Fancy.com

I am investing in Fancy.com because I believe the risk reward is terrific. Fancy once had an implied private market value of over one billion US dollars (!) and a top shelf investor list that included Will Smith, Carlos Slim Domit, and Francois Henri-Pinault. The capital previously raised amounted to over $100 million US. While some of that capital was poorly allocated, much of the remaining underlying assets that were developed with that capital are of substantial current value. These include:
- The Fancy brand name and URL/web site real estate - 2.7 million verified installs of the fancy app - Over 300,000 monthly visitors to Fancy.com - Outsized potent SEO authority that has great value  - A tech stack that is up-to-date and world class on which to maintain and build the e-comm platform All of these are the assets which you as an investor will own by investing now, from the pained days of “old Fancy” valued that was valued at > $1.2B A bit over a year ago, new management was brought in and the company is now spearheaded by Greg Spillane. Greg and his family live near me here in San Diego. We chat often, and Greg and I used to meet monthly for coffee, pre-COVID. Greg and his team have done a wonderful job of stripping down the old bad habits, a too high expense structure, junky product from vendors that didn’t fulfill promises, a distracted product mix and more. Basically everything has been retooled.  Today:  - Average order size is up 25%+ - Margins are 3x year ago  - Monthly burn rate is down over 60% - Return on ad-spend is up over 150% For full transparency, I put $200,000 into Fancy a year ago when I first met Greg and reviewed the plan. I am also familiar with some of the other investors both from prior and current capital raises. The current raise is at a maximum, a modest total enterprise value of $12 million.  Going forward, the investment bet I’m making is this. I believe that the current underlying assets; name, traffic, authority, and technology are worth roughly $10-12 Million, or at the price I, and perhaps you, are investing at today.  When investing my hard earned capital, I first look for how far I can fall. In the case of Fancy, I think the downside is from “curbside level.”  And the  upside is completely open ended and why I love this risk reward. I believe the closest public comparable is Etsy. If Greg and team is able to sharpen the product offering, and take full advantage of the embedded historical enthusiastic user base, there is substantial and frankly unlimited upside. In a world where the investing public rarely gets a fair shake and an early look at a real company with a chance to invest alongside seasoned investors, this is that shot.  Actual miles may vary, but in my mind this is a chance to earn multiples of invested capital, and maybe have a bit of fun. The upside-downside calculus is favorable and capital invested at this valuation will give the Fancy team perhaps a year and a half of runway to get the merch dialed in.  There’s a good YouTube link on the Fancy site to the view the idea directly from Greg, in his words.  And remember, investing in illiquid private equity is exactly that. Illiquid. Invest accordingly. Should you decide to join the Fancy investor group, good luck to us all   Regards,  Michael