Sam Altman, Solo GPs, Homeschool Marketplace Startups

Aug 02, 2021

Hey folks, Happy Sunday. We just wrapped On Deck Angels latest cohort. It’s been a privilege working with many of the most exceptional operators and investors in tech the past few weeks.

Quick Logistics: Since many of you are new to this newsletter (welcome), a few quick logistics. I usually divide the content between the following sections:

Internet Reads That Caught My Attention 🔗
Deals, Funding Rounds, & Market Moves 💰
Startup Ideas 💡
Intellectual Rabbit Holes 🐇
Books I’m Reading 📚
Content from Me 👋

That said, this newsletter is relatively new. I’m still iterating with the format so expect things to evolve over time. Without further ado, let’s get into it.

Internet Reads That Caught My Attention 🔗

Sam Altman’s Manifest Destiny

I’m fascinated by extreme people. Sam Altman (former YC President and current Open AI CEO) fits that bill. Most great people are extreme and obsessive. It’s hard to get outsized results without some combination of extreme character traits and the extreme actions associated with them. This profile goes deep into Altman’s family, journey, personality, and drive. It’s a long read (~50 minutes) but worth your time.

How to Value Start-Up Equity

This is one of the best takes on how employees should evaluate startup equity that I’ve read. Many treat startup equity as a lottery ticket, but with a little due diligence, you can increase your odds of picking a winner. While VCs and angels invest money, startup employees are investing their time. Since time is our most valuable asset, it’s important to choose wisely, including how you value your stock options.

Deals, Funding Rounds, & Market Moves 💰

Solo Capitalists are on Fire 🔥

As some of you know, I’m incredibly bullish on the rise of solo capitalists and operator angel investors. Much of how we’re building On Deck Angels is based on belief in these trends. Over time, I believe we’ll continue to see more operator angels become Solo GPs, building their own firms or augmenting their personal balance sheets with micro funds. These recent announcements back this trend up:

Allocate banks $5M to open up venture capital fund access

On the topic of angels and solo capitalists, let’s talk about Allocate, a startup that just raised $5 million to create a platform connecting LPs with emerging fund managers. Essentially, Allocate is trying to do for the LP and EM world what Angel List did for angels & VCs. Allocate is founded by Samir Kaji and Hana Yang. Samir has long been well-known and respected in venture and LP circles. He’s also done valuable work demystifying the LP world through his Venture Unlocked podcast. Overall, I believe this is great news for the industry.

💡Startup Idea: Homeschool Marketplace

Education is one of my favorite industries. One segment that I’m especially bullish on is homeschooling. My personal experiences with homeschooling run deep:

I was homeschooled from pre-school-12th grade.
My aunt is a long-time homeschool educator and community organizer.
I have friends that work for one of the biggest homeschooling curriculum providers in the world.
My sister started homeschooling both of her kids right before the pandemic.

Due to a combination of complexity and macro trends, I believe there’s an opportunity to build a marketplace that aggregates education curriculum and service providers on one side with families on the other.

Problem

Homeschooling is complex. While many parents are increasingly interested in homeschooling, most have no idea where to start. At a minimum, parents have to navigate state regulations, select or curate curriculum, plan an academic schedule, and determine how the education will be delivered. Additionally, parents have to consider social activities, extracurriculars, homeschool/community groups to join, and more.

Simply put, there are many jobs to be done. Parents have a plethora of information to sort through and decisions to make. Getting started with homeschooling is really hard.

Potential Solutions

The solution I’m most intrigued by is a marketplace. On the supply-side, this marketplace would bundle the many curriculum and service providers onto one platform. On the demand-side, the marketplace would aggregate families who want to get started with homeschooling. It sounds simple, but the actual execution could get complex. The platform would make the on ramps to homeschooling significantly easier, walking parents through every decision they have to make, removing complexity, and automating as much of the process as possible.

Why Now

The pandemic lockdowns gave many parents a front row seat to their children’s educational experience, leaving many concerned at the quality of their public schools. Correspondingly, remote work has now made homeschooling logistically possible for many families that previously could not have considered it. Finally, homeschooling provides a level of flexibility and customizability that I believe will become increasingly appealing to modern families.

How big could it get?

In 2017, Ask Wonder estimated that the US homeschool industry generates ~$1 billion in revenue annually. Given post-pandemic trends, I think the market is significantly bigger now than it was then.

Furthermore, the homeschooling industry has several categories that could be reimagined. If you successfully build a marketplace, you’d have tremendous leverage to expand into other offerings and build additional products.

TL;DR - The biggest barrier keeping many families from trying homeschool is how complex getting started is. Remove that and you could grow the market substantially, creating a large business in the process.

If you or someone you know wants to jam on this more, hit me up. I may take a deeper dive on this idea in a future blog post.

Intellectual Rabbit Holes 🐇

Books I'm Reading 📚

Superpower Interrupted: The Chinese History of the World

Over the last year, I’ve become fascinated with China. China has successfully transformed itself from failed communist state to global superpower in just a few decades. If you’re remotely interested in the present and future of the world, studying China is a must. Their power and influence is only rising geopolitically, economically, technologically, and culturally. It’s entirely possible, maybe even probable, that they’ll soon replace the US as the most powerful nation on earth.

This specific book does an excellent job sharing China’s history, from the Chinese perspective. If you grew up in the West, there’s likely much you weren’t taught about China and your perspectives on Chinese history is likely skewed. The truth is that China has been a global superpower for most of its history and view’s its rightful place as such. You’ll enjoy this read if you love history and want to have your perspectives on China broadened.

Other Great Books on China:

Content from me 👋

Nomadic Adventures ✈️🚗

After a busy couple months, it’s been nice to spend the weekend with family. This photo is from a Costco shopping trip yesterday afternoon with my niece.

With love,

Andrew

Andrew Rea

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