Over the past 2 months Expert DOJO has invested in 12 amazing startups. We did so because we believe they make this world a far more better and interesting place! Now, it is your turn to know how our heroes are changing their industries!
Here they are, we hope you enjoy…
The problem:
1) The Esports market has yet to succeed at capturing broad market appeal. While there are hundreds of millions of participants in Esports, the demographic is skewed heavily to young men, and struggles to attract viewers who aren’t heavily interested in video games.
2) The fantasy sports market for traditional sports struggles to engage all of its participants throughout an entire season. It is well known amongst the fantasy sports community that leagues tend to have a lot of buzz at the beginning of a season, but precipitously loses engagement as the season goes on.
3) Players who play fantasy sports for cash are highly unlikely to win, and the industry has stagnated due to a sharks and minnows dilemma in which only 10% of players are winning 98.7% of cash prize contests in daily fantasy sports.
The solution:
Champions Round is a mobile game company that builds the stickiest fan engagement games for Esports and traditional sports. They are the only fantasy Esports platform that synchronizes with major tournaments, where users answer live questions, earn points, learn the game, and win cash, which makes the experience fun for all sports fans, not just fans of Esports. They have developed a 3rd vertical into the fantasy sports space: Micro Fantasy Sports. This introduces new gameplay that keeps users’ engagement high all year by rewarding users through interactive gameplay and providing the best odds to win money.
Milestones:
– Grew to number 6 on the App Store for Sports Apps during Beta.
– Full product release in September 2020.
– Forming partnerships with top NFL talent to lead the company and grow the brand.
– Commitment from lead investor to lead Series Seed.
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The problems:
1) Most of the enterprise users are searching for AI in order to gather intelligence from their enterprise systems to achieve better data outcomes that improve efficiency but the data resides in silos. Processing the data for AI networks still requires someone within enterprises impacts them when it comes to making data driven decisions.
2) Lack of intelligent ecosystems across large enterprises that enables a deeper insight of data to help businesses have clear expectations on ROI.
The solution:
Making data-driven decisions in real-time is vital when optimizing any business, which is why CloudNineAI has introduced Augmented Intelligence to gather intelligence across global enterprises. CloudNineAI is taking advantage of AI to connect data from multiple data sources empowering people to make data-driven decisions. CloudNineAI’s Augmented Intelligence SaaS Applications enables companies simple querying using natural language to see data so no technical expertise is required.
Milestones:
– Contracts with Bank of America and Merill Lynch.
– $350k in revenue.
– Negotiating contracts with SAP, SAMSUNG, and MIT.
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The Problems:
1) It takes 3-5 years to get medical devices to market.
2) 64% applications to FDA get rejected every year.
3) With 60,000+ medical device patents each year, the current process is incapable to meet healthcare needs.
The Solution:
Essenvia is an online platform that helps medical device companies go to market. Essenvia automates some of the most time-consuming and error-prone activities to get to market. This SaaS solution saves medical device companies up to 6 months and as much as $1.8M in avoidable costs.
Milestones:
– $7.5K in Monthly Revenues, $89K in ACV bookings.
– 16 SMB customers (Since October 2019 BETA launch).
– June 2020: 1 Product integration partner signed: 4 Enterprise customers sold – $25k in new MRR.
– 1 Product integration in progress — Access to 800 enterprise customers.
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The problem:
1) People spend an average of 14 hours per week on social media platforms and an average of 32 hours per week listening to music. Yet, there is no equivalent social media platform that uses music as the connector.
2) Even before the pandemic, the music industry was losing billions in revenue.
3) The big streaming services make only a fraction of their data available for record labels and music related companies.
The Solution:
Geojam is the ultimate music-based social media platform. It harnesses the power of music consumption and gamification to bridge the gap between businesses, artists, and consumers. Geojam works with all popular music streaming services to enable new music discovery. It is highly addictive and fun for Gen Z to share music with their friends and engage with artists like never before. Members earn Jam Points for engagement, and brands and artists can leverage their fans to promote and share their music. Jam Points can be redeemed in the Jam Shop which is a digital storefront for exclusive experiences and products.
