On August 26th, 2022, OnMarket held the first Battle of the Founders - a new equity crowdfunding competition. The three-phase competition focused on educating the start-up community on equity crowdfunding as a capital raising method, assisting founders with pitch refinement, and hosting a pitch night where three external judges selects two winners - and the crowd picks their favourite! All winners receive the opportunity to raise capital with OnMarket for no up front cost. This year, Foura has been taken home the crowd favourite award - meaning, in Q1 2023, you will be able to invest in Foura and in return become a shareholder.
Here's what Tam Al-Saad, founder of Foura, had to say about being announced the crowd favourite:
“Battle of the Founders was a great opportunity to put the business in front of many eyes. We received a lot of signups and insightful feedback at the pitch night which was really great. Us wining the crowd favourite award validated Foura as a people’s platform and the award demonstrates that the majority agree this solution is needed in today’s society. Because the problem is so widely understood, we decided to go down the equity crowdfunding route. We want to welcome anyone and everyone to invest in Foura and become a shareholder. Making real change and solving the issue of loneliness together.”
So, what does Foura do?
Foura is a match-making service for mates, not dates. Foura makes finding friends fun, easy, and exciting. When users sign up they insert hobbies, interests, and values, and the platform matches them with three other people who provide similar answers. There’s no small talk or swiping, the platform simply matches you with others and requests confirmation of attendance to a meet up. The only thing the individual has to do is attend and have fun.
From OnMarket's perspective, we're thrilled to get to work with Foura. We have all experienced the difficulty of making friends as an adult as it can be uncomfortable to be vulnerable to a stranger and is seemingly impossible to say “hey would you like to be my friend?" Although it can be difficult, having strong social ties is crucial for our mental and physical health, especially post-covid. During covid, we as a community truly started to understand the value of feeling connected and physically seeing one another.
Foura has hosted just over 500 meetups since soft launching in November last year and 3,000 people have signed up. However, their growth journey has only just begun. In August, Foura hosted twice as many meet ups as in July, and they are expected to continue this monthly growth with their go to market strategy.
Foura’s growth to date has come from posting in online social groups, word of mouth, and referrals. This will be replicated as they expand their territory to Melbourne and Brisbane, and then internationally. They'll create a blue print from scaling interstate, then refine and replicate the blue print for international expansion. Foura plans to build a waitlist in each city before launching through media, digital marketing, etc, to build hype. The overarching aim of this is to have a large foundation of users on day one.
What do users have to say about Foura?
"Foura is a great way to meet like-minded people. I felt safe and had fun talking to people who had similar interests to me, yet were different enough that I could learn new things. I turned to Foura with an open mind and left with new friends. At the end we exchanged numbers and are keen on meeting up again (potentially bringing along our partners and housemates too). I highly recommend Foura to anyone who is looking to expand their friendship network!" - Janet 26
"It’s been so much harder to met new people as Covid-19 has changed the way we live. Foura helps to bridge those gaps and connects people in ways that would be difficult to achieve in today’s climate of remote work and hyper vigilance. It’s been a great experience!" - Maria 35
Here's what Tam had to say about the Battle of the Founders:
"First and foremost, working with OnMarket leading up to the Battle of the Founders pitch night helped me to refine my pitch. OnMarket helped me understand exactly what it is we should be saying about Foura, what people want to hear, and what the best parts of the business to put forward are. This information was valuable, not just for the Battle of the Founders but also for future pitches with other potential investors.
The variety of businesses who were up on stage that night was fascinating, and the quality of pitches was very high, which gave me an understanding of where my pitch was still showing up short. I was able to analyse the pitches we lost to and use that to further refine my pitch. The experience of the judges was really interesting and provided three alternate but crucial viewpoints on how to encourage and leverage business growth."
In 2023, Foura will launch their equity crowdfunding offer, which will enable you to join the business as a shareholder. Sign up to OnMarket be alerted once their raise goes live.