I would love to share my experience with one of our portfolio companies, YouStake. About a month ago, I made a trip down to San Francisco to visit 500 Startups. I had the opportunity to meet the YouStake team before their big demo day presentation. They immediately caught my attention. I was impressed by their founder and management team. Founder Frank DeGeorge, has held various positions within the casino, finance, military, and startup industries. He is a dedicated and respected military veteran with nearly 10 years of experience as a Captain in the US Army. YouStake is the first marketplace where fans can directly sponsor their favorite players in poker and eSports while sharing the winnings. Staking has existed for a while but fan have always had limited access. They created a simple and safe environment where fans can provide skilled players the access to capital needed to reach their superstar potential. After having my investment team do extensive research, I decided to invest in their seed round of fundraising.
As many of you know, the World Series of Poker is a major event that takes place once a year in Las Vegas. One of the players, Lizzy Harrison, reached out to me after reading a few media articles of Rosecliff’s investment into YouStake. Lizzy asked if I would back her in the upcoming WSOP tournament. I simply signed into my YouStake account and using my credit card I made an investment to “stake “ Lizzy for 10%. To make it simple…I paid for 10% of her enrollment fees and in return I received 10% equity in all her earnings. Frank DeGeorge reached out to me and informed me that Lizzy did great, but unfortunately did not make it to the next round. She finished in the final top 400.
Bottom line, I had an amazing experience using YouStake. The platform is seamless and the business is enticing. Poker is just one part of their business model. They plan on expanding into the fast growing eSports industry. Go check them out below…
RCVC 