Milestones:
– Contract with Mariah Carey and other big musicians.
– Raised $1.4 million in seed round.
– Collective social reach of 83M.
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The Problem:
1) Business owners have limited access to book talent in a secure way where the risk of the talent not fulfilling obligation is mitigated.
2) Influencers lack a direct platform to manage offers from brands and vet offers.
3) There is little to no transparency between artist and manager.
The Solution:
Mavens List is a revolutionary social transactional network platform that provides a seamless and secure mobile booking system for brands, venues, charities, educational institutions, and more to not only match but securely pay via patent-pending unique escrow payment process where funds are verified and paid upfront.
Milestones:
– Processing $950,000 in transaction fees.
– On-boarding the top 25 Tik Tok talent in the world.
– Raised $375k at a $12,500,000 evaluation in the month of June
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The Problem:
1) Population is getting older: 10,000 Americans are turning 65 every day.
2) Millions of seniors and their families are overwhelmed and stressed.
3) Millions of seniors struggle to find ideal caregivers and struggle to access resources they need to age happily at home.
4) Inefficient technology in senior care industry.
The solution:
Meetcaregivers is building the world’s largest marketplace for senior care. Meetcaregivers provide access to technology tools and services such as in-home care, meal delivery as well as products like PPE and walkers that seniors need to age happily at home.
Milestone:
– Over 230,000 Hours of care booked to date.
– Growing Revenue: +200k/MRR.
– +90% Meetcaregivers customer’s satisfaction.
– Adding more tools, products and services.
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The problem:
Big data can be a big problem
1) Less than 1% of the world’s data is analyzed and less than 20% is protected.
2) Average cost of a data breach has risen to $3.92 million.
3) ~ 65% – 80% of all corporate data is useless and potentially legally toxic.
4) Simply disposing of useless data can result in $Ms in cost savings annually.
The solution:
NVISNx‘s Platform discovers, analyzes, and profiles billions of files across the enterprise to help determine what corporate files are either Jewel (critical data) or Junk (useless data). Our Platform provides a global view of all the data to then make data-driven decisions to either enhance controls to better protect the jewels or assist in deleting the files that can result in $Ms in cost savings in enterprise storage. More specifically, NVISNx makes data protection controls of DLP, Access, and Insider Threat work.
Milestones:
– Helped a F500 get meaningful and sustainable enhanced data protections by enabling more reliable business rules; 1st time ever of putting controls in blocking-mode of where critical IP can flow and need-to-know access controls.
– Helped a F500 save +$6.2M by inventorying +2 Petabytes of network storage and helped purge billions of useless files.
– Contracts with companies like Qualcomm with $25K Pilots with Universal Music, CoreLogic, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) and more.
– $85k in MRR / $1.02M ARR.
– On track to meet or exceed $4.5M ARR by the end of 2020.
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The Problem:
It’s very difficult to know in advance if a game will be a hit or a bust (even with proper market research). At the same time, we see a lot of game (content) startups fundraising to develop a single title, this ensures focus but is very risky and reduces creativity and risk-taking.
The solution:
Obscure Games is a mobile game developer and publisher based in Tel-Aviv, Israel. By introducing rapid prototyping, Obscure Games aim to soft-launch multiple games to the market every ±6 months, kill underperforming games, and find high performing ones. This approach will allow the company to build a portfolio of hit titles.
Milestones:
– Collaborations with gaming publishers such as SuperSonic/ IronSource, Tangelo, Candivore, Ovivo Games and more.
– Developed games like League of Guessing, Siege of Legends, fan-games based on the popular League of Legends IP. – In 2019 Obscure Games released 10 games or game-related projects (i.e disc-wars), which allowed it to bootstrap its way to develop its first casual gaming IP scheduled to be launched in 2020.
