Heyyyo,

After some careful consideration, lots of feedback from you, the founders, CEOs of some top crowdfunding platforms and my EP Sam Fiske, I’ve decided it’s time to make a few changes.

First, we’ll be adding a new grading system. I’ve always viewed my talking points as a long-winded way of rating or reviewing startups based on some obvious factors:

1. Founder — ability to lead, sell into and influence a given market.

2. Idea — is it inevitable or solving a BIG problem in a scaleable way.

3. TAM — how big is the total addressable market?

4. Traction — do they have meaningful early traction.

5. Extra help — do they have an unfair advantage, monster investor or strategics?

This is represented by a 5-star scoring system based on a total number of the above 5 attributes possessed at this stage in their growth cycle — it is not a validation of idea, or grading for likelihood of success. It simply says, all things being equal at launch, this startup has these boxes checked.

Next, 85% of all feedback lands in either the Terms category or “why or why not”.

With that said, many of you have really taken to this — 20k+ subscribers (largest of its kind on Substack), 25-40% open rates and more than 10% of you made at least one startup investment in the past month (which is crazy cool). That sorta response tells me, I think we’ve graduated… So, moving forward, I’ll provide a video pitch, my summation of the company concept, its traction and key investment takeaways!

Lastly, I’m going to limit my regular opener (this part) to updates. If you want to get hot takes on tech news or listen to my interviews with top influencers in tech/media please subscribe to Technori Podcast 🎧

As always, hit me with any questions — I’ve created a hot line for anyone that wants to talk startup investing more directly, text me 🤳 (312) 847-4261.

★★★☆☆

Company Overview

Invincible is a media company that owns & licenses Movies, TV and streaming channels 👉 Watch The Pitch 📺

Key People: Tom Ashley, Thom Beers (3x Emmy Awards), Steve Lehman (former CEO of Nasdaq/NYSE companies)

Traction: Invincible touts 12 streaming TV channels, 1.6 Billion monthly ad impressions, and 300 million+ in content reach and owns or licenses movies with mega stars like Johnny Depp, Samuel L Jackson, & Robert Downey Jr. streaming on platforms including Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and Dish. As far as distribution goes, they’ve got it all covered; absolutely no question Invincible is setting itself up well.

YoY revenue growth is up 57% to $500k, with a net profit of $82k, and it’s hard to see that slowing down anytime soon. Original content is hard AF and an 18-month media cycle simply isn’t enough time to validate, but you have to respect the hot start!

Terms & Takeaway

Invest in Invincible here 👉 Term Sheet

Security Type: Reg CF

Pre-Money Valuation: $20,000,000 (50% discount)

Raised (as of publishing): $168,036

Minimum Investment: $100.00

Here's what I like: Streaming is BIG business. Even in the dark markets (think JCVD/Seagal movies) the money is crazy — every time someone views a movie owned or licensed by Invincible they get paid. So, basically they have two jobs; a) secure distribution so people can easily consume, and b) make smart picks. The latter being the million dollar question, which to-date, they've played it smart by betting on trending A-listers and storylines. Think Hallmark Movies. You laugh, even make fun of… but still watch (while they got paid). But, over time this gets more challenging. Netflix, Amazon and Apple offer anything from Step Brothers (amaze-balls) to utter shit. So, having a team of people with a lifetime’s worth of experience in movies and entertainment should help level the playing field, plus guys like Steve Lehman guiding the business is a major bonus. It’s hard to pass on anything this mature in a business growing as fast and without restriction as streaming.

Side Note: I once interviewed the founder of a little known docu streaming platform called Curiosity Stream… now called, Curiosity — trades publicly.

Here's what I don't love: Original content is reallllllly fucking hard. Imagine scrolling through Netflix and telling me the best ten picks out of the thousands of offerings available that are not only good, but others will agree are good???! These guys are essentially responsible for making those picks before they even get distribution and it’s all paid upfront. If they’re wrong they will lose terribly. This is a total bet on the founders — which, for what it’s worth — secured massive distribution for their bets, and that is no small feat. Still, as massive as the content market is, media is in the midst of the biggest shift in history, and I genuinely have no clue how this will go.

Who should invest and why: Let’s get the pricing out of the way first. Getting distribution in entertainment is crazy hard, yet Tom & Co have successfully accomplished that much — which is, insanely enough, the easy part. I cannot tell you how much credit they deserve… That is why I am not rolling my eyes hard at the $20M (discounted for now) Value Cap with $500k in revenue. That said, this is (for the investor) an all or nothing deal. If it goes poorly, assets will be sold at a loss and average streaming performance will be enough to stay in business but yield little to investors. However, all it takes is 1 big hit and this company gets scooped up for a hefty sum… which is perhaps a long shot, but isn’t that what this is all about!?!? If you love movies and supporting the little guy in an otherwise top-heavy industry I would heavily consider Invincible.

As always, startup investing is super high risk, anything can happen.

Invest in Invincible here 👉 Term Sheet

Questions? Text me (312) 847-4261.

Disclaimer: It goes without saying, but this information should not be constituted as financial advice, my investing opinions are my own and all diligence is the responsibility of each individual investor.