The Rules:

Every week I breakdown startup pitches with the added hook that you can invest whether you’re accredited or not (if you don't know what that means, click here).

I base my review on a 3-minute founder pitch and some light diligence.

My scoring system is not a validation of idea, or grading for likelihood of success. It just means, all things being equal at launch — this startup has these boxes checked.

What I look for:

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. Unfair Advantage — do they have a competitive edge

★★★☆☆

Company Overview

VirZOOM is bringing exercise to the metaverse 👉 Watch The Pitch 📺

Key People: Eric Janszen (serial entrepreneur and investor), Eric Malafeew (Guitar Hero, Rock Band, & Dance Central) and Jason Warbrug (20+ years of games industry experience)

Traction: VirZOOM has more than 250k installs, 50k+ this month alone. With $375k in revenue at 93% gross margin, VirZOOM needs only to focus on market share in a rapid growth space — with 44.8% CAGR, the Metaverse Market is poised to hit $596.47B by 2027. I could spew digital exercise stats but I don’t think anything I tell you about this will come as a surprise (it’s a top 5 growth market).

Terms & Takeaway

Invest in VirZOOM here 👉 Term Sheet

Security Type: Equity

Pre-Money Valuation: $24,300,000

Raised (as of publishing): $468,549

Minimum Investment: $500.00

Here's what I like: I 100% believe in the metaverse opportunity, but I separate it into a few categories; a) gamer kids that live vicariously through avatars b) digital nomads c) collectors and speculators (bored ape and realm investors) d) those looking for a break from reality. It’s the latter that interests me — working out in the metaverse after a day spent with humans sounds amazing. For that reason, I am a believer in the potential here. Additionally, I like that they are acquiring users at under $15 with a LTV near 10x. The bet becomes what % of users become obsessive.

Here's what I don't love: First, the metaverse multiple freaks me out — I totally get the hype, but with hype comes blindness. At $24M I’d like to see more revenue and less leap of faith. From a user perspective, the 4.6 rating is outstanding, but anyone with experience in health/fitness apps knows the winning recipe is super low CAC and a combo of consistent freemium conversion and absentee subscription revenue.

Who should invest and why: I remember riding virtual maps at the gym in 2000. Metaverse isn’t as new as it may seem. But, virtual reality has come a long way — in fact, Peloton probably has a bigger role in the adoption than many figure. There’s no question where things are going, so investing in VirZOOM might be a great entry point into the market with the added hook that its more fitness than anything.

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

Invest in VirZOOM here 👉 Term Sheet

Questions, DM me 🤳 @kitun.

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.