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Happy Monday, folks.

My grandma brought me a pumpkin spice coffee syrup this weekend. I already reported her to the relevant authorities who promptly whisked her away in shackles to some isolated facility where I hope she has plenty of time to think about what she’s done.

As for the rest of you, your question of the week is:

When is the right time to bust out the Fall flavors?

Anything before September is automatically removed.

Thanks to TikTok's near-death experience and Twitter's sometimes questionable censorship choices (@you, Elon "Protect the Public Square" Musk), the importance of owning an audience has never been clearer.

The fear of suddenly being left without an audience because of the platform delisting or censoring them has left creators diving into web3 solutions like they're the last hit from the lone mango Juul pod at a middle school dance. But brands? They're still trying to figure out how to tap into their audience without looking like this 👇️ 

Compounding this issue is the fact that in today’s modern enterprise landscape, you can’t survive without a legit media presence across the hellscapes that are LinkedIn and Twitter.

"Owned audiences" are consumers that a brand can directly communicate with, without any intermediaries or algorithms dictating the terms. It's about having direct, unfiltered access to your audience, free from the constraints of third-party platforms. This direct line of communication allows for more personalized, relevant, and timely interactions, fostering a deeper connection between brands and their audiences.

Unfortunately, the costs of content creation, distribution, lists, customer profiles, and every other aspect of the owned audience pipeline are expensive and resemble assembling IKEA furniture. Complicated and full of weird parts.

AudiencePlus is building out this infrastructure for brands looking to wield the powers of direct audience relationships with the ease of paying someone else to mow the lawn. Specifically, they offer tools for:

• Content Creation: Tailored content is the cornerstone of engaging an owned audience. AudiencePlus provides tools for brands to craft content that speaks directly to their audience's interests and needs.

• Strategic Distribution: Owning an audience is not just about creating content; it's about ensuring it's seen. Whether it's through a brand's website, email campaigns, or social channels, AudiencePlus ensures that content reaches its intended audience without third-party interference.

• Performance Metrics: To truly understand and serve an owned audience, brands need insights. AudiencePlus offers real-time performance tracking, allowing brands to refine their strategies based on actual engagement metrics.

• Seamless Integration: The platform integrates with various automation tools, ensuring that the brand's content strategy aligns with other business processes, from marketing campaigns to customer relationship management.

In essence, AudiencePlus isn't just a tool; it's a paradigm shift. It empowers brands to take back control from third-party platforms and truly own their audience. In a world where data is king, AudiencePlus ensures that brands have all the insights they need to foster genuine, lasting relationships with their audience.

AudiencePlus is aiming to be to brand media what Harry was to 1D. Absolutely essential.

They're tackling challenges like the fact that our attention spans are now shorter than a Vine video (RIP), paid marketing feels like throwing money into a black hole, and algorithms are the power-hungry “who do you even know?” frat bros at the house party door.

AudiencePlus offers individualized performance tracking and customer profile building. It's like having a personal trainer for your content, showing you what works and what doesn't with which specific customers.

And because it's 2023 and we can't not mention AI, AudiencePlus has sprinkled in some AI magic to jazz things up. They've got AI-powered services that optimize things like search listings. Fancy, right?

The company’s closed beta has mostly been utilized by B2B SaaS companies (a vc’s wet dream) like Zuora, Five9 (which, for the record, is a perfectly respectable height), and Nextiva.

Estimated revenue is around $1 million, but with plans to open up a wider rollout of thousands of customers in the next few years, this is likely to skyrocket. A yellow brick path to $100 million ARR certainly exists.

The company raised $5.4M in Seed funding led by Emergence Capital in May of this year, with support from Forum Ventures, Worklife Ventures, and GTMfund. Angel investors include tech, media and marketing visionaries who understand the value of owned media, including the CEOs of Gainsight, Guild Education, Redis, and Zoom.

Apparently, getting “Whopper, Whopper, Whopper, Whopper” stuck in the heads of millions of Americans is big business? You’d be amazed at the amount of money that goes into advertising and marketing:

• market estimated to be worth $1.7 trillion (10% CAGR)

  • B2B SaaS marketing alone estimated to be worth $200 billion (12% CAGR)

    • owned media segment of the B2B SaaS marketing industry estimated to be worth $100 billion (15% CAGR)

The company isn’t the first to set out to solve the challenge of helping brands to own their audiences:

• Mighty Networks: helps businesses create and manage online communities with features including content management, social sharing, and monetization tools

• Common Room: helps businesses create and manage online learning experiences through content management, social sharing, and monetization tools

• inSided: helps businesses collect and analyze customer feedback with surveys, polls, and customer journey maps

• Podia: helps businesses create and sell online courses, memberships, and digital downloads including content management, payment processing, and marketing tools

While each of these offers the chance to connect more deeply with an online audience, AudiencePlus is the first full suite of tools for creating, distributing, and assessing the impact of marketing content. While some of the others might offer more in the way of educational resources of niche features, the unique insights that the team brings and the many in-demand services it offers set it apart, particularly in its uniquely personalized offerings derived from extensive data.

