Neal's Deals (Vol. 14)

Hey everyone - I spent most of this work week in San Francisco and could not help but notice all of the driverless cars that passed by me each day. For years I have been reading about a future where cars drive themselves with little human intervention and now it has become a reality. Tesla is responsible for one of the early iterations of widespread autonomous driving with its Tesla?auto-pilot, which was released in 2015 and still requires a driver to be present in the front seat. However,?numerous companies?developing fully-autonomous vehicles now have active pilots in San Francisco and are scaring New York visitors like myself every single day.?

For context, here are some of the most prominent companies now developing self-driving vehicles:?

1. Waymo - Owned by Google. Uses the fully electric Jaguar I-PACEs. Over 100 cars in downtown SF as of 2022, which is likely much higher today.?
2. Cruise - Owned by General Motors. Uses the Chevy Bolt. Estimated 200 cars in San Francisco.?
3. Cariad - Owned by Volkswagen. Targeting 2025 launch after recent partnership with MobileEye, which is an intel-owned company developing autonomous driving technologies and advanced driver-assistance systems.?

As many of you know, wide-spread adoption of autonomous vehicles has the potential to become incredibly beneficial for society. It would allow for better traffic flow, improved accessibility, environmental benefits and increased productivity. Most importantly, automotive transportation would become a lot safer. Many articles and publications including one published by the US Department of Transportation suggest that self-driving cars are orders of magnitude safer than human-operated vehicles. Considering there are over 35,000 deaths annually from human-error related car accidents, it may not be too crazy to remove humans from the drivers seat.?

However, there are definitely many kinks that need to be worked out from a technology perspective before these cars can become fully commercialized, and San Francisco residents are unfortunately bearing the brunt of these issues. For example, there have been dozens of stories about autonomous vehicles not reacting properly to emergency responders. These incidents include stopping in front of firetrucks, running over fire hoses and disobeying police (if you need a good laugh, the videos of police pulling over driverless cars are pretty funny). The vehicles also struggle to operate well in any adverse weather conditions so will often cause traffic jams when there is dense fog or heavy rain.?

These technology issues are expected to be fixed in the near future for the obvious safety reasons and to help push adoption. It will likely take decades for autonomous vehicles to become commonplace due to barriers across legislation and consumer behavior. For example, in January, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority wrote a 23-page letter to state agencies outlining the city’s concerns about autonomous vehicles. Nevertheless, companies like Waymo are moving faster than law makers and are already expanding operations aggressively in states such as Arizona, Texas and New Mexico.?

This is going to be an exciting theme to follow over the coming years (at least for me) so do not be surprised if the topic makes a reappearance sometime in the future.

P.S. If you have an invite code to Cruise, please send it to me!

Let’s get to it:?

Somethings, a New York-based teen mentorship platform raised $3.2 million in seed funding led by General Catalyst.

Why this is interesting: I am of the mindset that mentors are valuable at all stages of life given their role in offering personal and professional guidance, expanded networks and accountability. However, teens can use mentors most as they navigate through emotional challenges and important life decisions. There are countless reports that outline the positive effects mentorship has especially on teens so there is no question Somethings is addressing a real need. However, I question their solution’s long-term defensibility as their product is by no means a unique solution. I am also concerned that this is not a free platform given teens may not have the disposable income to spend on a solution like this. Regardless, kudos to Somethings for building a truly-impactful business ??????

Cascade Health, a Seattle startup that helps companies and consumers access publicly available pricing information supplied by hospitals and insurance companies raised a $2 million pre-seed round led by AlleyCorp.

Why this is interesting: According to a 2022 research study by HealthSparq, a health data company, as much as 44% of people may be deterred from seeing a healthcare professional because of price uncertainty. For that reason, laws were introduced over the past two years that require hospitals and insurance companies to disclose pricing information. While the pricing information is now publicly available, the data can’t be opened by a home computer given the size of the data sets. Insert Cascade. Their platform can sort, query, and transform the information into a readable menu for employers, insurance companies, consumers, hospitals, and government agencies. As expected, several startups with big-name backers emerged in the healthcare transparency industry including Turquoise Health, Sidecar Heath and Cash Price MD. I am curious if Cascade has any unique distribution channels that will enable them to sell more efficiently given the somewhat commoditized nature of their product. Regardless, this is a space that affects every American so there should be room for multiple winners.?

Tangible, a San Francisco-based carbon reduction platform for the construction industry raised $3 million in seed funding led by Foundamental.

Why this is interesting: On its website, Tangible explains that building materials are responsible for approximately 11% of all global greenhouse gas emissions. There is also increasing pressure from investors, tenants and regulators to develop properties more sustainably. The Tangible platform allows users to discover and select materials that will drive reductions in embodied carbon as well as manage, track, and report upon whether the building materials are aligned with sustainability goals. Also, the carbon footprint management market is massive valued at over $10B showing there is already a demonstrated willingness to spend on solutions in the space. I just question whether this specific customer profile cares enough or feels pressured enough to purchase a separate carbon reduction software solution, especially considering it will likely not benefit their bottom-line profitability. My inclination tells me the solution will be very dependent on geography at least in the near term, but hopefully, I am wrong ?? ?? ??

Deals in the Works:?If you want to learn more - feel free to reach out

1. Fractional consumer investing platform for franchises
2. Powerpoint operations tool that allows you to quickly review and analyze version history changes between decks
3. Platform that facilitates conversations with authorized AI clones of celebrities
4. Payments platform used to reduce fraud for title and escrow companies
5. Plaid for consumer behavior - platform that connects to a consumer's social media accounts, email, search history and other interaction points to help companies better understand their consumers

_____

Quote of the week:

“The secret of making progress is to get started.”

-Mark Twain

_____

Welcome to all my first time readers. Excited to announce we have now surpassed 500 subscribers on Neal’s Deals!!! Next stop 1,000 ??????