, I have not had any contact with a member of the company or its investors.