Substream - US opportunity

Interactive live-streaming platform built by the team behind Instagram Live

Morning all,

Excited to share a business that came across my desk courtesy of one of my closest friends - OG Shaman and Prolific LinkedIn Poster, Alex Calder.

He introduced me to Jesse (an ML engineer with experience at Google & Meta) who has gone all in on building his next business. Without further ado…

Introducing: Substream

Substream is a revolutionary interactive livestreaming platform that embeds into any website or app to empower entertainment businesses to generate revenue and fan engagement.

Problem We Solve

Modern streaming platforms run their ads over businesses' content, withhold the audience data and hinder profitability by only providing a sliver (<45%) of the revenue. 

Product Substream Demo.mov

Substream’s interactive streaming platform enables businesses to seamlessly stream events and take ownership of their data and monetization channels. We provide the lion share of revenue and support advertising, in-stream commerce, real-time betting and pay-per-view subscriptions. 

• Simulcast to all major platforms and co-stream with influencers (i.e. influencer ‘Jessica’ can stream an event to her 2M followers across Facebook, Instagram and Youtube)

• In-stream commerce (e.g. syncs with Shopify for merchandise purchases, live, social betting)

• Social audience interaction; 4k streaming; AI global translations; scheduling and payments

Traction

• Substream is live with 8 design partners, including emerging sports leagues, nonprofits and two of the largest online betting platforms. Over 110k streams completed.

• We are in the final stages of closing a large entertainment customer contract worth $26M/year in revenue.

Market Opportunity

The livestreaming market is projected to reach $247 billion by 2027. Substream is positioned to capture significant value in this space by offering an alternative to the current major platforms, empowering rights holders in sports, entertainment, and nonprofits to fully monetize their livestream content.

Investment Opportunity

We are 100% bootstrapped to date and we’re currently raising a pre-seed SAFE round. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get in early with favorable terms before our official seed round, which we are in the term sheet stage for at $4M. 

Pre-Seed SAFE Terms:

• Cap: $12M, Discount: 20%

• Raising $550K ($50k committed at writing of this doc) to invest in securing early contracts by offering production assistance and further development ahead of our seed round

The Team

Jesse Linson, CEO and co-founder: previously Google/Meta machine learning engineer and a key architect of Instagram Live. Evan Brandes, COO and co-founder: A serial entrepreneur with deep connections in entertainment marketing and family offices, responsible for securing our first major contracts.

Why Invest Now? We are in the final stages of closing a $4M seed round. The $26M/year large entertainment contract is projected to be finalized soon. Unique positioning as an infrastructure solution in a booming industry, strong team.

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