Kurt Avarell

Co-founder & CEO, Ember · 1 appearance on the record.

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founderexecutive@kavarell ↗emberhome.com ↗

A former Wall Street tax attorney, Kurt Avarell taught himself to code and founded Canopy, a cloud-based tax practice management SaaS platform. In 2021, he co-founded Ember, a venture-backed company focused on luxury vacation home co-ownership and property management.

10statements → 9claims → 2claims resolved → 3.9/5average certainty → 1.6/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated →

2 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 7 not checkable as stated how the 9 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

2 predictions · 7 assertions · 1 disclosure · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 9 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 2 are resolved, and 7 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Kurt argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported

Avarell: Peter Thiel led Ember's Series A in $17.4M combined round

“So we closed a seed and an A, which we kind of announced together at a 17.4 million dollar financing. The A was led by Peter Thiel. So we were super excited about that to have him lead that financing. And we closed that in February.”

Kurt Avarell Jun 30, 2022 ▶ 13:25 Rockstar Guitarist Launches SaaS, Breaks $3.6m in revenue, $30m valuation

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Kurt Avarell on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

What they said10 Episodes1

Everything Kurt Avarell said on Top Founders that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Prediction Not checkable as stated

Avarell: Ember will '100%' surpass $100 million in GMV in 2022

“Oh yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Based on the current growth, a hundred percent.”

Kurt Avarell Jun 30, 2022 ▶ 11:35 Rockstar Guitarist Launches SaaS, Breaks $3.6m in revenue, $30m valuation

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Avarell: Ember operates near breakeven with almost zero cash burn

“I can tell you, we operate pretty close to a breakeven. Like we've not burned hardly any cash. Most of the cash that we put on the balance sheet is to buy inventory.”

Kurt Avarell Jun 30, 2022 ▶ 12:07 Rockstar Guitarist Launches SaaS, Breaks $3.6m in revenue, $30m valuation

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Avarell: Pacaso and Ember are the two dominant players in fractional ownership

“Right now it's basically the two big players in the space are Picasso and Ember. There are a couple others that are smaller but those are the two big ones.”

Kurt Avarell Jun 30, 2022 ▶ 8:30 Rockstar Guitarist Launches SaaS, Breaks $3.6m in revenue, $30m valuation

Assertion Supported

Avarell: Peter Thiel led Ember's Series A in $17.4M combined round

Kurt Avarell Jun 30, 2022 ▶ 13:25 Rockstar Guitarist Launches SaaS, Breaks $3.6m in revenue, $30m valuation

Disclosure

Avarell: Ember takes 12% markup on home purchase and furnishings

“Where we make the money is on that You know, we're right now at 4.3 million dollars, the four million dollar purchase price of the home, 300,000 dollars of furnishings. We take a 12% uplift. So we'll take that 4.3, multiply it by 12%. And that's where Embe…”

Kurt Avarell Jun 30, 2022 ▶ 18:10 Rockstar Guitarist Launches SaaS, Breaks $3.6m in revenue, $30m valuation

Prediction Not checkable as stated

Avarell: Ember expects to double or triple customer count by year-end

“Well, we've had over a hundred families buy in to Ember to date over the past 10 months, and yeah, we expect to, you know, double, double or triple that number toward, you know, the end of the year or so.”

Kurt Avarell Jun 30, 2022 ▶ 19:26 Rockstar Guitarist Launches SaaS, Breaks $3.6m in revenue, $30m valuation

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Avarell: Ember share transactions close in 24 hours via LLC interests

“You list the property, it goes up on the MLS, it goes on Ember's website. we bring in a buyer, the buyer buys a share, and they can actually close on that share in 24 hours because what they're buying is a membership interest in an LLC, not in not, you know,…”

Kurt Avarell Jun 30, 2022 ▶ 27:35 Rockstar Guitarist Launches SaaS, Breaks $3.6m in revenue, $30m valuation

Assertion Supported

Avarell: Canopy raised about $70M by 2019 departure

“We raised at the time that I left, it was about seventy million.”

Kurt Avarell Jun 30, 2022 ▶ 2:12 Rockstar Guitarist Launches SaaS, Breaks $3.6m in revenue, $30m valuation

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Avarell: Most second-home owners use properties only six to eight weeks yearly

“The downside is most second home owners don't use the home That often. And so you know, they're only, they think they're going to be there six months out of the year, but they end up only being there six to eight weeks out of the year.”

Kurt Avarell Jun 30, 2022 ▶ 5:00 Rockstar Guitarist Launches SaaS, Breaks $3.6m in revenue, $30m valuation

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Avarell: Ember holds $20M to $30M in total debt financing

“Well on the debt side, it's, there's several different sources of debt that we use to make this happen. And you know, it's probably in the 20 to thirty million dollars right now on the debt side and the combination of everything collectively.”

Kurt Avarell Jun 30, 2022 ▶ 14:24 Rockstar Guitarist Launches SaaS, Breaks $3.6m in revenue, $30m valuation

Appearances (1)

Episode	Date	Speaking time
Rockstar Guitarist Launches SaaS, Breaks $3.6m in revenue, $30m valuation	Jun 30, 2022	19m

Kurt Avarell

The record, in short

Their most notable supported claim

How they sound: not measured why? →

Appearances (1)

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