The duo steering the ship have seen some things:

• Anthony Kennada, Founder and CEO: founding CMO of Gainsight (scaled to $100M ARR and $1.1B exit), CMO of Hopin and Front

• Tyler Sparks, CTO and co-founder: 15 years of experience in software development as consultant

And the supporting cast? A dream team of marketing maestros and advisors who've probably forgotten more about marketing than most of us will ever know.

In conclusion, the digital realm is the wild west, and AudiencePlus is the new sheriff in town. As we move closer to a fully digital existence (no, Zuck, not your kind of Metaverse), the battle for audience attention is heating up. And AudiencePlus? They're packing some serious heat.

1. Owning your audience is the new black in the digital age.

2. AudiencePlus offers brands the full toolkit to create, distribute, and measure content.

3. With a market worth $1.7 trillion, the stakes are high and the potential is huge.

4. Founded by industry pros, they're set to redefine how brands connect.

5. Say goodbye to rented fans and hello to genuine, owned engagement.

Well That’s One Way to Celebrate the Women’s World Cup

Investing in AI and eternal life startups is so last year.

This year’s money-makin’ trend? A lil futbol.

While your Uncle might be losing money fading Messi in Miami, sports have become a hot market across leagues, and valuations are reflecting this. Organizations in the NFL, WNBA, and even Pickleball teams are going for 5x what they were sold for just a few years ago.

While American leagues are just beginning to come around to the valuations they could fetch by opening up ownership eligibility to investors (and Sovereign Wealth Funds… PGA sold out), Europe has been ahead of the game, welcoming checks with a bazillion zeros in their beautiful game of kicky ball.

And while VC investments are down across the board, the amount of money poured into European soccer by American investors has rocketed, and I’m not just talking about Ryan Reynolds’ fine ass.

Of the 98 teams in Europe’s Big Five leagues, 34 are owned at least in part by American private money, mostly private equity (21) but also VCs, high net worth individuals, and even corporations. The largest club was famed Chelsea which went for $3.2 billion to a group of US PEs.

What does that have to do with VC?

Well every dollar spent on Mbappé is a dollar not spent on investing in your idea for the next Facebook. Not really, but I truly do anticipate the growing promise of financial returns in sports, and other alts, to play a noteworthy role in capital allocation in the future, possibly contributing to a longer-term slowdown in VC investing with attractive outside options.

Could have spent another hour writing about this. Should I write a longer piece on the sports boom? Lmk ✉️ 

Boys Go to College to Get More Knowledge 🤓 

Now that all of my male readers are invested, it’s time to really seal the deal. As Ken recently learned, we still rule the world!

Fundraising for women-only founder teams in H1 hit a 6-year low, barely scraping $1.4 billion, just 1.6% of the total value raised. The $800 million in Q1 and $600M in Q2 were far from last year’s $3.1B and the $4B triple bacon whopper that was 2021.

And before you guys shout “but it’s down for everyone!”, shut up. I know. It’s down on a proportional basis from last year’s 1.9%, too.

As with most things, what this problem needs is some testosterone in the room. Apparently, investors prefer their pitches in Mansplain as mixed gender teams actually saw an increase in investment, and these teams are actually on pace for their second-highest investment year in history.

Through H1, mixed gender teams brought in $24.1B, $17.2B in Q1 and $6.9B in Q2. Nice.

The 28.1% share of the total market is also on pace to top last year’s 16.9% (still pretty nice) and $43.3B total.

There’s not much hope that it will finish with the gold. 2021 saw $59.6B. Because of course it did.

To be completely clear, this section was absolutely dripping with complete #realness, not at all sarcastic takes. I truly do think women are inferior in every way.

I’ve Been Tapping Keyboards, Wiring Cash, I Feel Just Like a Techstar

Admittedly a slow week for startup-specific new, and as I’m really trying to niche down in the early stage space, didn’t want to just fill space with stories about billion dollar companies and more Musk “news”

So, given college football is right around the corner, I have literally nothing but rankings on my mind.

A recent PitchBook report ranked accelerators by their involvement in the European startup space by deal count since 2018, and the overwhelming favorite was Techstars who invested in 661 deals versus runner-up Plug and Play’s 334. Really making Techstars look like 2019 LSU out here…

Bunched together in the 3-10 spots with deal counts ranging from 282 to 192 were:

• Venture Kick

• EIT Food

• MassChallenge

• YC

• Startup Wise Guys

• EIT Health

• EF

• Start it @KBC

As Techstars and P&P are US-based companies, the top European supporter was Venture Kick. Further, while Techstars might be a Russell Westbook-like volume scorer, YC seems to be taking the Jokic approach, prioritizing efficiency en route to backing the most unicorns of the bunch.

Only other observation I have is that some of these names suck. Seriously, who gets a term sheet from a firm called “Startup Wise Guys” and decides “yeah. that’s who i want on my board.”

Personally, I want my investors to have names that just reek of trust funds. Give me Belfort. I want Ravenclaw. Lemme take a ride on the Madoff mobile.

Nobody ever went wrong with those kinds of names.

Speaking of audiences, would love to extend the relationship with you guys.

So, please join the shiny new The Startup Breakdown Discord server and Twitter X Community. Would be an awesome way to get to know you guys more. I’m lonely irl. I don’t want to be lonely online, too.

Hope to chat w you there :)

Cheers to another day,

Trey