Caren Kelleher

20 hours in and Hoyo's formidable craftsmanship is on full display with ZZZ. ⭐1.0 release pool of 16 characters. Hoyo games have always prioritized quality over quantity, leaning instead on deep systems to enable diverse team comps / fun theorycrafting. Interestingly, Wuthering Waves also launched with the same # of characters in its 1.0 pool. I'm personally a big fan of this approach, and hope to see more games adopt it going forward. ⭐Female to male character ratio of 3:1. HSR currently stands at ~2:1 and Genshin at ~1.7:1. Every faction shown so far has only 1 male char. Surprising given Hoyo's recent titles have focused more on the "mainstream anime" audience instead of catering only to the core otaku audience. Very happy to see Hoyo honoring its roots here. They cooked and core fans are going to be very pleased with all of the fanservice (e.g. cinema artwork, main menu char selection, etc.). ⭐C6 / Cinema artwork is... IYKYK. They clearly tested it with HSR and are fully leaning into it with ZZZ. Congrats to all you Grace C6 havers. They knew exactly what they were doing. ⭐First Hoyo game with dedicated furries / anthropomorphic races. Ellen, Ben, and Von Lycaon are all very compelling characters. Wakayama Shion does such a fantastic job as Ellen's VA. Hoyo absolutely nailed the launch banner here. ⭐Just like other Hoyo games, ZZZ is more "casual" than it is "core." It doesn't demand much of your time as a single player live service title. For me it's the perfect side game that I can see myself spending 1-2 hours per week on. I don't expect everyone to like it (might be too "easy" for core gamers), but it's a winning formula that Hoyo has perfected for its target audience. ⭐One of Hoyo's underrated special talents is making "core" genres widely accessible from a gameplay standpoint across all platforms. ZZZ plays flawlessly on mobile, PC, and console without diluting the experience at all. Everything from the simplified switching system to the flat level design was intentional to make it incredibly accessible even for someone who has never played action games before. This is something really only Hoyo is capable of pulling off with such finesse. ⭐Really digging the comic / manga style storytelling. Glad to see Hoyo continue to innovate on how it delivers its stories and really looking forward to seeing more of this. ⭐Hoyo's investments into its music / animation departments are really paying off. The release trailer for ZZZ is Hoyo's best yet and their character drip marketing is perfected to the point where I'm basically forced to pull on every banner. In many ways, Hoyo is slowly becoming the Apple of the gaming industry, and their IPs are rapidly expanding the audience for gacha and anime on a global scale. I'm honestly humbled. Shut up and take my money... #zenlesszonezero

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Am I getting punked? Dude Perfect raised $100M from PE, which I love -- big investors coming into the Creator Economy is great for business. The kicker - Dude Perfect is spending the $100M to build out their rendition of Disneyworld in metro Dallas. Its essentially an amusement equipped with sports courses, F&B, and some retail concepts all packaged into one. What?! The economics for this plan are never going to pencil. 1. $100M is way too much to spend for build out and construction. 2. Theme parks aren't high margin businesses. For reference Cedar Fair Entertainment Company (owner of Cedar Point) operates at 6% net income margin and Six Flags operates at 3% net income margin. 3. Dallas isn't the right market. It's not even the top tourism destination within the Texas (shout out San Antonio). To justify a $100M build out Dude Perfect will need a very high amount of traffic (think Las Vegas, Orlando, New York, Atlanta, etc.). Say the average Dude Perfect attendee spends $100 and the net margin on each attendee is 5%. Simply put, every attendee = $5 profit. Dude Perfect would need 20M attendees to recoup a $100M initial investmen (let alone budget for renovations, new attractions, etc.) Los Angeles MSA's population + annual tourists combine to 70M per year. Six Flags Magic Mountain (metro LA) has 3.5M visitors per year. 3.5/70 = 5% capture rates. Let's stipulate for the sake of argument that Dude Perfect's entertainment venue instantly becomes just as popular as Six Flags (it won't). Dallas MSA's population + annual tourism combines for 35M. Say Dude Perfect pulls off a 5% capture rate of their addressable market (a major feat). That comes out to 1.75M guests per year. At a $100M build out cost, $10 profit per guest, no reinvestment into facilities, and 1.75M guests per year --> it will take six years for Dude Perfect to recoup their initial investment. Thats's way too long of a payback for a location based entertainment attraction. Quick growing private companies like Topgolf average 2 years for payback Whereas bigger amusement parks like Six Flags average 3 years for payback. Net / Net - there are so many exciting things that Dude Perfect could do to grow its brand -- expanding their content suite, launching CPG brands, or creating upstream film / TV properties. I'm left perplexed by their decision of apeing into theme parks. What am I missing? #DigitalMedia #CreatorEconomy #LBE | RockWater Industries

