Premoney 38: Zencape & Alternative Assets

Welcome to week 38! An incredible lookback / success story to share below, as well as a couple of great companies. On a personal note, I’ll be in the NYC area this / next week sweating my way through the city. If you’re in the area and would like to meet in person, let me know!

Premoney Lookback:

HUGELY exciting news from Co-op Commerce today, who announced that they raised $5.8M from Brian Sugar, Shopify and other big hitters to change the landscape of e-commerce and retail. If you are a DTC or Ecommerce company and haven’t looked at what Co-op commerice is doing….the time is now.

Disclosure: I’m an investor in Co-op. 

This weeks companies:

Company: Zencape

Founder: Abi Sundaram

Raise Details: Raising a 1M Pre-Seed

Vertical: FemTech,Hardware,Consumer,Health

Business Model: DTC,Subscription,SaaS

1-Liner: Zencape creates heat-therapy wearables & Integrative Medicine content for the hundreds of millions of people who suffer from chronic pelvic pain

Description: Imagine a problem that causes one in every four women to miss out on work, school, and social events. Pelvic conditions are extremely common, and the existing options are inconvenient (cords & clunky hot water bottles) or ineffective (intolerable side effects or just don't work). Our mission at Zencape is to build better pain management products. Our Flagship product, the Zencape Cozy, is an app-controlled discreet & comfortable heated waistband for pelvic pain relief. And the Zencape App allows women to access personalized, guided pain management techniques that are rooted in Integrative Medicine.

Traction Indicators:

• Hundreds of waitlist sign-ups

• Completed an Alpha prototype of the Zencape Cozy

• Conducted over a 100 user interviews

• Ran alpha prototype testing sessions with a dozen women

Company: Alternative Assets

Founder: Stefan von Imhof

Raise Details: Raising up to $1m Preseed

Vertical: Investing

Business Model: Membership

1-Liner: Unique investment ideas worth exploring.

Description: There's a million newsletters about stocks and VC. Our rapidly growing newsletter (4,500+ subs) is about the world of investment options that don't get talked about as much. Think Sports cards, collectibles, rare books, NFTs, and artwork.

We're not a link aggregator that adds no value, we do original, deep-dive explorations into alts. Past issues include investing in racehorses, watches, billboards, even newsletters themselves. Each issue is sponsored by three advertisers, and sponsorships account for 40% of our revenue.

This isn't just about information, either. It's about results. Alternative assets can be a powerful tool for making your money grow, and we know exactly how to navigate these new markets. Our paid newsletter gives inside information on 13 asset classes, including database access and our top picks & recommendations. 'Alternative Assets Insider' accounts for another 40% of revenue.

Traction:

• 4,500 subscribers, growing by 700 per month

• 📈 Consistent MoM revenue growth, current MRR $4,500

• 52% open rate, 9% CTR, both well above industry average

• $9.50 CPA, $1 gross revenue per subscriber per month

That’s all for this week!

See you next time,

Jake