Where it stands
July 2026 against June 2026. Arrows are the month-over-month change, colored by whether the direction is good or bad.
Runway7.6 mo▼ 4.1 mo vs June7.6 on cash in hand. 8.7 counting the $50k New North commitment. She reported 8.
Product revenue$30,062▲ $540 (2%) vs JuneGrowth fell from +10.9% in June to +1.8%.
Net burn$44,310▲ $12,582 (40%) vs JuneTotal spend minus product revenue, her own definition.
Total spend$74,372▲ $13,122 (21%) vs June5 weeks of payroll, video agency, extra reservation specialist, SMS overrun.
Cash on hand$336,354▼ $33,694 (9%) vs JuneAs of 2026-08-12. Plus $50k committed, not yet landed.
Active clubs79▼ 12 vs JuneDefinition changed to a 30-day window. June's 91 was on 45 days.
Revenue per club$381▲ $56 (17%) vs JuneRising, but the club count definition changed underneath it.
Burn per $1 new MRR82.1x▲ 71.1x vs June$44,310 of burn bought $540 of new monthly revenue.
Avg seats per club78first reportedUp from an original 48. The cleanest positive in the update.
Update lag12 days▼ 1 day vs JuneConsistent monthly reporting, 12 to 13 days after month end.
Flags, latest month
Calculated against the thresholds on the Settings tab of the workbook. Full history on the Flags page.
RunwayRED
Revenue growthWATCH
Spend vs revenueWATCH
Founder numbers reconcileOK
Metric definitionWATCH
Update timelinessOK
What to do
Runway under 9 months with spend up 21% and revenue flat. Get gross margin and top-customer concentration this week, then decide whether we bridge, help them cut, or push a raise. The 91 to 79 club count is a definition change, not necessarily churn, make her show both bases.
The picture in three charts
Revenue vs spend
Spend pulled away from revenue in July. May spend was never reported.
Product revenueTotal spend
Runway, months
Cash at the update date divided by that month's burn. Excludes the $50k New North commitment.
Runway (months)
Month-over-month revenue growth
June is the problem: 18% stated, 10.9% computed off her own base of $26,629.
Computed from her numbersFounder stated
Company profile
Terms, thesis, and the three things that have to be true. Amber rows are where I am pushing back on the thesis or on a number that does not reconcile. Blue values are still to be filled in.
| Section | Field | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | Company (current) | DNNR |
| Identity | Former name | River / getriver.io |
| Identity | What they do | Branded dinner clubs as a service. Media brands and communities announce a dinner club; DNNR runs matching, reservations, payments, comms. |
| Identity | Business model | Platform fee on seats sold, plus a 10% fee on sponsorship revenue brokered by the club owner |
| Identity | Website / newsletter | https://dnnr.beehiiv.com/ |
| People | CEO / co-founder | Raechel (Rae) Lambert |
| People | Reporting contact | rae@getriver.io / rae@joindnnr.com |
| People | FTE headcount (latest) | 7 |
| People | Contractors (latest) | 5 reservation associates at $15/hr |
| Corsair | Corsair lead | Chris Wolfel |
| Corsair | Investment amount | $100,000 |
| Corsair | Instrument / round | SAFE, pre-seed. $10M valuation cap, 20% discount. |
| Corsair | Ownership % | 8% per Deb. RECONCILE: $100k against a $10M cap converts to about 1.0%. Getting to 8% needs a conversion valuation near $1.25M, or a larger check. Confirm the cap, the check size, or whether 8% is a target rather than the current position. |
| Corsair | Board / observer / info rights | None. No board seat, no observer seat. |
| Corsair | Pro rata rights | [fill] |
| Reporting | Cadence agreed | Monthly investor update by email |
| Reporting | Typical delivery | 12 to 13 days after month end |
| Reporting | Other investors on updates | BWC, New North Ventures ($50k committed Aug 2026) |
| Watch list | Thesis in one line | DNNR is an early stage company where an investment of $100k would yield significant ownership, and at a stage where Corsair can add outsized advisory value. DNNR offers a unique model of customer engagement and revenue, and is led by two serial founders that have experience building in the in-person event space. DNNR has demonstrated strong early revenue, dinner club and individual attendee growth, and its financials are buoyed by $0 CAC. |
| Watch list | What has to be true | 1. Operational scaling. 2. New entrant risk stays manageable. 3. Customer concentration risk comes down. |
| Watch list | Test 1: operational scaling | Prove: gross margin holds or improves as seats scale, and cost to serve per seat falls. Disprove: reservation labour and SMS costs rise with volume. As of July they added a 5th reservation associate and flagged an unexplained SMS overrun, and they report no gross margin at all. Tracked by: Gross margin %, Contractors / PT, Total units sold. |