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The problem:
1) Most leading cannabis-edible brands only offer chocolate, mints, gummies, nuts and almonds, soft drinks, cookies and brownies.
2) Many adults are deterred by the negative reputation of cannabis and disregard its health benefits.
The solution:
Potli brings top-quality, delicious, and easy to integrate cannabis edibles products to the kitchen to help people embrace plant-based wellness and self-care every single day. Potli is set out to craft a product people could trust, with quality or dosage undoubtedly clear and apparent. Potli also hopes to change the emotional response to cannabis in so many from intimidation and uncertainty to excitement and joy.
Milestones:
– Potli owns its own highly coveted cannabis manufacturing and distribution licenses, and are currently sold direct to consumers online and in trend defining retail partners like MedMen and Erewhon.
– $330k in sales.
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Problem:
Enterprise Blockchain Technology has a big, big problem. Fortune 500 companies have invested Billions on these Next-Gen Blockchain Powered Applications that haven’t left the sandbox. So what’s the hold up? Have no fear, SuperNodes are here!
Solution:
Secure Block Technology proprietary “SuperNodes” sit on chain giving companies the necessary Monitoring, Analytics and Security tools needed to push their Blockchain Applications out of the sandbox and into production. This revolutionary technology stack provides application health, data analytics, and enterprise-grade security needed to stimulate the mass adoption of Blockchain-Powered Applications. The next-gen internet is finally upon us!
Milestones:
– Veteran Enterprise Team
– MVP Completion
– Pilots with Fortune 500 Companies
– Angel, VC Investments
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The problem:
1) One-third of all U.S. job vacancies are sales jobs, no matter the region or prevailing economy.
2) Only 140 of 4,500+ U.S. colleges and universities – just 3% – offer sales minors or specializations.
3) There is a massive gap between the number of qualified professionals available to fill the sales positions critical to the forward movement of the economy.
The Solution:
Virtanza is the only scalable experiential sales training solution white labeled to universities and employers. Virtanza connects employers into the virtual classroom and students into jobs. Universities get a customized sales training solution and platform that prepares students for jobs with an average salary range of $60k-$150k. Employers get a platform where they can re-skill workers; and access, monitor, and hire sales candidates.
Milestones:
– Over $500K ARR contracts with $2.2M of upside built into those contracts.
– Ten Universities currently registered including the University of California Irvine, Central Michigan University, University of the Pacific, Northwood University, Ohio Dominican University, and more.
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The problem:
1) 60% of US small businesses don’t hire an attorney during a significant legal event.
2) Of those, 40% don’t hire an attorney because of cost.
3) Overall 7% of small businesses in the US fail because of legal challenges.
4) Existing efforts to productize legal services have failed because they ultimately degrade attorney prices and quality, reduce attorneys to service providers, and provide flawed or outdated documents that ultimately get rejected by an attorney.
The solution:
Woodpecker believes that access to legal services should be a right, not a privilege. Woodpecker is revolutionizing the American legal system via the only attorney-led, AI-assisted legal document, and services marketplace. Woodpecker is productizing the legal system and empowering attorneys to make more money in the process while ensuring consumers and businesses have access to legal services for a fraction of the cost of a law firm.
Milestones:
– 300 paying attorneys.
– Over $100K in ARR and rapidly growing.
– Q2 2020 was our best quarter ever.
– Ranked #1 for “document automation” in Microsoft App Store.
– Ranked #1 Word add-in by Zapier.
– Voted #1 legal tech startup at ABA Techshow Startup Alley.
Thank you for taking the time to get to know our 12 incredible companies! We have invested in them because we truly believe they are able to rapidly scale and reach millions of people around the globe!
If you have a startup that solves a major problem or an investor that wants to be part of the significant change, we want to speak to you! Please contact us at info@expertdojo.com.