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A Robotic Arm For Joint Replacements That Drastically Improves Operational Efficiency
Plus, Rivalry, a sportsbook for gaming, founder Steven Salz on the pod.
Heyyyo,
What a difference a week makes, Bitcoin and ETH are back above $40k and $2k, respectively (though that prolly changed since opening this email 🤦🏼‍♂️) $HOOD had their IPO and saw it crash and burn (predicted) only to rebound and peak at $77/share EOTD Wednesday, this shit is CrAzY! Robinhood wasn’t alone either, a ton of tech stocks surged… including local (to Chicago) Sprout Social which cracked a $5B Market Cap.
Last week, I stopped by The National Card Show — which was incredible btw. To share more on why so many tech founders, entrepreneurs and investors are flocking to trading cards (literally hundreds of millions invested in card platforms in 2021), I did a special intro to this week’s podcast summarizing the investor (and collector) opportunities.
Speaking of the pod, and huge opportunities, sports betting is about to hit gaming and esports in a major way. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to any of you. I’ve reviewed a handful of gaming startups… but this one takes the cake! Rivalry.com is a legit (and fast growing) sportsbook dedicated to esports! Rivalry founder Steven Salz joined me on Technori Podcast to talk about the evolution of gaming and its impact on mainstream trends, including crypto, NFTs and obviously gambling.
Listen to my full interview…
Find me on Twitter @kitun.
Scott
Every week I breakdown startup pitches with the added hook that you can invest whether you’re accredited or not (if you don't know what that means, click here).
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Company Bio
Monogram uses robotics to build personalized joint replacements.
To put it simply, the current robotic arm responsible for joint replacements (and other medical procedures) is basically a big swing arm doctors use like car repair shop. Monogram is active navigated, meaning its agile and works for the doctor — drastically improving operational efficiency and easy of use by doctors; ultimately leading to faster, better joint replacement surgeries. Coming from a guy with a family full of fake hips and knees, what’s not to like here!?!
Meet the Founder
Watch my full interview with Monogram Founder Ben Sexson here.
Prior to joining Monogram, Ben served as the Director of R&D and Business Development at Pro-dex. Ben graduated with honors from Caltech in Mechanical Engineering and is a CFA Charterholder.
Ben has assembled a legit team of doctors and engineers that would rival some of NASA’s best — several team members helped develop the current leading robotic arm alternative and several more have worked at some of the best engineering and medical research schools in the world. I have no doubt what they built is next level and likely a major improvement for both patient and doctor. The remaining question is, can Ben & Co build and lead a world class sales org?? Because to crack the Stryker market lead and get meaningful adoption — they’re going to need it!
Traction
Already raised $16.7M from 6,793 investors through 3 financing rounds
Currently pre-revenue, expected to begin generating sales from sales of implants in 2021 and have signed strategic contracts with two Monogram distributors and recruited the Senior Director of US Sales from our manufacturer to support early sales efforts.
The joint replacement market is approximately $19.6BN, with over 1 million knee replacements per year.
As is typically the case for MedTech companies, it takes years of R&D, testing and evaluation before go-to-market. Such is the case for Monogram, but what is unique is just how massive the market is (and will become) as technology enables more people access to joint replacements. Furthermore, the robotic sector of this market is dominated by Stryker which makes up nearly 87% of the market who tech is somewhat outdated and ripe for disruption.
Terms & Takeaway
Invest in Monogram here 👉 https://bit.ly/3AoO2pt
Security Type: Equity
Pre-Money Valuation: $89,900,000
Raised (as of publishing): $8,620,457
Minimum Investment: $250.80
Here's what I like: Well, there’s a $50 Billion TAM to start. Then, there’s the fact that Monogram offers a robotic alternative that doctors will actually enjoy using — both because of its function and its impact on total number of procedures it can assist on. Then, there’s the patient impact — imagine not needing to get new hips every decade or having far more flexibility because your replacement join was made from a 1-size fits all molding. Monogram's Robotic arm enables a more personalized fit with far better stability. Overall, I think this is a pretty novel innovation with incredible promise in a massive market dominated by old tech.
Here's what I don't love: Despite the huge TAM, $89M for a pre-revenue company is bananas. Granted, it’s not like Monogram failed to generate revenue, they literally could not sell an incomplete product. And, the cost of R&D in this space is largely why Stryker has dominated the space without any competition — the cost of doing business has been its moat.
That said, betting on a genius product that is unproven is a dicey proposition — even for me. I would have preferred a bigger discount ahead of finding product-market-fit.
Who should invest and why: Here’s the deal, if you’re in need of joint replacement, you should be backing anyone trying to make that procedure more attainable and long-lasting. Supporting this company might literally improve your way of life (because even in failure, they force the market to advance). Obviously, investing is in the end about returns and in that regard, the risk of failure is high, especially at this price. But, what does success look like?? Well Stryker has a market cap of $100 BILLION 👀
As always, startup investing is super high risk, anything can happen.
Invest in Monogram here 👉 https://bit.ly/3AoO2pt
Questions? DM me on Twitter @kitun