YC Winter’24 Application (JCF)
It’s the YC application season again! As YC is the top startup accelerator we’d certainly like to be mentored and learning with the best, for a project such as JCF, a social impact fund in crypto assets to make basic income universal to 1B+ people by 2040!
As part of our tradition and value in transparacy, we’re sharing our application below:
COMPANY
Company name:
Joint Commonwealth Inc.
Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.
crypto impact fund to make basic income universal
Company url, if any:
What is your company going to make? Please describe your product and what it does or will do.
We’re providing a safe & accessible way for people to invest in the crypto/blockchain trend (top 10 index fund + easier interface such as instant messager), while using the profit of the fund to support social causes such as basic income, or others chosen by the token holders.
FOUNDERS
Please provide some details of the cofounders in the startup.
Founders must have at least 10% equity in the company.
YOU
Name* (Required)
Shun-Yun Hu
Linkedin URL* (Required)
https://linkedin.com/in/shunyunhu
Are you a technical founder?* (Required)
(You are a programmer, engineer, or scientist who can build the product without outside assistance.)
Yes
Who writes code, or does other technical work on your product? Was any of it done by a non-founder? Please explain.
We currently outsource the development to Shun-Yun’s first company Imonology, which is a remote agile software firm that has built games, IT and blockchain systems. Shun-Yun oversees the code development as product owner.
How long have the founders known one another and how did you meet? Have any of the founders not met in person?
Founders have known each other since early 2022 through Dr. Benjamin Hardy’s AMP Platinum online coaching program, and decided to collaborate after attending the June 2022 Collision together in Toronto. We initially met remote, started weekly sync, and have met face to face June 2022 (toronto) and June 2023 (UK & Toronto).
PROGRESS
How far along are you?
Proof of concept (PoC) fund is ready, reliability of the invest strategy has been shown (33% annual avg RoI since inception in 2019) but can be made more consistent. MAU is about 90+ and looking to scale up to 1,000+ now by adopting funnel marketing. Monthly dividend yield was 2% in 2020 and 6% in 2021, then met with crypto winter.
Due to expected regulatory environment worldwide, we’re now looking at becoming just the software / strategy / donation provider while leaving asset custodian to fund managers or clients.
How long have each of you been working on this? How much of that has been full-time? Please explain.
Shun-Yun conceived the idea since Dec. 2017 and started the project/company in 2018, with about 20–50% of work time spent. Mike joined since July 2022 and had been working on sales/marketing/UX aspects, with about also 20–50% time involvement.
Are people using your product?
Yes
How many active users or customers do you have? How many are paying? Who is paying you the most, and how much do they pay you?
MAU is 93 now, clients pay as % of dividends received.
We have discovered professionals / owners / retirees who’d like to get into crypto trend but with little time/background found our service most attractive and contributed more ($1,000+ on average) while the avg contribution is $500/person.
We take only 13% off the dividends they receive, so about 3.25% off the investment profit earned.
Do you have revenue?
No
Anything else you would like us to know regarding your revenue or growth rate?
We previously had monthly revenue in $2k range during the crypto growth in 2020–2021 but our strategies rely too much on the upward trend so no dividend payout since Apr. 2022 and hence no revenue.
If you are applying with the same idea as a previous batch, did anything change? If you applied with a different idea, why did you pivot and what did you learn from the last idea?
We’re focusing on two things now:
1) improving invest strategy so there’ll still be profits in bearish markets
2) decentralizing asset ownership so it would scale more flexibly given the upcoming regulatory environment worldwide.
We may not be holding actual crypto assets but work with asset owners/managers to help their clients with investment strategy & social dividend payout. What we learned was:
1) we want an all-season strategy so profit/dividend can be consistent
2) we want decentralized asset ownership so legality would not hinder our scaling.
If you have already participated or committed to participate in an incubator, “accelerator” or “pre-accelerator” program, please tell us about it.
