We Have Some Good News For You 🎁
Collections Are Coming
Spoiler alert: They’ll be here as soon as next week.
What are Collections? So glad you asked! We’ve been looking forward to this release for a long time. One of the most exciting things for Mike and I as we build Etch is not only to help you to keep track of your favorite places, but also to share those places with your friends, and use your trusted network to discover new favorite places.

One of the ways we’re going to help you do that is with Collections. Collections allow you to categorize places you’ve saved (say, “Best Brunch Spots in the West Village”, or “Best Happy Hours in Santa Monica”), and share those lists with friends so they can see your top spots as well. Not only that, but anyone you invite to your Collection will be able to add their favorites too, so you can build out a list of the “Greatest Karaoke Bars in Chicago” together . Because let’s face it, when you’re up on stage belting out “Piano Man” at the top of your lungs, you’re going to want your bestie up there with you, backing you up for the chorus.
We’ve always said that Etch is better with friends, and launching Collections makes Etch a truly collaborative experience.

(FUN!)draising
Let’s not sugarcoat it (another spoiler alert): fundraising is usually pretty hard.
This week, Mike and I have been planning our fundraising strategy, which we’ll be kicking off very soon. We are raising an Angel round of financing, which will support Etch for the next 12–18 months. We’re under no pretense that any of this will be easy — it’s really hard to convince someone to hand you what is, by anyone’s definition, a giant check, without any guarantee that they’ll ever see that money again. Remember, most startups fail.
Obviously we think we have a great idea, and nearly everyone we’ve spoken to so far tends to agree, but that doesn’t mean Angel investors and VC firms just open up the floodgates. Fundraising is, by and large, about persistence, tenacity, resiliance, and getting really comfortable hearing the word “No” (or one of 15 other ways VCs say “No”). You should click that if you’re thinking about raising money, it’s a really good read, and will save you some time.
But that’s OK, and that’s what we’re expecting. Right now our focus is on making sure we have a rock-solid pitch that we can stand behind, and putting together a list of potential investors who we think would be a good fit for what we’re doing. Oh yeah, and networking.
That said, we’re still going to cast a wide net. We want to speak with as many smart people as possible, so if you know anyone in the space who you think might make for a good connection, please let us know!
Until Next Week!
That’s all for this week, and thanks again for reading. By the way, we’d love to get your feedback on the newsletter, too. What do you like? What do you want more of? What do you want less of? Obviously more doggos (we saw from the clicks that you really liked that link from last week). Speaking of which, has anyone met this gal in NYC who apparently loves giving out hugs?
Seriously though, we find it fascinating to hear other startups’ stories, so we’re aiming to make this interesting as well as entertaining.
As always, if you know anyone who might be interested in trying Etch, or even just reading about what we’re up to on a weekly basis, please forward this along using that big “Forward” link below, and encourage them to subscribe.
Got feedback for us? Just reply to this email with any ideas or suggestions — we want to hear them all!
Thanks again for all your support!
- Mike and Brad
