August 2025 Investor Update - Sendd
CONFIDENTIAL: Marketplaces Demo; Marketplace Waitlist & Sendd V1 Birthday 🎂
Link to Sendd.market landing page:
https://www.sendd.market/
(Work in progress. You can join the waitlist if you’d like a marketplace of your own.)
Link to Sendd.market demo (click “Try Demo”): https://www.sendd.market/
(Also work in progress. The demo walks through quick store creation, marketplace creation, and then simulates being a Sendd.store seller with a product/service/event. You can join demo marketplaces, experience both sides of the marketplace, add items to a cart, and complete a dummy checkout.)
Traction since last update
197+ Sign Ups (since V1 launch)
$63,000 in fees saved for customers (since V1 launch)
A steady trickle of regular transaction volume
Ships since last update:
Sendd.me: 0 (likely no more updates to legacy)
Sendd.store: 13+ (all on staging, not live yet)
Sendd.market: 8+ (V1 demo live + waitlist sign-up)
Summary:
It’s been one year since we first started building Sendd. V1 development began around August 20th, with Indy and Jordan leading the way at the time; so a mini happy birthday to Sendd.me V1!
So much has happened since then, and I’m more excited than ever for what the next year will bring. I’m also extremely proud of everything we have achieved and the energy we have put into things. As I reflect on the year gone by, the last letter Jeff Bezos wrote as CEO of Amazon comes to mind. “You have to pay a price for your distinctiveness, and it’s worth it… Being yourself is worth it, but don’t expect it to be easy or free. You’ll have to put energy into it continuously.” His words remain more true than ever; as the rate of change and the energy differential needed to survive and thrive becomes exponential. I’m grateful at 29 today to have infinite energy; to create a business that will allow me to grow and exert energy completely; to keep building our distinctness and our mental models for decades to come.
At this juncture we say farewell to Aty, Zoe, Esme, Jacob, and Keez, who have all taken on new full-time roles. We wish them every success! Ivan, Ben, and Vlad have also moved to full-time roles elsewhere, but like Rajib, they’ll continue part-time supporting our mission. Finding great people is tough; keeping them without adequate resources to support them financially is even harder. I’m deeply grateful for all their contributions and hopeful that we’ve made a positive impact on their journeys. We keep everyone in our Alumni chat and share updates so they remain part of the Sendd story.
On the bright side, Dev (Engineering, full-time), Cyrus (Social Media Intern), and Edmund (Social Media Intern) have joined the team. Dev started part-time a month ago and quickly earned a full-time role through great performance. Cyrus and Edmund are students we met through our networks, already creating excellent content on their own. They’re doing a fantastic job (check out Sendd.store on socials). This time, we’re backing them with a small monthly budget so they can be more creative and experimental. As resources grow, so will their budgets; with the goal that one day they’ll manage big campaigns with a proven playbook for us.
Looking ahead:
Sendd.store needs to go live ASAP.
Sendd.market waitlist and demo are live, with Rajib and Dev working flat-out. We’re on daily calls (3/4 hours each) plus independent work around time zone overlap.
This is critical: of the 17+ marketplaces signed up to the waitlist, they represent roughly 10,000 storefronts for Sendd. Some marketplaces are already referring businesses to us so they can start using our storefronts today.
While amazing, it’s also a challenge; our current Sendd.me product doesn’t handle digital products, physical shipping, or subscriptions well. That’s why merchants like Geordie from Keyzee (https://www.sendd.me/keyzee) are manually emailing customers for shipping details; a terrible experience. Sendd.store fixes these gaps and enables access to marketplaces, so every new Sendd.me sign-up is another customer we’ll want to migrate.
Target for the next two months:
Meet and record conversations with as many potential marketplaces as possible.
Grow the waitlist.
Capture visceral, visual stories of their pain points.
Be ready to pilot Sendd.store + Sendd.market V1 with them.
On the fundraising side, I’ll also be meeting investors who could lead our first big round. Once we launch marketplaces, we expect competition. Incumbents will direct significant resources toward this land grab. My preference is to bootstrap quietly until no one sees us coming, then raise a large round with the war chest needed to win this new category we are creating.
The Pitch (current version)
“Sendd is the first no-subscription, payment-agnostic commerce network: a new category in e-commerce.
Merchants launch stores in seconds, pay only 1% per sale, and plug directly into marketplaces curated by influencers and communities. Each marketplace drives more merchants, and each merchant drives more marketplaces: a viral flywheel compounding growth every cycle.
What makes this possible is AI: our agents handle migration (already tested), shipping, and inventory; so that one person with Sendd can do the work of hundreds at a traditional marketplace. This unlocks a brand-new revenue stream for creators and communities; something no incumbent was built to support.
And here’s why they can’t just copy us:
Shopify would have to cannibalize its subscription revenue model.
