#139 FutureMoney

I’m Josh Muccio, and I’m so excited to kick off season 12 of The Pitch, where startup founders raise millions and listeners can invest. 

This season, we’re disrupting broken systems and democratizing access for everyone. You’re gonna hear 14 pitches back to back, and then one crazy season finale to cap things off at the end.

It all starts today with the pitch for FutureMoney. Coming up right after this.

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There’s two things you can do when you exit. Go chill on the beach and sip mai thai’s for the rest of your life, OR you take another crack at it. And go even bigger.

Today on the show, we meet a founder at the beach. Just kidding. Founder Phil Bearer had to sell his first company earlier than he wanted to. It was a good exit, $65 million. But he didn’t reach that elusive unicorn status.

So now, three years later, Phil is back in the game. This time, with something to prove.

Mac: Like half a centimeter. 

Charles: I don't have a lot of room to work with you.

Today, Phil is pitching Cyan Banister

Cyan: Nice to meet you. 

Charles Hudson

Charles: Hey, I'm Charles. Nice to meet you, Phil.

Elizabeth Yin

Elizabeth: Elizabeth. Nice to meet you. 

Mac Conwell

Mac: How's it going, Phil? Good to see you. 

And a new investor to the show, Jesse Middleton with Flybridge 

Jesse: Phil. Jesse.

Phil: All right. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Philip Barrar. I'm the founder and CEO of Future Money. My generation, millennials, are the first generation to be financially worse off than their parents' generation. Between wage stagnation, inflation, and home affordability, living out the American dream is more difficult than it's ever been before. What's worse, 67 percent of black families, 70 percent of Latino families, don't invest in equities today. So, we're here to help everyone create generational wealth, and Future Money is an investment platform that allows them to do so. When I found out I was going to be a future father, my world changed. I immediately went into the planning phase the way that any entrepreneur would, and I opened up an investment account for my future child the very same day. I knew the power of time and compound interest. A 5, 10, or $15 dollar weekly contribution for the first 18 years of your child's life could be a multi million dollar retirement account for them later on. There's unfortunately no good tax advantage accounts available for minors in this country, until now. After some recent regulatory changes, we invented the Junior Roth IRA to allow anyone to grow their money completely tax free without the need for earned employment income. About myself. I'm a repeat Fintech founder. I previously started the third largest roundup to invest platform globally. I took it from 0 to $65 million exit in five short years, and I acquired a million users on that platform. We're using the same playbook to be able to do it again here in the US market. We went to market in April after getting our SEC approval, and we've onboarded our 1st 500 customers onto the platform in the last 2 months. With that, we've seen a 30 percent conversion rate from download to monetized customer, something that's unheard of in the fintech space. We're now raising a million dollars of financing to be able to onboard our first 25,000 customers and generate a million dollars of annual recurring revenue. So, who wants to join me to help America build generational wealth? 

Mac: Great pitch, Phil. 

Phil: Thank you.

Mac: I got to lead off by saying, full disclosure, I'm an investor in Early Bird. 

Phil: Great platform.

Mac: They are fairly direct competitors, so I am clearly out. 

Phil: Early Bird is a great platform. We think we're fairly differentiated from what they're doing. We think that there's a great opportunity to embed our Junior Roth IRA product directly into their platform. So they could be a partner down the road, but today we're going direct to consumer with our first B2C product.

Mac: Well, if you don't already know those founders and would like an introduction at some point, happy to do that. um

Phil: That sounds great. 

Elizabeth: Can you tell us a little bit more about this Junior Roth IRA? 

Phil: Yeah, so, January 1st of this year, the Secure Act 2.0 came into effect, effectively allowing $35,000 to rollover from a 529 account to a Roth IRA account. Now, this rollover is a very complex and admin-heavy process that takes multiple years. The accounts have to be open for 15 years. The money has to be aged for five years, and it's typically a five year rollover that happens. We're automating that entire process. So the Junior Roth IRA is a trademarked name for the benefit of a minor plus Roth IRA. So someone else couldn't launch a Roth IRA for kids or a Mini Roth IRA without being competitive. And then the second part is we have a drafted patent around the conversion mechanisms that we'll be using to automate that process as well. 

Elizabeth: So let's dumb this down a little bit for people like myself. The 529, if I understand, is the, essentially the college savings vehicle, right, in the US? 

Phil: Correct. So 529 is an investment account that are state run in 48 states across the US that allow for tax advantaged college contributions. 

Elizabeth: And you are saying that as of January 1st this year, you can take $35,000 that has been placed into that program and moved over to a regular Roth IRA?

Phil: Correct, at a $7,000 a year increment - once the users reach the age of majority. 

Elizabeth: Oh, so 7,000 every year for five years. 

Phil: For five years, correct. 

Elizabeth: Got it. 

Jesse: But it has to be after they're 18.

Phil: Only after they reach the age of majority and the accounts have been open for 15 years and that the money's been in the account for five years. 

Elizabeth: And so the path then, I guess, to kind of summarize is like, you would get parents or relatives or friends, to initially contribute to essentially a 529 plan. And then when that child turns 18, you automatically start rolling over whatever the limit is at that time, every year for five years. 

Phil: Correct. So we offer today the Junior Roth IRA, which is the 529 cash and Roth IRA account in one. We offer 529 accounts. We offer traditional brokerage accounts. We also offer IRAs and Roth IRAs. 

Elizabeth: When you start the rollover process, let's say at age 18, hopefully my child would be working by then. Does that mean my child would not be able to contribute to his or her Roth IRA that year that you do a rollover? 

