Opinion
Schmorak: Hostfully raised more venture capital because of its PPP loan
“No, I actually think we raised more money from investors because of it.”
Insight
Schmorak: Securing PPP loans signaled solvency and execution to investors
“What it is, it's a demonstration of how solvent your business is. It's like, can you get your together enough to apply for this program in short order and have your finances in good shape so that you can like, just do better for your business. They put it in t…”
Insight
Schmorak: A startup derailing over a two-month leave is probably not a good company
“So if the company is going to derail or the fundraising situations is going to derail because someone takes two months off Because they're having a baby, like, it's probably not a good company.”
Insight
Schmorak: Working 80-hour weeks is not required to build a great company
“No, I just don't think it's required. I don't think it's required for people to work 80 hour weeks to build a great company, and.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schmorak: Original Hostfully Product Has Zero Customer Churn
“Well, on the hostfully side, the churn is zero. The original hostfully, there are two companies, right? On the hostfully side, the churn is zero.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schmorak: Acquired Software Orbirental Experiences Roughly 30% Annual Churn
“It's probably 30% right now.”
Assertion Contradicted
Schmorak: Vacation rental software represents a $25B global market
“There are about a 100,000 of these companies in the world, and they spend about a quarter of a million dollars every year on software, so it's a twenty-five billion dollar market.”
Disclosure
Schmorak: Hostfully will not accept a valuation cap below $7M
“I don't think I'd take anything less than seven.”
Insight
Schmorak: Founders should treat fundraising as offering opportunity, not feeling indebted
“You really have to believe and put yourself into this mindset that you are giving people the opportunity to ride this wave with you. You're giving people the opportunity to grow their money with you. That's the mentality. So there's no like, oh, oh, we got it.…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schmorak: Original Hostfully platform has zero customer churn
“Well, on the hostfully side, the churn is zero. The original hostfully, there are two companies, right? On the hostfully side, the churn is zero.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Orbirental sees 30% annual customer churn following its merger with Hostfully
“It's probably 30% right now.”
Assertion Contradicted
Schmorak claims Airbnb failed to double its business between 2015 and 2018
“Airbnb hasn't, they haven't even doubled their business since then.”
Disclosure
Schmorak: Hostfully will not accept a valuation cap below $7M
“I don't think I'd take anything less than seven.”
Insight
Schmorak: Startup fundraising operates in two annual cycles starting Feb/March and Aug/Sept
“There are two seasons of fundraising in the year. There's one in like February, March, and then there's another one that's like August, September, but that's like when they start.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schmorak: 197 of 200 Airbnb hosts surveyed said they would pay for digital guidebooks
“We went to the Airbnb host conference a few months later to validate this idea, and we built a prototype, and it was an iPhone app, and we said, if you had a guidebook that you could send to your guests, like a digital guidebook like this, like, would you pay …”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schmorak: Hostfully monthly revenue increased from $11,000 to $25,000 after merger
“So we just did that about three weeks ago. And our revenue went from 11,000 to now 25,000 monthly revenue.”
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Schmorak: Charles Hudson invested $300k in Hostfully above his typical check
“His typical size is two 50 for the first check. I wanted to basically get him to invest something more than two 50, and he said 300,000.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schmorak: 197 of 200 surveyed Airbnb hosts wanted digital guidebooks
“And we interviewed 200 people, and 197 of them said yes.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Hostfully revenue grew from $11K to $25K monthly after Orbi Rental merger
“And our revenue went from 11,000 to now 25,000 monthly revenue.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schmorak: Hostfully is essentially break-even with $25K monthly revenue and burn
“Our burn is around 25. And our revenue is around 25. So we're basically break-even. We're within a month or two of break-even.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schmorak admits to bombing early investor pitch with Comcast Ventures' Daniel Gulati
“So my first meeting was Daniel Galati, super nice guy. I went to meet with him in the Comcast offices. I totally did not do a good job without meeting with him and it's okay. I mean, it was like one of my first meetings and I actually walked out and I said, yo…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schmorak: Hostfully generated 700 leads from a three-week white paper project
“We developed a white paper last year on hospitality and vacation rentals, and we branded it, and my co-founder and I did it in like three weeks, and we've gotten 700 leads out of it”