| Watch list | Test 2: new entrant risk | Prove: the wedge is the media-brand relationship and the operational machinery, not the software. Disprove: a media brand or an events platform runs its own dinner club without DNNR. Watch whether Axios, The Free Press, or The Daily Wire ever renew on worse terms. Tracked by: Logos lost, Take rate %, New logos this month. |
| Watch list | Test 3: customer concentration | Prove: no single customer is more than roughly a quarter of revenue, and new logos land faster than the top account grows. Disprove: The Free Press keeps carrying the number. We cannot score this today because DNNR does not report revenue by customer. Tracked by: Top customer % of revenue, currently not reported. |
| Watch list | Challenge to the thesis: $0 CAC | $0 CAC is not supported by the updates. July spend includes a growth video agency, a paid social intern, conference sponsorships (Local News Camp, New Media Summit), and automated press outreach. That is customer acquisition cost sitting inside the $74,372, unallocated rather than zero. The honest version is that CAC is low and unmeasured. Get sales and marketing spend broken out before this line goes in a memo. |
| Watch list | Challenge to the thesis: two serial founders | Only Rae Lambert appears in either update, signing as Co-Founder & CEO. The co-founder is never named, never quoted, and has no visible role in the reporting. Confirm who the second founder is, what they own, and what they do. |
| Watch list | What kills it | Spend growing faster than revenue with under 9 months of runway and no gross margin visibility. |
Monthly metrics
Everything reported, month by month. Italic "not reported" cells are the ones worth chasing. Type in the box to filter to a metric.
| Metric | 2026-05 | 2026-06 | 2026-07 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Update received | not reported | 2026-07-13 | 2026-08-12 |
| Days to deliver | not reported | 13 | 12 |
| Product revenue | $26,629 | $29,522 | $30,062 |
| Other / non-recurring rev | not reported | $0 | $7,000 |
| MoM product growth (calc) | not reported | 10.9% | 1.8% |
| MoM growth (founder stated) | not reported | 18.0% | 2.0% |
| Growth variance (pp) | not reported | -7.1% | -0.2% |
| ARR run-rate | $319,548 | $354,264 | $360,744 |
| Total spend | not reported | $61,250 | $74,372 |
| Spend MoM growth | not reported | not reported | 21.4% |
| Net burn (calc) | not reported | $31,728 | $44,310 |
| Net burn (stated) | not reported | $31,728 | $44,310 |
| Burn variance | not reported | $0 | $0 |
| Cash at period end | not reported | $392,913 | $355,115 |
| Cash as of update date | not reported | $370,048 | $336,354 |
| Committed capital pending | not reported | $0 | $50,000 |
| Runway ex-pending capital | not reported | 11.7 | 7.6 |
| Runway months (stated) | not reported | 12.0 | 8.0 |
| Net new MRR | not reported | $2,893 | $540 |
| Burn per $1 net new MRR | not reported | 11.0x | 82.1x |
| Active accounts | not reported | 91 | 79 |
| Active account definition | not reported | Sold seats in the last 45 days | Sold seats in the last 30 days |
| Definition changed? | not reported | No | Yes |
| Revenue per active account | not reported | $324 | $381 |
| Avg units per account | not reported | not reported | 78 |
| Total units sold | not reported | not reported | not reported |
| GMV | not reported | not reported | not reported |
| Take rate % | not reported | not reported | not reported |
| Gross margin % | not reported | not reported | not reported |
| Top customer | not reported | The Free Press | The Free Press |
| Top customer % of revenue | not reported | not reported | not reported |
| New logos this month | not reported | 6AM City expanded 3 to 18 cities | Axios launched in 4 cities |
| Named pipeline | not reported | None named | The Daily Wire (2 meetings, incl. CTO, CRM integration scoped). Conference deals: MaiCon (2k attendees), Local News Camp, New Media Summit. |
| FTE headcount | not reported | 7 | 7 |
| Contractors / PT | not reported | 4 | 5 |
| Financing events | not reported | BWC and Corsair wires received | $50k New North Ventures committed, not yet landed as of 2026-08-12 |
2026-05 note
PARTIAL ROW. Only May revenue is knowable, quoted inside the June update as the comparison base. No May spend, burn, or headcount reported.
2026-06 note
Cash figure is labelled 'as of May 31st' in the update. It is almost certainly June 30. Bridge: 392,913 less July burn of 44,310 plus the 7,000 All-In collection = 355,603 vs the 355,115 reported for July 31, a $488 gap. Treated as June 30, confirm with Rae. Separately, founder-stated 18% growth does not reconcile: 29,522 / 26,629 = 10.9%. Sponsorship take rate (10%) went live, 3 campaigns, about $200, unclear whether inside the $29,522.