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Harry Stebbings, SPOT ON! Could not agree more. When we started FutureLabs Ventures 7 years ago, we were very clear that our mission was to create a 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐕𝐂, one that could truly make a difference to our portfolio companies. And very much like you mentioned, we focused on creating "Assets/platforms" that were centered on: 𝟏. 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 (creating market access platforms) 𝟐. 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭 (avoiding hiring mistakes that are very costly for early-stage ventures ) 𝟑. 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 (skin in the game, aligned incentives) The same as you mentioned, albeit slightly different order as we'd like to think #3 is a consequence of #1 and #2 (and probably the least difficult to deliver). For many VCs it's a number game, 5 in 100. We are proving, in a small scale = 34 ventures, that it may not always need to be, as half of our portfolio have become regional/international companies... 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤? 𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐕𝐂𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 (𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥)? 𝐈𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐕𝐂𝐬?  Feel free to comment below #Entrepreneurship, #Ventures_Made_Possible, 20VC, FutureLabs Ventures

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Fundraising founders, don’t be too hard on yourself—it’s a tough fundraising environment, and that’s no secret. But remember to keep raising your standards because the bar for VC funding is getting higher, and you’ve got to meet it. As the venture capital landscape tightens, competition for dollars is fiercer than ever. At Startup Ignition Ventures, we’re seeing this shift firsthand, every day more and more apparent. In 2021 and 2022, many startups could secure VC checks despite being loosely thrown together and rough around the edges. Fast forward to 2024, and those same startups wouldn’t make the cut. That's not a knock on yesterday's startups as much as it is a contrast to today’s fundraising environment being completely different. Today, the founders getting funded are buttoned-up, detail-oriented, and operating at a much higher level. Everything has to be top-notch to catch a VC’s attention. Why the change? The number of active investors has dropped by 38% from 2022 to 2024 (PitchBook), meaning fewer deals are being made. VC funding is also down over 30% year-over-year (GlobalData). This means the standard has tightened, and startups must rise well above the average “2022 or 2023 fundability status” to secure 2024 investment. Startups now need to show exceptional business models, traction, products, and teams to stand out in a shrinking pool of opportunities. The landscape may be tough, but it’s also ripe for startups that prove they’re exceptional. Now is the time to build, to gear up, and then be ready for further opportunity as the market begins to turn. Which I personally think is around the corner in 2025.

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Y'all are sleeping on Capybara Go, which has quietly scaled to $800K PER DAY in revenue Habby is the modern Zynga and here's how they do it 👇 1. The IP is cute and meme-able as hell This seems obvious but I bet you that Habby's CACs are lower compared to the average game. Just look at all the Tiktoks about Capybaras. There's a reason many of the top memecoins are animal related. https://lnkd.in/gAKDhxzD Habby ran the same playbook with survivor.io back in the day, using a channel like Tiktok that has notably lower UAs that more saturated ones like Unity or Facebook https://lnkd.in/gz97G9NB 2. The game is super simple It's basically a social casino RPG. There's very little skill involved, and there's no moment-to-moment actions needed. It's all automated. But you feel great about the progression and you do very little work to advance! A core thesis I have is that progression is a very human behavior, which is why RPG games work. However, RPGs tend to be very inaccessible to non-hardcore players with complex skill trees, strict skill curves, niche fantasy concepts, etc. Just take one look at the POE skill tree for instance Capybara Go strips it down to the core components, and gives a lot of dopamine through all of its gacha (coins spins, tile reveals, roguelike upgrades, etc.) 3. Everything feels great Simplicity is not a crutch, it's a challenging design feat. Brevity is the soul of wit. Each little button press and coin collection and upgrade animation feels really good. They take a lot of great lessons from MGO on just how good it feels to roll. 4. Proven, better, new metagame Habby takes a lot of similar principles from their past games and other RPGs like Legend of Mushroom. You have a very simple coin --> power loop, armor, pets, and mounts.  They streamlined the system. You have some more depth for folks that want to create their own builds but for players that just want to tap you can just upgrade things to higher levels and get along just fine. 5. Rinse and repeat monetization The metagame system gives enough incentive to spend and have pretty deep spend depth. Habby again uses similar principles to their previous games.  They throw the kitchen sink at you and it works. Don't fix what ain't broken Looks like Habby's at $30M+ monthly revenues now based off SensorTower. If the trend continues I'm sure they can break $1B+ run rate per year. 

