#26 Circl - Social betting experience for everyone
I was joined by the inspirational Andrew Wilkinson, founder of Tiny; he started product and branding agency Meta Lab in 2006 and was responsible for some of our most-loved and used companies such as Slack, UberEats, Coinbase, Pinterest and Headspace, to name a few. He then used MetaLab's profits to purchase other companies that have solid revenues, are designed well, have a great culture, and are profitable, which he knew he could rocket ship. Tiny now owns circa 30 companies, the likes of designer platform dribbble and the largest remote work community in the world, WeWork Remotely. Tiny has never relied on outside funding until recently where it launched a $150m fund to buy more businesses and for their own company WeCommerce, which has raised $60m, which is now on the Canadian stock exchange with a market cap of circa $1bn - WeCommerce buys and builds businesses that sit solely on the Shopify ecosystem. We listened to the pitch from Will, founder of Circl, which is looking to bring the concept of social betting to the masses. The concept being a group of friends form a Circl, put money in the pot then dependent on what happens in a sports match, the pot moves around the Circl...eg. A throw in, the pot moves clockwise two steps, a red card the pot moves anti-clockwise 4 steps etc...whoever has the pot at the end of the match takes it all. Circl is looking to bring the fun back into betting and make it a social activity, rather than something that's done in isolation and in excess. Andrew and I dug down on go-to-market strategy, where the concept could go beyond sport, the complications of the betting market and the team around Will. Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - https://horseplay.ventures/ Circl - https://www.playcircl.com/ Tiny - https://www.tinycapital.com/