The Cannoli Thesis
The secret plan for world influencer domination
May 2024 Update — Cannoli has been paused to fully focus on Rivin.
Problem
Small fast-growing influencers struggle to get paid partnerships.
Solution
Use AI to reach out and book influencers paid partnerships.
How Do You Know The Problem Exists?/Why Me?
I have influencer friends who have this problem and I am deeply familiar with the influencer MarTech space(it’s where I built my first successful startup)!
Target Customer(ICP)
Micro Recipe Influencers → Micro Reviewer Influencers → Micro Travel Influencers
“Competition”
Manual Outreach/Inbound — Currently 80%+ of the market
Agencies <10% of the market
Matching platforms <10% of the market
Why The “Competition” Is Not Competition
Most influencers don’t do any outreach for partnerships— they play pure “defense”.
Some influencers attempt manual outreach with little to no success.
The reality: Influencers are not good at sourcing partnerships. They are good at content.
Many startups are focused on helping companies find influencers or building marketplaces that connect influencers and companies.
Grin, Impact.com, & Captiv8 all have had recent layoffs and trouble.
I believe:
Current platforms and agencies that “connect” influencers to companies are bad.
The best partner opportunities are done in private $$$
Everyone else believes in connecting companies to influencers, I believe there is demand for connecting influencers to companies.
Our Differences
Focused on influencers → companies
Hyper specific customers
Why Now?
Short-form content on Reels/TikTok/Shorts/Facebook/LinkedIn/Snapchat has given food influencers a new popular medium where none existed.
Many channels are now being built to millions of subscribers with “shorts”.
“Shorts” are a high-volume, high-velocity content engine. This has increased possible “ad spots” compared to traditional long form.
Pricing
$197/mo — 1,000 outreaches per month + metrics website
$297/mo — 3,000 outreaches per month + metrics website
Custom Plan — XXk outreach per month + personal assistant + metrics website
Risks
Will influencers pay $197+ per month? Many influencers are broke.
Will paid partnerships justify the subscription? Customer ROI question.
Will influencers cancel after a handful of recurring monthly partnerships?
World Domination
Charge $197/month for our software and focus on ~10,000 micro recipe influencers— $23.6M+ ARR
Shift ICP to include ~30,0000 restaurant and food review influencers — $100M+ ARR
Add features & up pricing to ~$297 — $150M+ ARR
Expand to travel influencers ~30,000 — $200M+ ARR
Expand to all influencers — $XXB+ ARR?
Traction
May — reaching out to potential customers and getting 100 responses.
Stage: Currently reaching out to potential customers to get responses.
