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Premoney 67: Layer & PunchUP

Data ownership in entertainment & copilot applications for the (b2b) masses

August 22, 2023

Welcome back! Summer is coming to a close, Jason & Chamath are back from Italy, venture dollars are starting to flow again.

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This weeks companies:

Company: PUNCHUP

Founder: Daniel Frenkel

Raise Details: Raising a pre-seed $1M on a SAFE, 50% committed

Vertical: Entertainment, Data

Business Model: SaaS

1-Liner: We've built a platform to empower entertainers, starting with comedians, to own the data behind their fan interactions.

Description: We believe that when we empower entertainers to take control of the data behind their content, merchandise, and ticket sales, then everyone in the industry wins: more content will be seen, more tickets and merchandise will be sold, and more meaningful relationships with fans will be built. At PUNCHUP, we are building a full-stack marketing solution for entertainers, starting with comedians, which allows them to serve content, collect information about fans, continue that relationship through targeted messaging, and use that data and connection to drive sales.

Traction Indicators:

  • Launched 1-month ago

  • 1k MAU, 5,800+ minutes watched

  • 10x ROI on first pilot

  • 10% Lead to Conversion to ticket purchases

  • Users include top names in comedy: Sam Morril, Bobby Kelly, Josh Wolf, Yannis Pappa, Liz Miele and more signing on in September.

Why we like PunchUP

Traction & focus: After only ~1 month of launching a pilot, the team has spoken with and gotten interest from dozens of the highest tier of talent in comedy. While comedy represents a smaller TAM than general entertainment, the team takes the well-theory seriously and wants to nail this use case before expanding.

Results: The purpose of PunchUP is to make it easier for entertainers to own the data around their fanbase. Results after the first pilots show that PunchUP was able to create 10X ROI by collecting and making data management easier and more transparent, versus having platforms gating that info.

Company: Layer

Founder: Jonah Katz

Raise Details: Raising $3M SAFE, $1M committed

Current investors include:

Vertical: Artificial Intelligence, SaaS

Business Model: B2B

1-Liner: Layer is a platform that enables companies to train and deploy copilot applications that are powered by an LLM.

Description: Big companies like Stripe, Ramp, and Shopify are announcing copilots, and thousands of SMBs / Mid Market companies without the AI resources to compete are falling behind. Our platform provides developers at these companies with the first standardized interface for building copilots that turns the process from a 6-month project into something any developer can do in a few days.

Our core IP is our path abstraction. The abstraction allows for type-safe execution of a chain of functions. This results in faster throughput, higher reliability, and a degree of programming elegance/simplicity that no other framework can offer.

Traction Indicators:

  • Launched first pilot over the past two months.

  • Signed $70K in ARR

  • $120K ARR in final stages of pipeline

Why we like Layer

Fast traction: After launching a pilot two months ago, they’ve secured multiple annual contracts and have many in the late stages of pipeline.

Massive TAM: Not every company can build their own copilots, but nearly all will benefit from them.

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That’s all for this week! Thank you everyone, and please share, send feedback and introductions, or reach out to collaborate.

Jake