HyperAccelerator: https://www.startupcourse.com/
remote accelerator to highlight revenue/profit generation as early as possible
Draper University’s 2 week program
learned in-depth on the funding aspect and what investors were looking for
YC Startup School.
great course materials and on the importance to release early, talk to users
IDEA
Why did you pick this idea to work on? Do you have domain expertise in this area? How do you know people need what you’re making?
Wealth gap is increasing and might get worse before it gets better. UBI is a potential solution but governments are slow to act.
Why not start from the private sector to support the funding and distribution of UBI in a community-based fashion all over the world so it can scale to 1B+ people by 2040 with possibly a 100T+ total fund size?
see this for our WHY: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ekb5niWlEsk&t=1s
we have background in software & sales, and we ourselves (40Y+ entrepreneurs / professionals with family to care and legacy to leave) are the main target audience.
Who are your competitors? What do you understand about your business that they don’t?
1) existing crypto funds/invest vehicles > too difficult to engage/use for average people
2) existing passive income instrument > easy to engage but not as high RoI and no ready social element to have a wide reach
How do or will you make money? How much could you make?
(We realize you can’t know precisely, but give your best estimate.)
all the fund’s profits goes into a “dividend pool” that pays out regular (now monthly) dividends to all participants 25% of the pool. Of the dividend paid, 40% is “common dividend” (by holding size); 40% is “shared dividend” (equally shared as basic income); 7% is “donation tokens” (to someone/org for social purpose) and 13% is “team tokens” (to us JCF the company).
Assuming a 8%-32% annual RoI on the fund, and an estimated 3.25% of the profit as our revenue (25% of dividend pool as dividend payable and 13% as team tokens, 0.25 x 0.13 = 0.0325), our revenue ranges from 0.26% ~ 1.04% of total fund size managed (AUM).
For an AUM of $1M, revenue forecast would be $2,600 ~ $10,400.
For $10M AUM, revenue would range from $26,000 ~ $104,000.
How do users find your product? How did you get the users you have now? If you run paid ads, what is your cost of acquisition?
We have acquired the current 90+ users mostly from friends, word of mouth and BNI (Business Network International) participants in Taiwan.
We’re exploring “funnel marketing” at the moment with possibly paid ads to educate people on “safe crypto investment”.
If you track metrics around user engagement and retention, what are they?
Not tracked yet.
Where will most of your initial users be located?
Taiwan
Which category best applies to your company?
Financial Services
EQUITY
Have you formed ANY legal entity yet?
This may be in the US, in your home country or in another country.
Yes
Please list all legal entities you have and in what state or country each was formed (e.g. Delaware C Corp, Mexican SAPI, Singapore Pvt Ltd, etc.).
This might include subsidiary companies, legal entities you formed in other markets to do business, entities you created before a pivot, or legal entities you set up to employ developers or other service providers.
Taiwan (Incorporation): reg number: 50791133 (system development)
UK (private limited): reg number: 9628635 (market development)
Have you taken any investment yet?
No
Are you currently fundraising?
Yes
Please provide any relevant details about your current fundraise.
We’re looking for $1.5M for 10% to enhance 3 core areas: investment strategy, accessibility via IM interface & funnels, impact/donation integration.
OTHERS
If you had any other ideas you considered applying with, please list them. One may be something we’ve been waiting for. Often when we fund people it’s to do something they list here and not in the main application.
ascender: social impact remote accelerator to grow 1,000 unicorns by 2040.
concept:
right now it’s.a coaching based on Dan Sullivan (Strategic Coach) and Dr. Benjamin Hardy (Medium #1 blogger) 10x future selves mindset around YC Startup School materials. And we’ve got two batches of “remote founders” who have gone through the coaching program. looking to scale it up internationally and remotely.
CURIOUS
What convinced you to apply to Y Combinator? Did someone encourage you to apply? Have you been to any YC events?
YC is the most experienced accelerator for impactful startups. Been reading Paul Graham’s articles over decades. Been a participant to YC Startup School.
How did you hear about Y Combinator?
Been reading hackers news as a student since 2005.