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At time of my departure leading brand, marketing & engagement at Tractor Ventures, we'd funded 200+ companies, growing outrageously faster than many a venture backed company. Message to market always adjusted, but underlying blunt recommendation remained the same: Access non-dilutive $$. Get them faster and easier. Put the $$ to work in the company and see a quick return. A.K.A. Let them rip. Often, the marketing as the Tractor brand would emphasise increasing revenue c/o increased funds, spiking the valuation and resisting equity dilution. But what I was really saying in 3+ years of newsletters and countless socials and events and thinktanks and meetings and millions of DM's was: Tap us for funds continuously. Exploit us, like a bank, and never stopping asking. Then return again and again, over and over. And be highly cynical of people parlaying a financial decision-maker into one playbook course of action. That's a charlatan at play, and I stumbled across many in my time in funding world, which continues to this day. Last year Tractor was fastest growing Fintech 'startup' in Australia as judged by AFR, according to revenue figures, after we grew a few hundred % YOY each year (and a few thousand % one of those years too) Some founders would tap Tractor over & over. Happily. Plenty would never even enquire as to how much they could access. Plenty took poor advice from other investors in their wanderings. And plenty took poor advice from poor advisors they leant on continuously. Advisors who had no idea how private debt works, security aspects, nor even which VC fund to approach for funding for their client who they were absolutely taking the piss in charging. (This has inspired some new approaches to tech company growth advisory which I'll curate in the near future, but more on that soon) IMO - any advisor advising a tech company founder not to explore all the options at their disposal to understand how much $$ is available at any one time, is providing a bum steer, and I enjoyed the moments when we could light up a financial decision-maker in the business with an 'A-Ha' moment. Considering I didn't come from a financial background myself, quite the interesting challenge taking this storytelling role on in the early days. The founders of Tractor bought me in to manage 'community' which was essentially shepherding the advisory component of Tractors offering. But, I was very used to brand-building, so we moved on from 'quaint' funder of 'a few' bootstrapped companies to full-fledged funding machine in the market, at a time when many/most VC companies were not. And with agency to storytell, I took control, and loved it, and I think a few others enjoyed that too. The thing worked, & worked for the founders accessing it. As it had for decades in Europe and USA previously. The market just needed to understand it more, and that continues to this day. & that my friends, is yet another example, of using every character in the LI post!

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Wei D. (Founder and CEO of unicorn Clipboard Health) dropped some major 💎 gems of wisdom during her fireside chat with PearX founders at Pear VC SF Studio yesterday. These really resonated: 💎 PMF isn't something you achieve once - staying relevant to your market is an ongoing pursuit 💯 (Wei shared that to date she still LOVES talking with customers and - even at 1000+ employees and with all the success already achieved - she continues to chase unlocks for the business and recently obtained her nursing assistant certification in order to stay close to users and unlock new insights with them 🥇) 💎 If you're scared of sales, don't think of it as sales -- you're just talking to someone who you're trying to help. Approach your customers with care and listen to them as you would a friend. The moment it's an actual conversation with a friend, that's probably where you're going to get your first sale. If it feels "salesy" you're probably not doing it the right way. 🤝 💎 Do whatever it takes to get in front of your customers! (For Wei this meant driving around at 8 months pregnant and walking up to DMs at nursing homes!) 🚗 💎 The users you speak with in your market will give you the key jargon you need to use to speak back to your market. Listen intently and adopt their language! 🗣 💎 There is little you decide that can't be undone. Be smart, make calculated decisions, but don't overthink things --- err on the side of action and quick decision making. 🏃‍♀️ 💎 Iterate until your users feel passionately about what you're doing (ie. they get angry when the product is down or doesn't work). You want your users to care A LOT about the problem you're solving. 😡 Wei's resilience, grit and work ethic are off the charts. What an inspiration! 👏 #femalefounders #inspiration #techfounder #unicornfounder #hero

