Premoney 21: Nostra & Unicorn Shift

Welcome to week 21! Trying a slightly new concept this week with a “Premoney Lookback” - where we’ll go back and get updates from a company we've previously featured. The goal is to uncover jobs, more funding opptys etc. for you all.

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📈 Premoney Lookback: Naya Studio

I featured Naya on Premoney in September as part of list 5, as they were closing their Pre-seed round and onboarding some of their first big customers. Since then, they’ve raised $$, launched a new platform experience, and have grown in significant ways.

Check out the updates from the founders below:

What is Naya?: “Naya is a platform that takes anyone, anywhere, from idea to realization. Starting with furniture, we aspire to change the way we design, create, and consume across products”. - Saad Rajan, Co-founder

A Focus on Enterprise: In recent months, Naya has onboarded new clients that represent the biggest players in the commercial furniture world:

• Google

• Herman Miller

• Wayfair

• Steelcase

A Rebrand: New branding and website just launched.

A COVID silver-lining: Naya has seen a large jump in WFH related designs.

Current Needs: Naya is hiring for the following roles:

• Ecosystem Manager

• UX Designer

• Data scientist

*Disclosure: Premoney is an angel-investor in Naya.

This weeks companies

Company: Nostra

Founder: Arthur Root

Stage: Pre-seed, raising $1M with $400k committed. Open to small checks

Vertical: Artificial Intelligence, Marketing

Business Model: SaaS

1-liner: A new internet, made for marketers.

Description: Nostra is creating an AI that automates digital experiences at the customer level. Nostra’s software has the ability to segment visitors to an audience size of one, and optimize each visitor’s experience so they are most likely to convert. Nostra optimizes from the time a potential customer is reached out to, all the way to the time they convert.

Traction:

• Running a pilot with Gooten, a tech company with $50,000,000+ in annual revenue.

• Significant interest from initial funding conversations.Connect with Nostra

Company: UnicornShift

Founder: Jacob Lescove

Stage: Pre-seed, raising $250K

Vertical: Construction, Marketplace, Future of Work

Business Model: Brokerage

1-liner: UnicornShift orchestrates on-demand Road Traffic Control

Description: The Road Traffic Management Industry is worth $5 Billion in the US and involves providing temporary traffic management solutions to contractors that operate around roads.

Traffic Control is generally ad hoc and last-minute. For example, emergency repairs on powerlines generally trigger a traffic control requirement. The problem is that it is currently difficult to arrange traffic control at short notice due to regulatory requirements on labor and equipment.

Traction:

• ~100% MoM growth in Q4 2020

• Experiencing similar growth in early 2021

🛠 Work for a start-up

One of the best ways to learn about the start-up world is to work in it. If you’re interested in working at a high-growth, early stage company. My friend Cody writes ExitUp, a similar newsletter to Premoney, specifically focused on uncovered awesome jobs at early stage companies. They cover fresh job openings across PE, VC, strategy/biz ops, PM etc. and provide resources to help you along your search.

That’s all for this week! Thanks everyone, and keep the feedback coming!

Jake