Picto Diary - 05 November 2019 - Founders Fund (Part Two)
Above: Gaurav Chakrabarti, CEO, Solugen. The Battery, San Francisco, CA.
FOUNDERS FUND LIMITED PARTNERS ANNUAL MEETING 05 November 2019.
Founded in 2016 by Gaurab Chakrabarti, M.D., Ph.D., and Sean Hunt, Ph.D., Solugen is a specialty chemicals manufacturer and the world's first and only producer of bio-based chemical peroxide solutions that applies green chemistry principles to re-design the production of a variety of ingredients.
The company's first product, Bioperoxide®, was created using patented enzymatic technology to convert plant sugars into hydrogen peroxide and led to the manufacturing of a comprehensive line of products such as their flagship BioSol and ScavSol solutions.
Today, BioSol and ScavSol help treat, clean and oxidize water uses within the oil and gas, water treatment, cleaning, agriculture, soil and ground remediation, and food industries. Solugen's chemistries remove the need for highly combustible and toxic petrochemical-based chemicals to clean water through products that are more effective, cheaper, safer to produce, and less hazardous for customers and their employees.
Solugen's mission is to decarbonize the chemicals industry. Its comprehensive line of environmentally-friendly products help companies be responsible stewards of the environment and their local communities. And through their mobile "Mini-mills," Solugen is able to descale and geographically distribute chemical manufacturing factories, drastically impacting the way chemical solutions are produced and — at The Battery.
Above: Max Rhodes, CEO, Faire. The Battery. San Francisco, CA.:
FOUNDERS FUND LIMITED PARTNERS ANNUAL MEETING. 05 November 2019
When Daniele, Marcelo and I started Faire, we knew we could build something big. We saw a massive opportunity to create an online marketplace that would help local retailers and makers break free from the inefficiencies of an antiquated wholesale model. We knew the shop local movement and the maker revolution were waves that would provide strong tailwinds to spur our growth. That said, we never expected we would get this far this fast.
Today, I’m thrilled to share some exciting milestones: $100M in financing from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Y-Combinator, with participation from new investors, partners of DST Global, and Founders Fund, as well as existing investors, Sequoia, Forerunner, and Khosla. In addition, we now have over 15,000 stores actively buying on the platform — more retail locations than Walgreens, Walmart, Sephora, and Nordstrom have combined — as well as more than 2,000 makers fulfilling orders. We’ve also reached $100M in run rate sales.
The number of independent booksellers has actually grown since 2011.... as the chains, Barnes and Noble, Borders etc. have either gone out of business or downsized. With the efficiencies Faire can offer small retailers, we see a rise of small, boutique retailing. People like to shop in small, funky places.
Above: Alex Mather, CEO and Adam Hansman, co-founders, The Athletic. The Battery, San Francisco, CA.
FOUNDERS FUND LIMITED PARTNERS ANNUAL MEETING. 05 November 2019.
THE ATHLETIC
The Athletic is a subscription-based sports website that provides ad-free national and local coverage in 47 North American cities as well as the United Kingdom. The Athletic also covers national stories from top professional and college sports (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, NCAA FB, NCAA BB, MMA, NASCAR, soccer). The Athletic's coverage focuses on a mix of long-form journalism, original reporting, and in-depth analysis. Its business model is predicated on dis-aggregating the sports section of local newspapers and reaching non-local fans not reached by a local newspaper.
As of August 2019, The Athletic had 600,000 paying subscribers with an 80% retention rate year-over-year. Most of its subscribers, 60%, follow sports teams in two or more cities.
Only NYT, FT, WSJ and WaPo have more paid online subscribers than The Athletic.
Above: Brian Singerman, Partner, Founders Fund, interviews Nathan "Nate" Blecharczyk, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Airbnb. The Battery, San Francisco, CA.
FOUNDERS FUND LIMITED PARTNERS ANNUAL MEETING 05 November 2019
AIRBNB
Airbnb is an online marketplace for arranging or offering lodging, primarily homestays, or tourism experiences. The company does not own any of the real estate listings, nor does it host events; it acts as a broker, receiving commissions from each booking. The company is based in San Francisco, California, United States. — at The Battery.