Quibi gets $1.75B before launching — credit its "Anticipated Popularity Score"

Don't use it as a verb... Quibi wants to be a noun. The adorably-named mobile video startup — short for "quick bites" — just raised a not-so-adorable $750M in additional cash from its private investors (it hasn't IPO'd yet). That brings Quibi's total fundraise to a gargantuan $1.75B — and it doesn't even launch until April 6th:

• Quibi is like a mobile-only Netflix, but its movies and video series are broken into 8-10 minute episodes (Quibi wants 8-10 minutes to be known as 1 "Quibi"). It's for people with short attention spans (aka, all of u-
• The world has not yet tasted a Quibi, making its value all the more surprising — Quibi's massive fundraise is rare for a pre-launch startup (though having Disney and Comcast as investors, and Shrek-creator Jeffery Katzenberg as co-founder definitely helps).

If you bake it, will they eat?... Quibi's spending massively to cook up 8.5K bingeable bites in 2020 — and we just learned its 50 first shows (we're curious about the Barkitecture doghouse one). Quibi is betting big that these content cookies will be in high demand. We're calling it the "Anticipated Popularity Model." Can go 3 ways:

• Success: Apple had it with the iPhone, AirPods, and bold headphone-jack removal.
• TBD: GM is spending billions building electric cars, though Americans haven't shown real demand for EVs yet.
• Struggle: Canopy Growth and its cannabis peers produced a ton of pot after legalization, but demand was way lower than hyped up to be.