Having a startup is really fucking hard. It takes a toll on your physical and mental health, your relationships, your confidence, your bank account. Sleeping through the night becomes a distant mirage, an oasis that you’re pretty sure you’ll never reach again. Founders fight with depression, self doubt, and rapidly-approaching poverty every single day.
That’s why I’m always really excited to celebrate the victories of the startups and founders that I know. I know that struggle, guys, so I want to give a warm congratulations to the team at Dealflicks for closing their $1.7 million seed round last month.
Can we all give a round of applause, please?
Fundraising is quite possibly the most difficult of all the difficult things that a founder has to do, so closing a round is always a cause for celebration. For those of you who don’t feel like clicking on this link, Dealflicks describes themselves as “Priceline for movie tickets.” They connect movie-lovers with tickets and concessions that are discounted by up to 60%, filling empty seats in theaters and basically making everyone happy all around.
They’ve also partnered with over 400 theaters in the U.S., which can at least partially be credited to co-founder Kevin Hong putting together a team of hustlers and living out of a van as they traveled from state to state and convention to convention to form partnerships country-wide.
As for Dealflicks’ own revenue, they’ve recently crossed the $1.7 million mark, which represents a 45% month over month growth. They’ve also sold over 55,000 tickets and concessions.
And the theaters are seeing results.
Dealflicks reports that their partner theaters have seen new customers, more repeat customers, and many customers buying concessions at full price, even though they could get a discount. That means that the theaters are reporting increases in marginal revenue, attendance, and concessions sales – a factor that’s especially important to those smaller, local theaters.
Who’s funding ‘em?
Dealflicks pulled in some impressive venture capital names in this round, including 500 Startups, Siemer Ventures, Archer Gray, Rubicon VC, Wefunder, Be Great Partners, Rosepaul Investments, Mogility Capital, Sierra Maya Ventures, and Warner Brothers Media Camp. They also pulled in a bunch angels, including Ajay Narula, Richard Wolpert, Larry Braitman, Marc Berger, Hersh Narula, Jason Kothari, and Darcy Wedd.
The length of those lists tells me that Kevin and his team have been working hard and kicking ass this past year. Once again, congratulations guys. Enjoy this moment – you deserve it.
Photo Credits
Courtesy of Dealflicks
