Get The Memo: Issue 7

Karma — The Game of Destiny

Company Overview

Does anyone remember the “Before Times”, when we could go out into the world, all mask-less and carefree? Being outside gave us a great feeling of being social AND entertained. With the amount of traction that remote work and networking has generated; I can’t imagine we will ever get back to 100% of where we left off in 2020. However, Karma — the Game of Destiny looks to be the platform that brings social and entertainment back to life, through AR & VR technologies.

In the grand list of impressive things co-founder and CEO Robert Porter has worked in, his new venture may be the most impactful. Karma — the Game of Destiny, is an online and mobile dating and social game, designed to help people meet and go out, based on values, compatibility, and intimate preferences.

I must admit, when I first heard of Karma, I thought it sounded cool, but didn’t know if people were willing to adopt this new way of interfacing… Then I saw the platform had 100,000 pre-registered users before their official launch.

So, who is Robert Porter anyways? He is a young entrepreneur that comes from two entrepreneurial parents. Seeing strong examples of ebbs & flows from their journeys has shaped him to want to be the best in all he does. He has graduated with two degrees, sold a company, played sports, plays five instruments, and speaks “a few” languages as well.

His co-founder, Rene Reyes, is an enterprise software architect, inventor and design engineer and VR Pioneer. The two met at a renewable energy startup in 2015. Robert was an early investor in the platform from conception and has always brought the ideas to go VR/AR for mobility.

Market, Model & Inflection Point

With a market of $40B in revenue for social networking sites, and an average of 8.7 active social media accounts for individuals 18–34, the world is hungry for technological innovation and entertainment distractions. AR/VR and immersive content is in high demand, and there is an enormous opportunity to fill this void with.

The game sells targeted coupons, promotional advertising, and awards prizes through the “Things to Do” and, “Outings” Buttons on the User Interface. The game does not use the typical subscription model but instead works more like a token vending machine that allows for renewing your “posting”.

• The Tokens last for 30 days and the game will ask for a new token to be applied after 25 days.
• The Player can choose to renew or to BAIL from the game at any time and all data will be deleted.
• Tokens are $1.99, $3.99, $6.99, and $9.99.
• Each gives full access to the game.
• They provide 1, 3, 6 or 9 lives for the player to have for the 30 days.

Robert co-founded Karma because of a complete lack of entertainment in the social meetup arena. The social platforms on the market today have numerous issues with hate and inappropriate behavior, a lack of user data ownership, and incomplete usage of AR/VR across social platforms for ease of use through mobile devices. Currently the market has a shallow view quick flip profile/picture viewing, which makes it ripe with fake profiles and mindless interaction.

Robert’s solution: Karma is for social dating and friendship seeking individuals who enjoy being entertained while visiting a distractive app. It is a non-membership, non-subscription, low cost, high value, cash model through tokenization. It’s designed to generate revenue through entertainment, while giving privacy and control to the players participating in online courtship and social networking.

Competition

Karma’s closest competitors are premium dating apps, such as Bumble, Tinder & The League. However, dating apps don’t have entertainment, and gaming platforms don’t have dating and social media. Karma is a first mover and in the genre of Sci-fi inter-reality play. They have designed not only a new paradigm in social media but also a new way to use the internet and mobile devices on an enterprise and entertainment level.

Their ambassadors and co-hosts can earn up to 20% on their audiences. This is substantially higher than YouTube or other social platforms. This system is gamified and counter intuitive to the corporate market. So, it will be hard for competitors to replicate, even if the game and platform are copied. IP for the basic algorithms and a basic lack of understanding in exactly how they are accomplishing their platform will be other barriers to competitors.

How would you deploy capital if you would hit your next milestone?

Karma is raising $3M ($2M equity & $1M convertible notes) to allocate to the following:

• $1.35M for employees
• $900k for marketing
• $405k for reserves
• $240k for office space
• $60k for workspace equipment
• $45k for travel and advertising

Karma is currently are outsourcing and would like to bring in more talent but don’t yet have enough resources to do it. They are focusing on strategic partnerships with groups able to provide professional talent and desiring to work with a startup at our stage and with our unique technology and value proposition.

They’re planning on 60–90 days to launch, 6 months to a critical mass based on current social media marketing campaigns with limited resources and their growth based on current metrics despite their gut instinct that they can grow much faster once the momentum and traction move to viral velocity.

We have bootstrapped and raised some funds. we are moving towards a combination of debt and crowdfunding while they continue to look for strategic partnerships, pre-seed and seed funding for a global rollout.

What is the legacy you, as a Founder, want to leave?

I want to be the MJ or Lebron of the gaming world. You always see a person who looks like me on the cover of videos games but never the creator or owner. When it comes to the virtual reality / gaming experience, I want the world to have that true immersive experience and I want the world to know Robert Porter was there.