Hey — It's Nico.

This newsletter contains the following:

• 1 failed startup.
• 5 resources for founders.
• 5 startup news.
• 1 hot startup.

This issue is brought to you by On Deck Founders:

On Deck Founders (ODF) is an invite-only community for early-stage founders who want to find a co-founder, validate an idea, or build traction towards a fundraise. The best reason to join ODF is to 10x your support network of other helpful founders.

Founders joining ODF have gone on to build 1,000+ companies valued over $9 Billion. Some examples include Levels, Secureframe and Pave.

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Failed startup of the week: GoodGood

​GoodGood, a Toronto-based local commerce delivery startup, shut down this week, a year after its launch.

When COVID-19 hit, co-founders Robert Kim and Kris Linney saw an increased demand for local commerce in their area. However, they noticed a gap in the market for consumers looking to access craft items like niche beer and specialty snacks.

That’s when they decided to build a solution themselves, opening five cafes and a delivery service, bringing their curated items and hard-to-find local favorites to almost all of Toronto.

In December 2021, the company raised CAD $6.5M ($4.7M) in a seed round led by BKCM, Golden Ventures, and angel investors from Shopify and Digital Main Street. However, one year later, GoodGood is ceasing operations.

A statement on their website described the reasons for their failure: “The economic realities of rising interest rates, inflation, and a looming recession — economic factors that weren’t a reality when we began this journey — have had a dramatic impact on our business.”

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What to check this week?

💀 3 lessons from a failed fitness startup (Charge Running).

🎙 Interview with Airbnb co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk on how the company bounced back from pandemic layoffs.

💰 Here's how Eric Barone made $300M+ in revenue in 6 years with 0 employees.

💵 What founders need to know before selling their startup.

🤖 6 new theories about AI and how it'll remake human society.

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What happened this week?

⚔️ Elon Musk takes on a Goliath: Elon joins Epic’s ‘War’ against Apple's 30% App Store cut.

👻 Crypto lender BlockFi files for bankruptcy, becoming the latest casualty of crypto contagion following the collapse of FTX.

🔥 Black Friday 2022 e-commerce reaches record $9.12B. BNPL and mobile are big hits.

💰 Binance targets a $1B recovery fund to buy distressed crypto assets.

📸 BeReal wins ‘app of the year’ in Apple’s annual App Store Awards in 2022.

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Hot startup of the week: Burn Ghost

​Burn Ghost is a Web3 platform based in Boston, MA. This week, they raised $3.1M in seed funding led by Bitkraft Ventures, DraftKings, and Pillar VC.

Co-founded by Steve Curran (CEO), Jason Krupat (CPO), and Bret Siarkowski (CTO), the trio believes they “cracked the code” to NFT gaming.

Instead of developing complex, robust games with NFTs at the heart of their gameplay, Burn Ghost will focus on simple casual games. When the user completes one of these games, it’ll be rewarded with an NFT.

The NFT gaming space continues to grow and attract new developers, so this concept will be one to watch in the coming months.

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What do you think of today's newsletter?

• ​🔥 F**king great​
• ​😒 Meh​
• ​👎 Not interesting​

Which section was the best?

• ​Failed startup of the week​
• ​What to check this week?​
• ​What happened this week?​
• ​Hot startup of the week​

Cheers,

Nico