Throne repaid its investors in 2023 to bootstrap, then added Happy Wishlist

A platform where creators build wishlists and fans gift items while Throne hides creators' addresses; it earns brand commissions and service fees.

That a profitable business in a niche market is better run lean and independent than kept on the venture treadmill, so Throne repaid its investors.

$830,000 SAFE note in 2021 at a $30M valuation cap from investors including Weekend Fund; repaid in full by December 2023.

Patrice Becker and Leonhard Soenke founded Throne in 2021 after Meeter, their calendar app acquired by Bardeen. Creator friends described the lack of a safe way to receive gifts, from P.O. boxes to privacy, so Throne acts as a firewall between creator and fan. Becker said it passed $1M a month in gift purchases and grew 50% month on month before raising its SAFE.

Throne raised $830,000 in a SAFE from Weekend Fund, Z Fellows' Cory Levy and B8ta's Vibhu Norby. In summer 2023, as it was about to raise a Series A, the founders concluded the market might not lead to a venture-backed outcome, turned to profitability and returned the investor money by December 2023. Throne also runs Storefront, Exchange and, from March 2024, Happy Wishlist for friends and family.

The founders judged the market too small for a venture-scale outcome as they were about to raise a Series A.

Becker says liquidation preferences and pressure to deploy capital can force startups to chase a unicorn outcome.

A lean team and profitability gave Throne a cushion large enough to repay investors.

A healthy business can be wrong for venture funding; Throne's founders repaid investors before liquidation preferences and deployment pressure pushed them toward a unicorn bet.

As of 2024-03-08 Throne had repaid its investors, had passed 400,000 creators and was launching Happy Wishlist; revenue and profit claims are the founder's own. TechCrunch also noted a 2023 security bug that exposed creators' private addresses, which Throne said it fixed.