Investor Update - October 2024

CoffeeBlack AI

Investor Update

October 2024

I like this format, because its a chance to reflect, share and chart a path for the future. I ordered this in relation to the importance each section has to me.

The Vision

We built an engine for crawling, scraping and extracting data from alternative data streams into a unified intelligence layer. So far we’ve scraped websites, called businesses using AI, queried APIs and ingested random datasets.

The core data structure is a knowledge graph with added vector, geospatial and keyword indexes.

The focus for the rest of the year, but measured in weeks is on three core pillars. A real-time feed of changes to the knowledge graph. A LLM based query planner to provide natural language search across multiple databases and a recommendation engine that allows someone to provide prompts and user information to receive tailored updates from the knowledge graph.

Failures

failed the “Mom Test”. The initial idea around CoffeeBlack AI focused on a newsletter that would be customized to a person’s interests. I even spoke to quite a few people in the process of building it out. What I didn’t account for and didn’t realize till afterwards was that no one wants another newsletter, because they don’t read the ones they already receive.I’ve come to the conclusion that reading books, listening to podcasts and watching YouTube videos doesn’t stop you from making mistakes but it does let you recognize that you’re making them sooner.

Observations

Content. Content is king. I’m not sure this wasn’t the case in the 2010s, but I think there was a phenomena where being technical was interesting. So it doubled as content which created a pseudo distribution channel.Distribution is all that matters may be a meme, but its also a reality. And currently, audiences start as interest in an authentic personality and with repeated interaction they turn into a qualified prospect.

Learnings

Speed is all that matters. Its a marathon not a race.These are both true. Navigating the paradox is the arbitrage.

Accomplishments

We shipped the SF Coffee Shop AC Map and the McFlurry Index.CoffeeBlack AI now has a demo portal at https://demo.coffeeblack.ai

We started working with one enterprise customer to hook up the CoffeeBlack AI real-time feed to their internal systems.

Cold starting social media is a challenge, but its hard not to look at these metrics and be proud of the results. We have already started to see the benefits of inbound leads through various channels.