Crafted 📱

Opening Remarks

This week, I’ve been thinking about what founders really need when building a company, and it’s not always capital.

I’ve seen startups raise millions from top-tier VCs, only to stall within months. Meanwhile, I’ve watched others bootstrap to real traction with the help of just a few advisors making the right introductions. The difference wasn’t money, it was social capital.

Capital without connections is just numbers in a bank account. The best founders know that one warm intro can be worth more than a million dollars. I wrote about this in a recent post (click here to check it out). In the meantime, if you’ve seen social capital make or break a startup, hit reply and let me know. Now, onto this week’s feature:

-Brett

Bulletpitch’s publication covers the hottest early-stage startup before being picked up by larger media outlets. If that’s you, apply here.

Setting the Scene

• In today’s retail environment, shoppers often discover products through TikTok, Instagram, and other platforms, but they ultimately complete those purchases in physical stores.

• For brands, this creates a blind spot, as marketing teams invest heavily in influencer and paid campaigns without a reliable way to connect online engagement with offline sales.

• This week’s company is bridging the gap between social media discovery and in-store purchases, giving brands real-time visibility into what drives sales.

In a Sentence

Crafted incentivizes shoppers to scan receipts, using AI-powered attribution to connect social media engagement with in-store purchases.

• Incentives: Users earn instant cash back from scanning receipts from in-store purchases.

• AI-Powered Attribution: Crafted uses machine learning to match receipts with TikTok views and other social engagement.

• Purchases: Real-time feedback helps brands double down on winning campaigns, see when and where customers buy, and understand basket behavior.

The Basics

• Industry: Commerce Tech, MarTech

• Headquarters: NYC

• Year Founded: 2023

• Employee Count: 8

• Investors: Third Kind Ventures, Visible Hands, Goodwater Capital, Joe Tsai Family Office, Pareto Holdings

• Amount Raised: ~$860k

• Business Model: B2B SaaS Subscription + Usage-based recurring revenue

• Early Traction: $846K ARR (up from $396K in Dec '24). 17% month-over-month growth

Sponsored Content*

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

• Fidelity Private Shares cap table platform is the all-in-one tool that will help founders prepare for their next round of funding.

• This platform gives founders access to seed stage capital, equity scenario modeling, and premier support to generate, execute & store legal documents.

• To get a sense of how the product works you can download a FREE Cap Table template (w/ excel formulas included) to help you understand how your ownership with SAFEs, options, and early dilution tracks over multiple rounds.

Weekly Feature Continued

Due Diligence

WHAT WE LIKE

• Market Opportunity: With 76% of shoppers discovering products on social media, yet 80% of sales still happening in stores, Crafted addresses a $45B attribution gap that brands are desperate to solve.

• Behavioral Insight: Crafted not only tracks purchases but also reveals when and where customers shop and what else they buy, giving brands a richer view of consumer behavior than social metrics alone.

• Optimization: By combining receipt scanning with AI-driven attribution, Crafted gives marketing teams the clarity to optimize campaigns in real time, turning wasted ad spend into measurable sales growth.

POTENTIAL RISKS

• Adoption Hurdles: Brands may hesitate to add another platform into their marketing stack.

• Behavior Change: Incentivizing shoppers to upload receipts introduces friction, and shifting consumer behavior at scale is notoriously difficult, even with cash back rewards.

• Platform Dependence: Crafted’s model is closely tied to TikTok and major retailers like Walmart; policy changes, data restrictions, or platform shifts could significantly impact growth.

Founder Profile

• Todd Baldwin, CEO: Previously built the first influencer platform to programmatically assign rates.

• Sarah Nesheim, COO: Previously spent five years in sales at Axiom Law, working with Fortune 500 CPG brands.

Comps

• Aisle: Drives in-store purchases through a consumer app, while Crafted uses social-first data on content and engagement to optimize retail conversions.

• WeStock: Helps brands prove demand to retailers and secure shelf space, while Crafted connects social engagement to sales to drive ongoing retail performance.

Event Board

• Second Annual Emerging Investor Art Gala, NYC: On September 18th, we’re bring together the next generation of venture capital and growth equity investors. Sign up HERE.

• Bulletpitch San Francisco Dinner: We’re headed to SF in early Oct to host a dinner for top founders. Sign up HERE.

• Bulletpitch Los Angeles Dinner: We’re headed to LA in mid-October to host a dinner for top founders and funders. Sign up HERE.

Cast Your Vote

Last Week Today

• The Results Are In: Migrate Mate, the platform for job searchers to find visa-sponsored roles, was favored in last week’s poll.

• Subscriber Feedback: “Migrate Mate is fulfilling a critical need for finding jobs that provide visa sponsorship, but a risk could be existing job platforms easily incorporating a visa search feature.”