Update: Y Combinator, Fundraising, and Freemium

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Blog / Company Update

Devyn Green

Published: April 29, 2024

DEVYN.AI is a marketing assistant capable of solving growth for any product or service.

Dear Community, I hope this update finds you well. I'm thrilled to share that the past month has been filled with significant progress across all areas of our operations, bringing us closer to launching a full product that will allow DEVYN to solve growth for any product or service. Our team has a clear vision for the next year, shaped by valuable insights from our customers, and we're excited about the road ahead.

🎙️ Announcements

Branding, New Website, and Social Media Team: With the recent capital from our Friends & Family round, we have hired Klik Marketing to help create our branding, design a new website, and execute a social media strategy. Y Combinator: We've officially applied to the Summer 2024 cohort and should hear back soon. If accepted, we'll cease fundraising for the foreseeable future, so investors have a few more weeks to get in at a significantly discounted valuation. If you know any YC partners personally, please drop our name in their ear! Freemium Model: We are promoting the 'Freemium' model of DEVYN to drive rapid product adoption, allowing customers to fall in love with the product by using it and then pushing them to upgrade plans.

🏆 Recent Traction

First five paid users converted from our freemium to recurring monthly subscriptions, marking our first $2,940 in "official" ARR; expecting 20 more customers to convert to paid over the coming few weeks. Expecting 900+ customers onboarding over the next 60 days with our new Freemium model, allowing them to develop a marketing strategy with DEVYN within minutes. DEVYN is conversational and one of our differentiators compared to the competition. We have significantly improved the experience over the last few weeks.

💰 Current Fundraising

For our current Pre-Seed fundraising efforts: $45k of capital received via SAFEs with a $1.78mm post-money valuation. $15k of capital soft committed via SAFEs with a $1.78mm post-money valuation will end our friends and family round. As our Friends & Family round ends, we'll be shifting to raise a minimum of $450,000 via SAFE with a $10mm post-money valuation. We have ~10 or so interested investor conversations ongoing, so this round could close much faster than planned but we still have $450,000 open until we close. If we go to Y Combinator, we'll most likely stop all current fundraising, as fundraising after Demo Day increases valuations to $15-20mm on average. So, now's the time for investors to get locked into a massive potential discount. As a reminder, we're looking for angels, family offices, and select pre-seed funds that play at our current stage. Even if we run out of room in this round, we always love meeting new people and helping them however we can.

🤖 Product Roadmap

Our primary objectives for our next 3-months include: Facebook and Google Integration: DEVYN will be able to take the growth marketing strategy that it autonomously created and seamlessly launch supporting ad campaigns on Facebook and/or Google. We expect the Facebook integration to happen within the next few weeks. Launching Shopify App: Allows us to reach the 4.6 million Shopify stores looking for growth marketing apps that can be added to their store with a single click; will automate much of the DEVYN onboarding. Continually Improve DEVYN'S communication and performance: This is the communication DEVYN has with our customers and also the campaign updates it makes while managing customer campaigns.

🎯 Growth Strategy

Paid Ads: Using DEVYN to manage our Facebook Ads we are able to drive new Freemium users at a sub $3.00 CPA. Cold Email Outreach: Using AI-powered email automation tools to reach out to leads in our customer verticals. Shopify App Store: We are expecting our Shopify app to be live in the Shopify App store, which opens up a massive opportunity for organic user growth.

🙏 Asks

Know a partner at Y Combinator? I'd love if you sent them a nudge introducing them to DEVYN, as every connection helps in the selection process. Know a rockstar software developer? If they're looking for their next move as an engineer at an AI startup with equity, send them our way. Connected with active investors? We'd love a warm introduction as we are just beginning conversations outside of the Friends & Family realm for fundraising.

📢 Shout-Outs

Once again, there are always far too many people to name here, but here are a few who have really been instrumental to our growth recently: ✔️ Martin Eveleigh ✔️ Tim Griffin from Craftwork ✔️ Doug Borud ✔️ Wotan Von Klass ✔️ Pete Peterson ✔️ Johnny Martin ✔️ JP Laich ✔️ Grant Coughlin These next 6-8 weeks will be instrumental for our growth and success, with our primary goal being to close $450k in committed capital by the end of June. I appreciate you being a part of this journey, and look forward to sharing more soon! Sincerely,

Hey, I’m DEVYN - let me show you a little AI magic... 🪄

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