C2V February Notes From The Trenches
Welcome friends!
Well, 2023 was already off to a shaky start and seems to be getting weirder/more ominous by the day, but while we wait to see if the aliens who are apparently doing pre-invasion DD are savvy enough to realize there must be a better option… at least we still have the Super Bowl!
As we noted last February, the Super Bowl is “as uniquely all-caps AMERICAN as it gets,” not just because we take some of the best athletes humanity has ever produced and ask them to beat the absolute sh-t of each other for 3 hours but also for the $600 million worth of advertising that probably draws more viewers than the game itself.
Last year we dove into the economics of Super Bowl advertising. This year, in the spirit of having a little fun before the aliens take over, we’re keeping it light with…
Matt’s (Hastily Thrown Together) Super Bowl Ad Rankings
As the header indicates, there is nothing sophisticated, objective, or particularly thoughtful about what follows. Purely a function of what I enjoyed most and least. So, without further ado…
The Best of the Bowl
My favorites in no particular order:
Mr. Peanut Roast – Great idea with a high degree of difficulty (because the roast jokes actually need to be funny if it’s going to work), but what do you know, they were funny! Good on you, Planters (and Jeff Ross).
E*Trade Babies – I’ve wanted to do an all-time SB commercial ranking for years, but I’m afraid it would just end up being a thousand words on how awesome I think E*Trade’s ad game is. I loved this one, and it probably doesn’t even crack their all-time top 20. Nice to see the Tom Brady of SB commercials still has it (please don’t retire, E*Trade).
Affleck/Dunkin’ Donuts – I’m not actually sure this was good, but Affleck in full Boston accent + Dunks is New England-guy catnip (even if it’s only the family’s second best Dunks ad, well behind brother Casey’s 2017 SNL spot).
[Turbo] Tax Without Hats – I'm not sure what this says about me, but an old guy dancing to an ‘80s banger will never fail to make me happy. It’s like there’s someone who also couldn’t understand why, despite that gut feeling of cringy discomfort, they were unable to look away from those old Six Flags commercials said, “Hey, what if we did this same thing, but with a much better song and an actor who’s 95% less creepy”?
Goose’s Son Dancing to Hold Music – I can’t explain why I enjoyed this so much, but I did.
Premature Electrification – If South Park has taught us anything, it’s that taking one joke and beating into the ground is a high-risk strategy that often doesn’t work, but when it does, it’s magic.
Thank You Canada – Would I have been all-in on Dave Grohl saying pretty much anything to a camera for 30 seconds? Probably, but the content was also great (what % of viewers immediately googled “did Canada really invent football”? My guess is somewhere around “all of them”).
Not as Bad as That Defensive Holding Call, But Still Disappointing
Hellmann's in the Fridge – Maybe if I’d never seen Jon Hamm’s similar but much funnier “Hamm & Buble” SNL sketch?
Sam Adams – Similar issue here, though much less fair on my part. It’s a decent spot; I’m just upset that Bill Burr’s not involved.
Squarespace/Adam Driver – Remember the flip side of that South Park coin we talked about?
DoorDash Groceries – Tiny Chef is a national treasure and deserved far better than being a 2.5-second throw-in (if you’re unfamiliar w/TC’s work, do yourself a favor and carve out a couple of hours tonight for a trip through his Instagram library). This is actually applicable to a bunch of these ads, but you don’t need to cram 8 celebrities into a 30-second spot. One or two is plenty. Especially if one of them could easily carry 20 minutes solo. #letchefcook
Other national treasures that were grossly underutilized (or outright mistreated):
Maya Rudolph M&Ms – The less said about this one, the better. #freemaya
Paramount+/Sly – Hard to overstate how ready I was to fall off my couch laughing when they set up “Stallone Face,”… and then they went with a sneeze joke? It’s like buying an Aston Martin and only using it for trips to the grocery store. This should haunt P+ more than that Kadarius Toney punt return haunts Philly this offseason.
Will Farrell EV Pickup – It took me half the ad to realize “Netflix/GM crossover” wasn’t part of the joke, and now I’m just confused. Anyway, this wasn’t quite as egregious a misuse of comedic genius as the others, but it wasn’t great either. And seriously, what does Netflix have to do with pickup trucks?
