Party Round want you to know that the party isn’t over yet. In fact, it just rebranded, set the music a little lower, and ended up offering some appetizers. After a while, aren’t we all made fun of?
Party Round announced today that it has changed its name to Capital to emphasize its product expansion. Now, the startup will not only make it easier for other startups to raise their own round of negotiations. Capital wants to build a tech stack for the modern founder to handle their finances, a crowded space, but one that always needs more disruption.
Up until this point, the startup has focused on automating seed transactions for companies like Diagram, Popshop, JuneShine, and Yuga Labs. Also, as CEO and Co-Founder Jordi Hays will admit, lots and lots of marketing.
“Party Round is a great, vibrant meme that is growing and meant to entertain the community,” said Hays, who built the company with Sarah Chase, speak. “But the point is, even our ambitions as a company and what we want to do in terms of products, is [different]. Fundraising and investing get a lot of attention in the startup media, but it can be as little as 1-5% of what it actually takes to build a company. “
“We are very comfortable saying that for the first 18 months of building this company, we will ignore every possible channel except tech Twitter and that sounds like the best possible strategy we can implement. present,” said the founder. “There are 100,000 founders and early stage investors who signed up for our email list.”
Capital wants to earn that trust and express an interest and give the founders the same place to raise, hold, and use that hard-earned capital. It’s a mature step for the company, raised $7 million last month from Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six fund, Anish Acharya from a16z, Shrug Capital, Packy McCormick, Nik Sharma and Austin Rief.
This is the simplest way to describe what Capital does today: Founders can turn to the platform to create and set terms for SAFE notes, then invite potential investors to contribute via across the platform. Meanwhile, investors can choose to link their bank accounts to invest in the company via USD or cryptocurrencies with a specific allocation; all while Capital handles the back-end documentation. There is an NFT to verify an investment if investors are interested in NFTs that verify an investment.
Once the funds are transferred, the founders can use Capital to create a business checking account, get a debit card, and make payments. Hays explains how a founder using Ramp for creidt tokens can then connect their Ramp account to Capital; same thing happens if someone is using Rippling for salary. The utility of Capital is that it gives all those fintech tools a home to live in, or, some might say, a living room to party.
Hays isn’t too intimidated by space unicorns, noting that many (such as Brex and Ramp) start out with tracking expenses and focus heavily on business, while Capital looks to work. with smaller startups at the time of their first fundraising.
“Before you need a bank account, you need money to put into that bank account. And unless you’re launching or generating revenue, really, really early and self-funding, usually those funds come from your investors,” Hays said. “We just focused on companies at the inflection point and figured out how we could be the first place where they raise, hold, and spend their money.”
The challenge for Capital is if it can prove that its users, an undisclosed number, stick enough to stay. So far, the company’s fundraising tool is free with a few simple steps: create a ring, configure SAFE terms, and invite investors. Hays says it will monetize new products over time, but ease of use will be at the heart of the business.
“I think being funny and entertaining is great, but in the long run, we think the most important thing [thing] is building the best products and software for the founding stage. And to do that, we needed a brand that would resonate more broadly and outside of our bubble,” the founder said.
