Premoney 56: Seshie & Avvinue

Welcome to week 56! Still quite a wonky market out here. As they say - the best companies are formed during downturns. When everyone is zigging - - we zag.

To our 500+ new readers since my last post: Honored to have you on the email list. For first time readers - this newsletter is simple:

• 2 companies who are raising pre/seed rounds each week.

• Request intro’s to those you want to connect with.

Please reach out and share more about yourselves - would love to get to know you. You can also read more about my goals of Premoney here.

A Swapstack update!

Last week, we announced that Swapstack (my main squeeze) surpassed $1M earned by creators on the platform. A huge / fun milestone for the company.

Today, we launched a new product out of Beta called Plug & Play. Plug & Play provides email newsletter writers (like myself) with instant access to high quality affiliate deals. Our launch partners include Morning Brew, Bright Cellars, and dozens of other awesome brands.

We’d love your support on our launch. And, if you’re a brand interested in newsletter advertising - shoot me a note directly.

This weeks companies:

Company: Seshie

Founder: Kofi Frimpong

Raise Details: Raising $2M ($750K committed).

• Notable investors: Techstars Comcast, Google For Startups Black Founders, Chris Maguire (co-founder of Etsy), Nick Caldwell (General Manager at Twitter)

Vertical: Future of Work

Business Model: B2B

1-Liner: Seshie allows teams to book live, virtual workshops to help develop employees personally and professionally.

Description: Corporate Learning & Development is a $170B industry because companies understand that it increases employee retention by 50%. Yet for most companies it is inaccessible and unaffordable. Seshie makes it easy for teams to book live, virtual modern-day workshops based on employee data and insights. Book a seshie on topics such as: "Cryptocurrency Fundamentals", "Coaching Skills: Putting Humanity First", "Amplifying Women in the Workplace" and much more all led by vetted facilitators.

Traction Indicators:

• Launched in March ‘22

• $200K revenue, $100K ARR

• Customers include: Credit Karma, Twitter, Facebook, Comcast, Microsoft, MorningBrew

• Customer Testimonials: Upsie (Watch Testimonial), Nike (Watch Testimonial)

Company: Avvinue

Founder: Nicole Caba

Raise Details: Raising $1.2M (50% committed)

• Round led by Precursor Ventures5

Vertical: Travel, Aviation, Enterprise  

Business Model: B2B SaaS

1-Liner: Avvinue offers a pet inventory management software for airlines to manage pet policies, inventory and open a new ancillary revenue stream.

Description: There are more than 7,000 airlines and 400+ pet-friendly airlines that manage their pet inventory manually via a call center and spreadsheets. We’re digitizing that process with our white-labeled pet reservation system (PRS) and opening new ancillary revenue opportunities to airlines.  

Traction Indicators:

• LOIs from 18 airlines (hot damn!)

• 2 airlines in contract agreement

• 1 airline in implementation phase after attending our first in-person EMEA airline conference.

• Invited to attend 5 more airline conferences this year.

That’s all for this week! Thanks everyone.

Jake