USIO - An AI driven energy company offering savings to customers by tailoring their energy purchasing to the consumers habits, leveraging new regulations that allow for buying half-hour chunks. Over Ā£4.5M annualised turn-over, solid reviews on TrustPilot from their existing customer-base. Pitch-deck claims break-even within 12 months.
Theyāre asking for Ā£400,003, in return for 8.18%. Seems like a very reasonable valuation for what they offer - but curious to hear input from others who might have more sector specific knowledge, which might lead to me increasing my stake.
This one I simply do not get, but having seen the spirited debate here relating to Netflix, perhaps someone can point out an angle Iām missing.
On the surface, it just baffles me that this campaign has any legs at all. For anyone with an interest in the world of stand-up, you should know that āthe Netflix of stand-upā is a ridiculous statement. Netflix is the Netflix of standup. It has a huge library of comedy specials, and has become the go-to place for virtually every comedian with a significant following.
Am I missing something? Is it just a case that the marketshare of Netflix isnāt so huge that there isnāt space for a speciality streaming platform with a narrower - but cheaper - offering?
Interesting picks you have there. Usi seems a bit odd as the ownership is too much concentrated with the CEO and yet most of the other members have 0.00%. Is that because they work for a base rate rather than a stake in the startup? But the price in comparison to the revenue is very-very tempting
NextUp, on the other hand, seems less appealing. Having 1700 customers at Ā£3.50 only brings Ā£70k annual revenue, less all other associated costs. And that given they started in 2012 and launched the product 20 months ago (read: they had plenty of time to gain more customer).
@dan, if you do not mind me asking, do you use these two services yourself? If yes, how are they? I tried Usi but they said they cannot give me a quote at this time. Seems like I already got a nice deal
Also curious if you considered investing in them yourself. Thanks for an insightful post which I finally got some time to look at!
NextUp is interesting, I donāt know much about streaming or comedy but you can sort of see how this could work.
As you mentioned, Netflix has a great catalogue of content already. But it doesnāt make sense for them to go deep in every genre because most of the content is only going to appeal to a niche audience & theyāre all about growing their subscriber numbers. So presumably thereās an opportunity for NextUp to buy the remaining content, which would be relatively cheap since it doesnāt have mass market appeal.
Hopefully that means that they can build a decent catalogue of films, corner this market & then I assume that once their growth tops out (if they ever even reach profitability), theyāll be bought by one of the larger streaming services.
If thatās right then I wouldnāt have thought that this will make a good investment, if all youāre looking for is a return. But Iām sure that plenty of their audience will invest anyway as a sort of passion project.
I love that Seedrs makes companies disclose this information. As an investor, I want to know how the team is incentivised. Iām surprised that Iām not seeing more comments about this in the Seedrs discussion board.
@adam recently shared how we think about equity for team members in this article
I donāt use either at the moment. Iām currently a bit of a nomad, so no need for an energy supplier, and NextUp is still a confusing proposition for me - as a Netflix subscriber who is very happy with their library.
Typically I only invest in companies that I use, or intend to use when they are available (e.g. Freetrade) so the investment in USIO is an exception. I may end up using it eventually, but for now this is an excuse for a small diversification.
Great point about the equity sharing, I might poke them about that in the investor questions and see what they have to say.
Netflix dropped $50M on the Dave Chapelle specials, even more on Seinfeldās special and comedy series, not to mention Burr, Rock, Tucker, DāElia, Burnham, Seguraā¦ Admittedly a very American selection of comics, but they do have all of the current greats - with a few Brits like Acaster sprinkled in. In terms of mainstream comics, they have it locked down - and have priced everyone else out of the market.
If Iām a comedy fan, for sure Iām going to have a Netflix subscription. How much of a die-hard fan of the genre do I have to be to want a NextUp subscription too?
I can not access the USIO campaign page, possibly because I did not invest in the campaign.
Anyway did USIO get all their funding? Does anyone know what the official reason for shutting down is?
Looks like they didnāt get the funding because there was a threat of a damaging claim that USIO said was without merit but it meant they could not accept the the funding until it was resolved - Source
Received below email from nextup .If anyone intrested ,read below .
Hi --------
I hope youāre keeping well.
I wanted to update you on some exciting news at NextUp, and make a small requestā¦
(drum roll pleaseā¦)
Weāre putting on a virtual comedy festival throughout this July with some of the biggest and best names in stand-up. Weāre aiming to reach nationwide press and give the public a heavy dose of some much needed comedy, with 20,000+ audience members and a lot more social media eyes. Itās going to be amazing and Iāll keep you up to date on all the details as they emerge.
As youāre in our closed network, I have a specific related ask:
Weāre looking for a headline festival sponsor.
If you know any brands that might want to be involved and reach 1m+ people, please introduce Chloe our partnerships manager who is on chloe@nextupcomedy.com.
Time is fairly short, if you do have any connections - I would be really appreciative of any intros by the end of Monday.
