muru-D’s Bold New Mission
The muru-D global accelerator is launching a bold new mission with new investment terms to match.
New Mission
Over the last year, we’ve shifted our focus towards startups tackling harder problems. We are also broadening our focus to include more mature startups.
Our new mission statement is: “To develop the best entrepreneurial minds in Australasia, giving them the tools they need to solve the world’s most challenging problems. ”
We want to work with highly ambitious people and welcome founders working on cutting-edge technologies to solve complex problems.
muru-D’s investment terms have also been updated to be compatible with later stage companies. This allows companies that have already raised substantial funding or realised substantial traction to join our program. muru-D is still open to companies that are earlier-stage and have huge potential.
New Offer – muru-D core programs
For our muru-D core-operated programs (Sydney, Singapore and Melbourne) we built our terms to embody the following principles:
- Founder friendly. We want this to be a great offer for founders that sets up their startup for strength.
- Simple. We would prefer shorter documents with easier to understand terms.
- Flexible. We want one offer to be suitable for startups of different stages.
- Fair. We would like our contribution to the startup to be valued fairly.
Choices we had and how we made them:
Cash:
$75K Globally accelerators offer between AUD $5k-$150K. We chose $75K because it’s a standard level in our region. It represents enough money for a founding team to get to work full time and focus on the startup.
Document Structure: Uncapped SAFE note
Choices: Priced equity, a convertible note or SAFE. SAFE notes allow us to keep documents simple, and since we are choosing an uncapped note, are suitable for a startup of any valuation.
Program Value: 50% Discount
Choices: Program fee, lower valuation on priced equity or advisory shares, or a discount on a SAFE note.
We provide a lot of value to founders. Coaching and mentoring, connections with our network, space to work from, and a whole lot more. This support costs a lot to provide, and is why startups want to work with us rather than just taking money from a silent investor.
Discount on the SAFE note: This is a fancy way of saying you’ll give us more shares than we paid for. In the case of muru-D, we use a 50% discount, meaning we pay $75K and receive $150K worth of shares. This effectively says our program value is worth $75K. Normally investors getting discounts on SAFEs receive a 10-20% discount, because they are getting a deal for investing early. We are getting the extra discount because we provide 6 months of training, office space and an active alumni program afterwards, and we value those benefits at $75K. If you think our support and network are worth at least $75K then this is a good deal for your startup.
In summary:
- We offer $75K.
- We offer an uncapped SAFE note.
- We have a 50% discount on our SAFE note to compensate us for our program value.
The end result for a startup working with us is, they will receive $75K cash, our support, space in our office and be part of our alumni network in exchange for $150K in shares. It will be up to the founder to determine if that’s a good deal. We feel very proud of our team and contribute a large amount of time to the success of startups in our network. We think this is one of the most founder friendly deals on offer.
– The muru-D Entrepreneurs in Residence