Way too much reliance on nostalgia this year. I’m obviously all for old movie and music references when used well (see a couple of my faves above or even “Workday Rockstar,” which only missed the cut because those haggard faces made me think way too much about my own mortality). Still, you can’t just slap a dud script onto a classic movie/character and expect nostalgia to carry the whole thing. For example:
Serena/Any Given Sunday Speech – Great athlete/competitor/personality and great movie scene, but Serena just read the speech verbatim (and in a flat monotone). That was it. Nothing else. At the very least, give us the version of Serena who’s down a couple of games in a 3rd set, mad at the chair ump, her coach, and two of the ball boys, and about to completely ruin the psyche of an opponent who made the mistake of thinking she had a chance of winning for a hot second.
Some other examples:
The Breaking Bad One
The Alicia Silverstone One
The Ben Stiller One
The Steve Martin One
The Caddyshack One
(See what I mean? And I probably missed one.)
Last of the disappointments… the trailer for the Nike/MJ Damon & Affleck movie. I love Damon and Affleck, and I really hope my initial reaction was wrong and this movie is awesome, but I’m concerned. If this one goes the way of The Last Duel, Matt and Ben might need to move back to Southie for a couple months of Rocky III-style “get back to their roots” training. Actually, you bring some cameras, throw in s couple slow-motion beach runs and a liberal helping of “Eye of the Tiger” and you might have their best work since Good Will Hunting. I think we’re onto something here.
Until next year!
Latest Investment
We’re pleased to share our latest investment from our pre-seed, Tributary Fund, Retrievables, a B2B FinTech Marketplace for buying and selling delinquent accounts receivable. While working at a debt collections law firm (the primary buyers of delinquent receivables), founder Jeremy Crane saw firsthand the various inefficiencies in the market that made it difficult both for the buyers to scale their practices efficiently and for the sellers, small and midsized businesses (“SMBs”), to find buyers and administer transactions.
Like other marketplaces, Retrievables solves for the lack of price transparency and wide volatility in clearing prices, as well as administrative inefficiencies that are especially pronounced in this particular market, where many SMBs may only be sporadic sellers (and therefore end up more or less starting from scratch each time they need to transact).
In fact, the hassle of searching for buyers, negotiating deals, and processing paperwork often deters SMBs from even attempting to collect, which cumulatively destroys millions of dollars of economic value every year. The other issue specific to this particular market is the unique geographic dynamics, where SMBs generally only have collection firm relationships in their local markets (if at all) but delinquent accounts that come from all over the country.
It is still early days for Retrievables, but they have an initial cohort of collections firms onboarded and actively bidding on delinquent accounts. They are using this funding round to significantly increase seller volume in the near term (which will attract additional buyers and so on).
C2V By The Numbers
C2V In The News
Chris advises those looking to become venture capitalists: don’t undertake the opportunity unless you have some core differentiation on the companies you’re trying to invest in. Find your niche, region, or territory, and get a clear focus on what you’re investing in and why. For Chris and the team at C2 Ventures, their primary goal is to invest in healthy businesses that have experienced pain points and are solving complex problems in legacy industries.
Job Opportunities
With the current job market and mass layoffs this year, we wanted to highlight openings in our portfolio companies. If you know anyone who would be a good fit, please share!
Armilla: SDR/BDR and Marketing lead.
Magellan AI: Account Executive, Measurement Success Manager, and Sales Development Rep.
Medmo: Medical Advisor.
Noteworthy AI: Machine Learning Engineer.
Olive: BDR with 1-year experience in B2B SaaS (JD to come)
Otis: Hiring Growth Director.
Paladin: Full Stack Software Engineer.
Retrievables: Head of Business Development.
TechTarform: Looking for a COO in the automotive space. Preferably a manufacturing background and has scaled a hardware startup.
Portfolio Highlights
Smartphone Driver Assistance Using AI
Innovative startups are tapping into AI further to improve the safety and quality of the driver experience. Rashid Galadanci, Co-Founder and CEO of Driver Technologies, shares how he and his team are using AI to enhance driver safety.
Finally, Business Owners Can Easily Collect What They Are Owed.
Jeremy Crane, the founder of Retrievables, thinks there may be another way to collect on delinquent accounts. The New York-based entrepreneur has developed a marketplace connecting collections attorneys with businesses who desire to collect on delinquent accounts.
Carriers Hoping to See Relief After Years of Insurance Premium Increases
Koffie Financial, which requires cameras and is connected to all of its customers’ trucks, is among the insurers that evaluate equipment to provide upfront discounts. “We want to identify these safety technologies, knowing they can have benefits and price them in now rather than wait five years,” said Ian White, CEO of Koffie, which offers a dividend program that gives fleets up to 10% back on their renewal based on their loss ratio from the prior year.