2026-07 note
Active account definition changed from 45-day to 30-day window, so 91 to 79 is not a clean churn read. Other revenue is a prior-year All-In invoice collected, non-recurring. Spend up 21.4% while product revenue up 1.8%. SMS fees running higher than expected, under investigation.
Flags
Every month scored against the same thresholds. Change a threshold on the Settings tab of the workbook and this changes with it.
| Month | Runway | Revenue growth | Spend vs revenue | Founder numbers reconcile | Metric definition | Update timeliness | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-05 | – | – | – | – | – | – | |
| 2026-06 | WATCH | OK | – | RED | OK | OK | Founder-stated June growth (18%) does not reconcile with her own numbers (10.9%). Ask which is right before anything gets quoted to LPs. Confirm the June cash date. |
| 2026-07 | RED | WATCH | WATCH | OK | WATCH | OK | Runway under 9 months with spend up 21% and revenue flat. Get gross margin and top-customer concentration this week, then decide whether we bridge, help them cut, or push a raise. The 91 to 79 club count is a definition change, not necessarily churn, make her show both bases. |
Narrative log
The qualitative record, tagged so you can find it later.
| Month | Category | Signal | What happened | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-06 | Customers | Positive | The Free Press sold 2,000+ seats for the second month running, across 30+ cities. | Proof they can carry a large multi-city account. This is the case study everything else is being sold on. |
| 2026-06 | Customers | Positive | 6AM City ramped from 3 to 18 cities in one month. | Second large logo expanding fast under its own steam. Land-and-expand is working. |
| 2026-06 | Strategy | Neutral | Two months spent on product delivery for large accounts rather than growth. Rae flagged growth would slow. | Accurate forecast, and it happened. Credit for calling it. The question is how long the growth pause runs. |
| 2026-06 | Product | Positive | Shipped cancellation prediction models at AUC 0.95+, sponsor kit automation, scheduled message blasts, community analytics. | Real product velocity for a 7-person team. The cancellation model directly protects revenue. |
| 2026-06 | Monetization | Watch | Sponsorship 10% take rate went live. 3 campaigns used it, generating about $200. | Immaterial so far. Track whether this becomes a second revenue line or stays noise. |
| 2026-06 | Ops / AI | Positive | Built a reservation bot, cutting planned hiring of reservation associates. | Directly attacks the biggest variable cost in the model. Ask for the cost-per-reservation trend. |
| 2026-06 | Marketing | Watch | Automated press outreach via a cron job got an article published. Rae notes the generated email 'kind of lied about some numbers'. | It worked, and it also put inaccurate numbers in front of journalists under the company name. Worth a conversation about review-before-send. |
| 2026-06 | Reporting | Red | Stated 18% monthly growth. Her own figures give 10.9% (29,522 vs 26,629). | Either the stated growth or the base is wrong. Do not let either number reach an LP deck unreconciled. |
| 2026-06 | Reporting | Watch | Cash labelled 'as of May 31st' in a June update. The July cash bridge only closes if it is June 30: 392,913 less 44,310 burn plus the 7,000 All-In collection lands within $488 of the reported July 31 balance. | Almost certainly a label error rather than a real discrepancy, but cash dates have to be exact. Get it corrected going forward. |
| 2026-07 | Customers | Positive | Axios launched in 4 cities. First new large media logo since 6AM City. | The Free Press case study is converting. Third national brand on the platform. |
| 2026-07 | Pipeline | Positive | The Daily Wire had 2 meetings including their CTO, scoping a light CRM integration. | Furthest-along large logo in pipeline. Rae expects it to close. Hold her to it in the August update. |
| 2026-07 | Customers | Watch | The Free Press now at 43 cities/districts, up from 30+. Seats quoted as 1,600+ net of cancellations and refunds, against 2,000+ quoted in June with no net/gross qualifier. | Not an apples-to-apples comparison. Either seats per city are thinning, cancellations rose, or June was a gross number. Ask for gross and net seats for both months before concluding anything. |
| 2026-07 | Reporting | Watch | Active club definition changed from a 45-day window to a 30-day window. Count moved 91 to 79. | The drop is partly a definition change and partly real. Get both bases for both months before drawing a churn conclusion. |
| 2026-07 | Financials | Red | Spend up 21.4% month over month while product revenue was up 1.8%. | This is the core issue. Burn went from $31.7k to $44.3k and runway from ~12 months to under 8. |
| 2026-07 | Financials | Watch | SMS fees running higher than expected, cause unknown, under investigation. | Variable cost scaling with volume that they cannot yet explain. Direct hit to gross margin, which they do not report. |
| 2026-07 | Strategy | Watch | Building out a conference dinner-club use case after inbound from Craft & Commerce, MaiCon, Local News Camp, New Media Summit. | New use case with real inbound demand, or a distraction from the media-brand wedge that is working. Ask what it costs to build and what they stop doing. |
| 2026-07 | Traction | Positive | Average seats per community up to 78 from an original 48. | Accounts are getting more valuable. This is the metric that should carry revenue if logo growth is flat. |
| 2026-07 | Funding | Positive | $50k committed from New North Ventures, landing shortly after 2026-08-12. | Adds roughly 1 month of runway at current burn. Confirm receipt in the August update. |
| 2026-07 | Marketing | Neutral | No press captured this month. | After a month of automated-outbound wins, the press engine went quiet. Not material yet. |
Commitments
What Rae said she would do, and whether she did it. Two months in: 2 met, 1 missed, 1 slipped, 1 stopped being reported.