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Big rounds are back. VC Funding is flowing. In April, there were 28 fundraising rounds announced with >$10M in funding. We've seen private market (pre-launch) deals valued >$3B recently. Private Markets are hot. Public Market comps (FDVs) are hot. But who will buy our multi-billion dollar bags? Deal Flow Digest April w/: - Recap of largest web3 funding rounds - Airtable with ALL the data - Hackathons & Demo Days - VC Fundraises Read more here: https://lnkd.in/g7V4KrAj

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I've invested in half a dozen brands over the last 15 months through OpenSky Ventures. The #1 mistake I see brands make is putting too much emphasis on "product margins" instead of their "contribution margins." A lot of brands will come in and say they have a 70% gross margin. That's great and all, but if after shipping, fulfillment, refunds, coupons, breakage, and all your other variable costs you're down to 20%– it's just not going to work. Secondly, let's talk about what a good growth rate actually looks like? Well, growth expectations depend on your company's size. Here are some benchmarks I'd keep in mind: $0m - $10m ➝ 200-300% growth YoY $10m - $30m➝ 100-150% growth YoY $30m - $100m ➝ 50-100% growth YoY Next - marketing efficiency is under scrutiny and often brands try to skirt around it, but any savvy investor these days will want to understand how efficient you are with your marketing spend. Easy example. If a brand comes in and says they grew 400% year-over-year, from $1 million to $4 million and thinks they're crushing it, but then you look and see they spent $4 million to scale four times – that's not efficient at all. And when that money runs out (which it probably already has), they're going to have to go back to the VC well and dilute you as an investor again and again. And there's just no VCs around to fund that kind of thing anymore. We're not in 2021. We're looking for brands that are capital-efficient. These factors not only attract investors but also set the foundation for long-term success and scalability. What KPIs do you think are most important?

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I'm officially launching my new business today: Early Stage Labs. We help Seed and Series A startups level up with fractional execs in finance + growth. If you need the horsepower and execution of an experienced operator but don't want to add heavy FTE burn to your runway, I'd love to see if we can support you. We have been quietly building in 2024 and are up to 11 CFOs and 5 growth folks on the team. We can't wait to roll up our sleeves and get into it. Learn more about what we're doing here: https://lnkd.in/eddDSWCn -- I was out on a walk with my wife back in 2018. I had been running a bootstrapped startup for a few years and was talking to her about a pivot we were making. She asked me what it was that I loved about the business I was building. Simple question, but I paused and had to spend a few days thinking about it. I remember coming back to her and telling her how much I love the art and the act of creating something from nothing. How it’s difficult and nuanced and sometimes even feels impossible. But how - when you get it right - man, it can feel like magic. I’ve built and sold a few businesses since then. We sold our last one to Healthline in 2021. I then jumped to the other side of the table and I’ve been the General Partner of a seed-stage venture fund since 2022. I love deals. I love getting into the hard and dirty parts of a business that can really move the needle. And I love delighting customers. I’m a scrappy, gritty founder who loves finding high impact + low burn ways to move businesses forward, and I think I’ve found that here. I think we’re really doing that for our customers. Early Stage Labs is a love letter, of sorts, to this beautiful, treacherous, wondrous world of startups that I’ve - for some strange f’ing reason - made my home over the last two decades. Here’s to the ride.

