Investment commitment in Tash Grossman at Slip
I have committed to invest in Tash Grossman at Slip's Seed round. Here's why.
unbundled vc looks for:
1. Very strong founders
2. building differentiated products that matter
3. that can scale fast
4. with huge potential markets,
5. a plausible route to market
6. and great unit economics
1. Tash is a very strong founder. Very personable, great at sales and gives straightforward answers that always make sense. The combination is not so common. Often when people are good at sales it can cover flaws in the underlying answers. That either isn't the case here or she's even better at sales than I think.
2. Slip offers digital receipts. That does not sound exciting. Many people have tried this and failed. What they couldn’t do was super fast integration with high conversion rates for retailers. And there is a “why now” - sustainability-driven legislation is incoming because paper receipts are not recyclable. The offer has always been to drive loyalty and data-driven insights. Nobody has ever delivered on this until now.
JD Sports just did a three-week trial before rolling out to 370 stores UK-wide. They did this because it mattered and it worked. The rollout is already exceeding expectations.
3. This is a digital proposition. Integration is fast. Once integrated, it’s easy to roll out more broadly. It can be scaled very quickly as is evidenced by JD.
4. Because the integration is with POS providers, there is little implementation difference anywhere in the world. There are a lot of large retailers worldwide. The market feels like a winner-takes-all play. There will be no need for a second provider. You can get lock-in by providing additional data insights. Once you have that, you have a moat. There is easily room for a venture scale outcome.
5. Tash has an insanely good network along with advisers with their own great networks. Tash being who she is, her network will grow fast. The first enterprise client is on board. Once other retailers see the positive impact and easy implementation, they will come to her.
6. This is a purely digital proposition. The gross margins are high and the unit economics are great.
This is why I am investing. Let's see how it plays out.