| Opened | Owner | Commitment | Due | Status | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-06 | Rae | Back on growth focus now that large-account delivery is done | 2026-07 | Missed | July product revenue +1.8%. Growth did not resume. |
| 2026-06 | Rae | Go full speed on landing more large clients off the Free Press case study | 2026-07 | Met | Axios launched in 4 cities. Daily Wire two meetings deep including CTO. |
| 2026-06 | Rae | Start filming with the growth video agency | 2026-07 | Slipped | July update repeats 'haven't started filming yet'. Two months, no output, agency being paid. |
| 2026-06 | Rae | Grow sponsorship revenue beyond the initial ~$200 | 2026-07 | Not reported | No sponsorship figure in the July update at all. |
| 2026-06 | Rae | Growth will slow while we deliver for big accounts | 2026-07 | Met | She called it. Growth slowed to 1.8%. Forecasting accuracy is a positive signal. |
| 2026-07 | Rae | Close The Daily Wire | 2026-08 | Open | Two meetings held, CRM integration scoped. |
| 2026-07 | Rae | Explain the SMS cost overrun | 2026-08 | Open | Stated as under investigation. |
| 2026-07 | Rae | Confirm the $50k New North Ventures wire landed | 2026-08 | Open | Committed, not received as of 2026-08-12. |
| 2026-07 | Rae | First Instagram video published | 2026-08 | Open | Stated as 'shortly'. |
| 2026-07 | Rae | Run the conference use case on Freedom Summit and report results | 2026-08 | Open | Self-hosted trial the week of 2026-08-17. |
| 2026-08 | Deb / Corsair | Get gross margin, revenue concentration and total seats sold from DNNR | 2026-08-31 | Open | Raised off the July update analysis. |
| 2026-08 | Deb / Corsair | Decide the runway response: bridge, cost cut, or accelerate the raise | 2026-09-15 | Open | Runway under 9 months on July burn. |
Data gaps
Metrics DNNR is not reporting that we need. This is the agenda for the next founder call.
| Pri | Metric | Why we need it | What to ask for |
|---|---|---|---|
| P1 | Gross margin | Reservation associates at $15/hr are effectively cost of delivery. Without margin we cannot tell whether growth helps or hurts. | Monthly revenue, cost of delivery (reservation labour, SMS, payment fees, Intercom), gross profit, gross margin %. |
| P1 | Revenue concentration | The Free Press appears to be a very large share of revenue. Concentration risk is unpriced right now. | Revenue by customer for the top 5, as a % of monthly revenue. |
| P1 | Total seats sold and GMV | Platform revenue is a function of seats and take rate. We only ever see the revenue, never the volume driving it. | Total seats sold, gross seat value, effective take rate, by month. |
| P2 | Club churn on a constant basis | 91 to 79 mixes a real decline with a definition change. Cannot read retention from it. | Active clubs on both the 30-day and 45-day basis for every month back to January. |
| P2 | Consistent month-end cash date | June cash was labelled May 31. Cash dates have to be exact and consistent. | Cash balance as of the last calendar day of the month, every month, same line item. |
| P2 | Sponsorship revenue line | Launched in June at a 10% take rate, then disappeared from the July update. | Sponsorship revenue as its own line, monthly. |
| P2 | SMS cost detail | Flagged as higher than expected, cause unknown. Scales with users, so it compounds. | SMS spend per month and per seat sold, plus the finding from their investigation. |
| P3 | CAC and pipeline value | No view of what it costs to land a large logo, or what is weighted in pipeline. | Sales and marketing spend, logos landed, weighted pipeline value by stage. |
| P3 | Cohort retention | Aggregate active count hides whether individual clubs keep running. | Club cohorts by start month, showing % still selling seats at month 3, 6, 12. |
| P3 | Headcount cost | 7 FTE plus 5 contractors, no payroll figure. | Monthly payroll split FTE vs contractor. |