Never thought I would live to see the day someone actually making money running demo days.

I have been in the business of startups and innovation for a decade now and I can tell you demo days are stressful.

Startup founders are sucking down red bulls, rehearsing their presentation the millionth time.

Investors are difficult to get hold of due to their busy schedules.

Running a physical demo day means logistics and lots of pre-planning work too.

And the biggest misunderstanding people always have, is that investors writes a check there and then on demo day.

Nobody does that.

Ever.

Sure, the demo day is a good opportunity to see all the startups present on one stage.

But between the 5 minutes of nervous rambling, difficult to read slide decks and the rushed conversations during the after party, it is hard to really make an investment decision on the spot.

Even the Sharks on Shark Tank don’t cut checks after they agreed to invest.

There is still a lot of back and forth to get the nuances of the deal sorted out carefully.

So it amazes me to see Stonks actually making a business out of running demo days.

But first, lets get the name out of the way.

“Stonks is an intentional misspelling of the word “stocks” which is often associated with a surreal meme featuring the character Meme Man standing in front of a picture representing the stock market followed by the caption “Stonks.” The picture began seeing use as a reaction image online in jokes about making poor financial decisions.”

Right, so the founders decided to go with a meme for the company name.

Wait till you see the logo.

Remember Wallstreetbets?

They had a cute lil fella in a suit and dark sunglasses, with a beautiful golden slick back pompadour.

That’s basically Stonks logo.

One of Stonks founder Ali Moiz has a title “Meme Dealer” in his Linkedin profile.

Go figure.

What does Stonks do?

Essentially, they aggregate top-tier startups who are raising their next round and put it into a simple platform for investors to peruse.

It is 100% virtual, all done and documented on the website, transparent for both the founders and the investors.

Because of the founders’ backgrounds and networks in the valley, they managed to persuade high quality startups from YC, Techstars and Xoogler to pitch.

Besides raising $3m on Stonks (Yep, they raised money on their own platform), they also raised $15M as seed funding led by a16z.

They have done 100+ events.

Their discord and social media has 40k+ members.

They have facilitated more than 1500+ deals.

They have 60+ quality partners and investors in their corner.

Not bad for a young company with a meme for a logo.

So how do they make money running demo days?

That’s the golden question.

Perhaps taking a cut from the startups?

Or a possible membership subscription in the near future?

Do you think Stonks’ business model will sustain in the long run?

-

Have you heard of Stonks?

-

#startups #business #startupx #growth #success #socialmedia #founders #web3 #strategy #stonks #investing #retailinvestors #stocks #profits #demodays

Never thought I would live to see the day someone actually making money running demo days.

I have been in the business of startups and innovation for a decade now and I can tell you demo days are stressful.

Startup founders are sucking down red bulls, rehearsing their presentation the millionth time.

Investors are difficult to get hold of due to their busy schedules.

Running a physical demo day means logistics and lots of pre-planning work too.

And the biggest misunderstanding people always have, is that investors writes a check there and then on demo day.

Nobody does that.

Ever.

Sure, the demo day is a good opportunity to see all the startups present on one stage.

But between the 5 minutes of nervous rambling, difficult to read slide decks and the rushed conversations during the after party, it is hard to really make an investment decision on the spot.

Even the Sharks on Shark Tank don’t cut checks after they agreed to invest.

There is still a lot of back and forth to get the nuances of the deal sorted out carefully.

So it amazes me to see Stonks actually making a business out of running demo days.

But first, lets get the name out of the way.

“Stonks is an intentional misspelling of the word “stocks” which is often associated with a surreal meme featuring the character Meme Man standing in front of a picture representing the stock market followed by the caption “Stonks.” The picture began seeing use as a reaction image online in jokes about making poor financial decisions.”

Right, so the founders decided to go with a meme for the company name.

Wait till you see the logo.

Remember Wallstreetbets?

They had a cute lil fella in a suit and dark sunglasses, with a beautiful golden slick back pompadour.

That’s basically Stonks logo.

One of Stonks founder Ali Moiz has a title “Meme Dealer” in his Linkedin profile.

Go figure.

What does Stonks do?

Essentially, they aggregate top-tier startups who are raising their next round and put it into a simple platform for investors to peruse.

It is 100% virtual, all done and documented on the website, transparent for both the founders and the investors.

Because of the founders’ backgrounds and networks in the valley, they managed to persuade high quality startups from YC, Techstars and Xoogler to pitch.

Besides raising $3m on Stonks (Yep, they raised money on their own platform), they also raised $15M as seed funding led by a16z.

They have done 100+ events.

Their discord and social media has 40k+ members.

They have facilitated more than 1500+ deals.

They have 60+ quality partners and investors in their corner.

Not bad for a young company with a meme for a logo.

So how do they make money running demo days?

That’s the golden question.

Perhaps taking a cut from the startups?

Or a possible membership subscription in the near future?

Do you think Stonks’ business model will sustain in the long run?

-

Have you heard of Stonks?

-

#startups #business #startupx #growth #success #socialmedia #founders #web3 #strategy #stonks #investing #retailinvestors #stocks #profits #demodays