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So many amazing pre-revenue startups we work with struggle to raise capital because investors are looking for traction... But there are so many ways to show traction when you're pre-revenue. Here are 9 quick ones. From waitlists to social proof, there are tons of scrappy moves to make your startup look good to investors. Swipe through to explore the full list. ⬇️

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Do you know any companies that are stuck or going through a rough time? At Palm Venture Studios, we believe some companies close that don't deserve to. Our mission is to identify these hidden gems and provide the support they need to thrive. We specialize in investing in and scaling companies, leveraging our expertise to turn challenges into opportunities. If you know a company in need of a lifeline or a fresh new chapter, let's connect and explore how we can help. #BusinessGrowth #Investing #CompanyTurnaround #Founders

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When we asked CPG founders who they wanted at Founderland... Their answer was clear: People who can help them grow their business & achieve their goals. Specifically: - The top retailers - The most founder-friendly investors, and - Other founders they can learn from and share with This conversation that I'm hosting at Founderland is a perfect representation of this group, plus one BIG bonus. We're also including Joel Toledano and ChargeUp.ai which is one of my favorite tech companies that is supporting consumer brands today. They automate the retail deduction and chargeback process for brands, saving them an insane amount of time and money. Such a cool co. Excited to teach, share and connect...and get some deals done, while of course having lots of fun. Joel Toledano Jen Zeszut Kim Coffin Deb Conklin

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Up to series A, all that TAM, SAM, SOM stuff in pitch decks is 💩. Sure, put it in the doc if you must. Lots (and lots) of advice says you should. But I challenge you to find any VC that gives it any more than 3 seconds of attention. Or thinks it is anything other than a work of fiction. And I guarantee none of them has had their investment decision influenced by it. So, whether you put it in or not, don’t spend too much time on it and focus your attention and impact on other things. Such as team, mission, metrics. Pretty much anything else in the pitch deck templates!! #founders #startups #vcfunding

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Greed and Fear, AI (adoption) style. In investments we're used to talking about greed vs fear, now we're seeing this same pendulum applies when it comes to consumer sentiment towards AI adoption. Concern is fear, that's obvious, and if you think about it a bit excitement comes from a form of greed in this case: the excitement for AI is because people hope it will help them do more with less time and effort invested - a greed for precious resources (which can be translated to money as well). Consumers need to invest some time, effort, as well as money in order to come up the AI learning curve (learning the right tools and how to prompt them). Playing around with AI is one thing, seriously using it professionally or personally is a bigger step that will be affected by the greed vs fear. It's too bad Pew Research Center didn't separate out professionals' opinions in a professional capacity (link to findings in the first comment), but still they find that for the first time the majority of Americans are concerned. The increase in concern (fear) happens just as research is starting to demonstrate that AI is making people more productive, which should have fueled excitement (greed). According to Ipsos, two thirds of people think AI will profoundly change their daily life in 3-5 years. Almost half say it already has (link in second comment). Interesting... And now this entire post rewritten by LI's AI: Greed and fear are familiar concepts in the world of investments, but did you know that they also apply to AI adoption? Consumer sentiment towards AI is swinging back and forth between concern and excitement. Concern is fear, and excitement is a form of greed. People hope that AI will help them do more with less time and effort invested, a greed for precious resources. However, investing in AI requires time, effort, and money to learn the right tools and how to use them. Playing around with AI is one thing, but seriously using it professionally or personally is a bigger step that will be affected by the greed vs fear pendulum. According to Pew Research Center, for the first time, the majority of Americans are concerned about AI. This increase in concern happens just as research is starting to demonstrate that AI is making people more productive, which should have fueled excitement. Ipsos reports that two-thirds of people think AI will profoundly change their daily life in 3-5 years, and almost half say it already has. What are your thoughts on the fear vs greed of AI adoption? Share your opinions in the comments. #AI #fear_greed #investment #genAI

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Imagine you’re meeting a VC today and pitching your company. Now, also imagine the VC goes home tonight and tells his or her spouse about the meeting with you. How do you think the VC would (or should) describe your product to the spouse? Remember, this is for someone who doesn’t have any context, and probably doesn’t have time to listen the whole story. If you can think of a story version that's plain and simple -- how you want the VC to describe your product to the spouse -- perhaps that version should be your pitch in the first place?

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We believe in extreme vetting of our founders. You can't build a unicorn if you spend time on silly stuff, like seeing family and friends. Grow up, and focus on investor returns. #vc #startups #investment

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