how much money i've lost.

NEW STARTUPS

📹 Frame Me - how AI disrupts the whole video production process (LINK)

 🍺 Holidaily - Screw taking alcohol out of beer, just remove gluten (LINK)

 💸 StartEngine - Why invest in 1 startup when you can get exposure to them all? (LINK)

EVERY STARTUP I’VE INVESTED IN

Without further adieu, here is every startup I’ve invested in, how much was invested, and what their valuation multiple stands at. 

1. AtomBeam ($11,140) - 9.7x paper gains* 🎉🎉🎉

2. StartEngine ($10,750) - 1.7x paper gains 🎉

3. Blue Zone Partners ($6,500) - Returned $9,018 in cash, still maintain equity stake 🎉

4. TriAgenics ($3,415)

5. Uncanny.gg ($3,000)

6. Wefunder ($2,850) -1.1x paper gains 🎉

7. NxNW Brewing ($2,501) - now bankrupt, -100% ☹️

8. NowRx ($1,600) - also bankrupt -100% ☹️

9. Quickloadz ($1,500) - 1.7x paper gains 🎉

10. Avadain ($1,250)

11. Virtuix ($1,200) - 2.6x paper gains 🎉

12. ||NEW|| PromoTix ($1,000) 1.1x paper gains 🎉

13. The BuildClub ($1,000)

14. Psyonic ($1,000)

15. Boxabl ($1,000) - 1.1x paper gains 🎉

16. SolarGaps ($1,000) - 1.2x paper gains 🎉

17. Cafe-X ($850)

18. Beehiiv ($750)

19. Hedge ($625)

20. Azure Printed Homes ($600) 1.7x paper gains 🎉

21. Kamoti ($571)

22. Whiteclouds ($550) - 1.2x paper gains 🎉

23. Kara Water ($500)

24. Offline ($500)

25. Substack ($500)

26. Clockwork ($500)

27. Ink’d Greetings ($500)

28. Ola Brew ($500)

29. Ollo Footwear ($500)

30. Armbrust American ($500)

31. Praise Token ($500) - effectively bankrupt, but plodding along ☹️

32. FuelGems ($400) - 1.5x paper gains 🎉

33. Crafter ($350)

34. Harmony Turbine ($300) - 1.7x paper gains 🎉

35. The Sill ($300)

36. ||NEW|| Beuhi ($250)

37. Irrigreen ($250) - 1.4x paper gains 🎉

38. Novella AI ($250)

39. Autocase ($250)

40. Four Doors ($200)

41. Republic Note ($150) - actively trading, currently -81%**

    _{*I invested in AtomBeam at several valuation levels, and was also compensated by AtomBeam in stock for content creation I did for them. 9.7x paper gains is the best multiple from this range of investments & RSUs}

    _{**I actually recommended against investing in Republic note here, but scooped up a very small portion since it comes with ‘access’ perks to exclusive crowdfunding events. As someone reporting in the space I decided to buy in to stay informed!}

I’ve added two new startups since my last portfolio update:

• PromoTix: Event ticketing software that should keep Eventbrite up at night

• Beuhi: A countertop appliance for making infused gummies, candies, and chocolates

Three startups have essentially gone bankrupt, leaving me with a fat old goose egg for a return. This translates to a -$4,601 loss from these startup investments.

However, my 3 largest positions (AtomBeam, BZP, StartEngine) are doing extremely well - all have made considerable progress in either product, revenue, and profit.

The returns on these three alone should hopefully be able to cancel out any of the duds in my portfolio.

I want to go a little deeper on my position in StartEngine, as I built up my stake in a non-conventional way here.

I acquired shares in StartEngine in 3 separate ways:

1. StartEngine Primary - this is how most people acquired StartEngine stock, it’s the public offering on their own page at a set valuation

2. StartEngine Secondary - StartEngine also allows investors to buy/sell shares from other investors on the platform. I acquired a large stake from various investors that decided to sell their shares.

3. StartEngine Referral Bonus - StartEngine used to run a promotion where they gave out 4 shares in StartEngine stock for every person you got to sign up to StartEngine (the new signup would get 4 shares too). I would send an email to new subscribers to get them to sign up and received a number of shares doing this.

Since all of these stock purchases were made, StartEngine decided to do a 1:20 stock split, meaning my tally of 1,558 shares became 31,159 shares.

StartEngine’s current valuation puts the share price at $1.25, which would mean my stake is worth approximately $38,949.

And looking at the purchase price + current value, there are some stark revelations to take away from this:

The referral bonus was obviously a great investment, considering my cost basis was $0.

But what’s interesting to see is the math on the StartEngine Secondary buys. Investors were selling their shares for far less than what StartEngine was worth, and I was able to scoop up 20,600 shares for $3,000 (now worth $22,751).

Contrast that with the StartEngine Primary investment, where I invested $5,251 and only received 8,559 shares (now worth $10,699).

StartEngine Secondary can be an extremely lucrative place to find under-priced assets being sold by uniformed investors. 

Let’s be honest, a lot of people who invest in startups are not aware of just how long it will take to realize a profit.

It’s commonplace for startups to stay private for 12+ years, and most investors aren’t expecting an investment horizon that long.

As a result, many will decide to liquidate their positions on StartEngine Secondary, sometimes at firesale prices.

So that’s a wrap - I’ve lost big on some early startups but have a couple of promising investments that could breakout at any point now.

Thanks for reading!

**By the way, Wefunder has a cool feature that allows you to follow investors and get alerted when they make a new investment. If you’d like to see my moves before anyone else, give me a follow here!