Opinion
Mohnot: SkyHi isn't Amazon Prime because high usage hurts margins
“Amazon Prime is geared to you buying more Amazon products. Like, Amazon Prime, they sell you a yearly subscription with the hopes, and Amazon Prime customers buy a lot more shit on Amazon. Here, if you fly more, that sucks for you.”
Insight
Mohnot: External CEOs are red flags for pre-seed startups
“External CEO also is a red flag for me. At this stage in the company, a pre-seed company, a founder should probably be CEO.”
Insight
Mohnot: Invest equity for 20x upside, otherwise use revenue-based financing
“Are you gonna make twenty-x your money? Then make an investment, equity investment. If not, revenue-based financing.”
Opinion
Mohnot: Exit Multiple for The Cru Is Probably Not Very High
“And that's what I worry about here is that the exit multiple on this business is probably not very high.”
Opinion
Mohnot: SkyHi's subscription model is structurally identical to MoviePass
“This is exactly like a gym membership, but it's movie pass.”
Disclosure
Mohnot: I avoid models where high usage hurts company economics
“I don't ever want to invest in a product where the more the customer uses the product, the worse the company does. Like, that's not interesting to me.”
Insight
Mohnot: Seed-stage founders do not need growth marketing skills in-house
“Like she can hire a growth marketer. That's, I don't think that like, I don't think she needs that skill set as a co, as a co-founder. Like this is, I mean, this is a seed deal.”
Opinion
Sheel Mohnot: Top talent is never actively looking for a job
“I've never hired anybody who was looking for a job. I've hired people who are great people, and they're, great people aren't just available.”
Opinion
Mohnot: In-house collection of restaurant food waste is an operational nightmare
“So, my biggest concern is, like, you have an operations nightmare collecting all this stuff.”
Insight
Mohnot: Managing low-wage logistics labor is more complex than founders expect
“I just think the operational stuff, it's always more complex than you think, and I'm saying that because I, I've been through it personally, and people that are gonna work for you for 20 bucks an hour, driving or whatever, like, there's gonna be days where the…”
Assertion Supported
Sheel Mohnot defends Debbie Wei Mullin for reaching $1M revenue alone
“She built this to a million dollars in revenue all on her own, and you're like, oh, I need to see more proof?”
Disclosure
Mohnot passes on Sun & Swell over venture return profile
“It's not the return profile I'm looking for a venture investment. So I'm going to pass on investing, but would love to be helpful.”
Disclosure
Mohnot passes on The Black Travel Box over travel-only product frequency
“For me, the sort of travel piece within multicultural CPG, I think is, is too hard for me to like wrap my head around. People don't travel that often and for them to buy a specific product that is different than the product they've been buying just for travel.…”
Insight
Mohnot: Managing operational driver logistics is always harder than founders expect
“I just think the operational stuff, it's always more complex than you think, and I'm saying that because I, I've been through it personally, and people that are gonna work for you for 20 bucks an hour, driving or whatever, like, there's gonna be days where the…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Mohnot: Debbie Wei Mullen bootstrapped Copper Cow Coffee to $1M revenue
“She built this to a million dollars in revenue all on her own, and you're like, oh, I need to see more proof?”
Opinion
Mohnot: At $3 a cup, instant coffee will always be a niche product
“At three dollars a cup. It's never going to be, it's always going to be a niche product. Like it's not going to be daily use.”
Insight
Mohnot: Early fundraising succeeds by convincing investors the next pivot will work
“I think like getting a founder that makes you believe, and then there are like some proof points and it feels like just the next change is the one that's going to make it. So like, if you can get an investor to believe in that, like that this next thing is the…”
Disclosure
Sheil Mohnot passes on Fleeting due to stealth trucking startup conflict
“I'm invested in a company that is probably too adjacent to what you're doing. It's a stealth company, so I can't talk too much about it, but part of what they do is a income guarantee for truck drivers. So they pay you, and then they kind of manage your life. …”
Disclosure
Mohnot says he has never invested in a three-year time to market
“I've never invested in a company that couldn't get a product to market for three years.”
Disclosure
Mohnot offers a $25,000 personal angel check to Hava Health
“I'd like to write, like, a small personal check of, like, 25 K. Sure. If you could fit me into the previous round.”
Assertion Partly supported
Mohnot: Airline load factors rose from mid-60s 20 years ago to over 80%
“Where like load factors were, I think like in the mid sixties, 20 years ago, now they're upwards of 80%.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Mohnot: United Airlines is locked into a bad DirecTV contract
“I know that, like, United, for example, is locked into a shitty contract with DirecTV on a bunch of their planes.”
Disclosure
Sheil Mohnot passes on Copper Cow Coffee due to category unfamiliarity
“For me, it's just like a category I don't know well enough to make an investment. I wish you the best, but for me personally to invest in this round, I'm passing.”
Sheel Mohnot