Amazon/Etsy are stuck in closed marketplace structures; they can’t flip to open, community-owned networks.
WooCommerce depends on a fragmented ecosystem of plugins and developers, not a seamless viral growth loop.
Sendd is structurally different. But this is a land grab market: once we launch Sendd.market, we need to be well-capitalized to move fast, lock in marketplace partners, and cement Sendd as the default platform before incumbents can react.”
Financials
June Burn: $9,500 NZD
July Burn: $4,000 NZD
August Burn (projected): $2,000 NZD
Finances took a hit in June/July. We supported team members through medical emergencies and hired (then let go) three full-time developers within six weeks due to poor performance. Despite a thorough process (80+ applicants, multiple rounds), real-world output was shockingly bad. We paid them fully and lost time from our core team, slowing Sendd.store progress to a crawl.
Thankfully, removing them stabilized our burn rate. Had they performed, Sendd.store and Sendd.market would already be live with cash reserves remaining. Unfortunately, neither happened.
We’re also awaiting the outcome of a $100,000 grant application. (We were rejected; brutal, given the clear impact. One day this will be a great story. Today isn’t that day.)
Runway: Unlimited at sub-$4,000 NZD burn. Cash reserves are low. Hiring experiments paused until after Sendd.store + Sendd.market V1 launch.
The Good
Marketplace excitement and waitlist adoption is very strong
Regular transaction volume continues (small, but steady)
Core team is strong, new social media team is excelling
Finances stabilized (though fragile)
Referral engine ramping up; the flywheel is already spinning
V2 product will be a major leap forward
AI migration breakthrough: an agent migrated a Shopify store to Sendd autonomously (no Shopify login required). Migration cost → zero. Switching pain → gone. Stickiness will come from unique value (Sendd.market), not lock-in tactics like Shopify’s “unsubscribe and lose your store.”
The Bad
Losing great teammates due to lack of resources
Hiring misfires cost us runway and momentum
Product delays from wasted time and energy
Goals
June/July Goals (recap):
Build US conviction data points: Progress slow, but strong despite setbacks
Release V2 Sendd.store: Delayed
Hire full-time dev: Failed (3x let go), though success with Dev
Marketplace V1 Prototype: Demo live!
Release Sendd Pay: Delayed
Release Shipping V1: Delayed
Find social media support: Cyrus & Edmund joined, already smashing it!
August/September Goals:
Build US conviction data points (marketplaces): Target 200 waitlist signups (currently 17)
Build US investment pipeline: Target 10+ top-tier lead funds + 100+ strategic co-investors
Release V2 Sendd.store
🎯 Primary Ask
Marketplace Intros (US Launch Focus):
We’re seeking connections to influencers, communities, or businesses that want to spin up curated marketplaces on Sendd.
Ideal partners:
Creators with 100K+ engaged followers.
Community leaders with niche vertical audiences (fitness, beauty, local food, crafts).
Organizations already aggregating SMBs (co-ops, associations).
👉 “If you know anyone in the US who could launch a marketplace, please connect us.”
🔑 Secondary Ask
Strategic Investor Intros:
We’re looking for investors with deep ties to marketplaces, e-commerce, or payments.
Especially:
Marketplaces (Etsy, Faire, Amazon ex-execs).
Payments (Stripe, Adyen, Checkout.com networks).
Logistics (Flexport, Shippo).
👉 “If you know strategic angels or VCs who understand marketplaces + fintech, we’d love a warm intro.”
Template email for you to use for intro’s attached below.
From The Sendd Team,
Adi, Rajib, Dev, Cyrus, Edmund, Ivan, Ben, Vlad, Soonsung.
(This email is personally sent from me to you. If you wish to be removed from my update list, shoot me an email back and I’ll remove you from the list!)
Subject: Intro to Adi (Founder of Sendd)
Hi [Contact],
Wanted to introduce you to Adiraj Gupta (Adi), founder of Sendd — a no-subscription e-commerce + marketplace platform growing fast in NZ and expanding into the US.
Why relevant:
Sendd makes it dead simple for anyone to spin up a storefront in minutes.
[Influencers & communities can create curated marketplaces, set their own commission %, and earn directly from sales.]
[Payment-agnostic: unlike Shopify, merchants aren’t locked into Stripe, Sendd supports local + global rails.]
[Investors: Sendd is positioned as Shopify + Etsy + Stripe rebuilt for virality, with 200 merchants live today and 500+ merchants + 10 marketplaces coming in the next 6 months.]
Products live:
Sendd.me → current V1 product (stores live now).
Sendd.store → full-featured store builder (coming soon).
Sendd.market → marketplace platform (waitlist + demo live now).
I thought you’d be a great person for Adi to connect with given your experience in [marketplaces / creator monetization / fintech / logistics / investing].
Adi → meet [Contact].
I’ll let you two take it from here.
Best,
[Investor]