Phil: Correct. So that would count for your contribution for that year. Typically people between the ages of 18 and 25 aren't opening up their Roth IRAs. So starting it early -

Elizabeth: I understand that's rare.

Phil: - and having the money.

Elizabeth: But I would very much push my child to do that as soon as they can. 

Phil: Absolutely. And anyone can open up a junior Roth IRA. You don't have to be a minor. So if you're not making income today and you think you'll be making income tomorrow, at whatever point that is, you can use a junior Roth IRA, so homemakers, mothers who are on maternity leave could use something like this as well for their own use. 

Cyan: So do the same rules apply as regular Roth IRAs where you can invest in the same things?

Phil: So during the portion in which the child's a minor, those are in those state run programs. They're pretty standard index funds, tracking the S&P 500 mostly. So we are partnered with the John Hancock program to be able to offer that today. And then once the child turns 18, that rollover goes into a Roth IRA and you can invest in anything that a Roth would be allowed for.

Elizabeth: Hm. Interesting. 

Cyan: Interesting

Jesse: And your special sauce in this is the sort of singular path, create it, put the money in, not have to think about it again. For folks who have 529s today, for their kids, would you take those on board? Or if somebody has that kid turns the age of majority, they can move $7,000 a year themselves.

Phil: Yeah. So there's definitely a rescue component to locked up 529 money that we're gonna be looking at. But right now, only about 15 percent of the US population has a 529 account, so it's not a huge component for us. The parents that we're talking to don't realize the tax advantages that are there. They discover this product. They trip over our Facebook ads, or our TikTok content, and they say this is a great product. Then they come into our product experience. We have a really simple and easy guided solution to get them started. And the barrier to entry is a 5, 10 or $15 weekly contribution. So it's a very low entry point to have a very massive impact for those users. So we're targeting first time parents. 

Charles: So to deal with like the timing, is the idea that you'll get people in on your own 529 - because I'm just looking at the math, the assets themselves have to mature before you can start to flip them. And just sort of like, what's your relationship like with the customer until those assets mature?

Phil: We manage the investments all the way from point of deposit to the point of withdrawal. We charge a $48 a year annual membership for accounts under $20,000 a year. We charge 25 basis points for accounts over $20,000 a year. So we are very cost effective. If you were to do this yourself, you'd probably spend more time and potentially headaches, potentially do it wrong, than it would to pay $48 a year and have a one hour payback period. If you're a low income family member, we offer a 50 percent discount. If you are making less than $30,000 a year as a family, we offer a 100 percent discount on our service fees. 

Jesse: You mentioned running this playbook before. Walk us through a little bit about how you scaled up that roundup investment platform. Sort of what comes - You don't have to give all the secret sauce, but give us like high level playbook. What was unique about it?

Phil: Yeah, absolutely. So with my last company, I started in 2015, we launched the product in 2017. It took us about a million and a half dollars to get that product to market. So we've done this for a fraction of the cost here the second time around. With that last playbook, we used a paid earned and owned model. So we were using TikTok influencers, Meta ads, press and PR to build credibility. We were in the news about once a week and then double sided incentive programs and affiliate models. We saw a blended cost of about $18 per monetized customer on the last platform, and we did that at scale. The acquirer who bought that product continues to be one of the most profitable product lines that they have for the company. 

Cyan: What is your marketing plan? 

Phil: So we are starting with our paid earned owned marketing channel. We've had some great partnerships with TikTok influencers. We are starting a free investing class for parents so they can learn how to invest and have a special offer at the end of that. We are talking with partnerships with a lot of different baby brands that are interested in doing this, because obviously the best day to get started is the day a child's born or before. We do allow that on the platform as well. And then we are exploring B2B optionality for this. So embedding this product with financial incumbents, thinking about the green lights, financial advisors for managing accounts for families. 

Elizabeth: Are you already talking with those folks or not yet? 

Phil: So we have six major incumbents that we're in conversations with. They would like to see between 25 and 50,000 customers on the platform. Although we just had a great pitch with an insurance company yesterday that is interested in exploring further. So, it is early discovery, but we are having those ongoing conversations, yes. 

Charles: But up front you're really kind of competing with - because for the customer it's sort of like, 529 with you or 529 with someone else on the front door, right? 

Phil: Correct. But most of our customers don't have 529 accounts, so they see this as the junior Roth IRA and that's the part - so we're, yes, under the hood, it's a 529, but the junior Roth IRA is its own category. 

Charles: Got it. Okay. 

Cyan: What have you not figured out about this business? 

[laughter]

The Pitch for FutureMoney will be back after this.

Cyan: What have you not figured out about this business?

[laughter]

Phil: B2B is definitely one of them. The future of finance, in my opinion, is multiplayer. Right now, surviving day to day has been more and more difficult. So we are introducing the ability to invest for yourself, the ability to have shared goals and have a goal based functionality. So we think that the entry point to families is through parents investing for their minor children. Eventually, it's going to be adult children taking care of their senior parents or siblings, taking care of each other domestically or internationally. So we are looking at building the one place to manage all aspects of your family's financial life. And this is our entry point into that spot. 

Cyan: Mhmm I love this future. One of the things my friends and I used to do is have a shared savings account. 

Phil: Yes. 

Cyan: And we would all contribute to it. And so if anybody had a financial hardship, they would withdraw and then they would bring it, put it back. Are you going to do anything like that? 

Phil: That's a, that's a great concept, and we haven't explored that yet, but we'd definitely be open to it. The way that our shared goals currently work is if you had a couple that were saving for a down payment on a house, you have a shared view of that with two individual investment accounts. When it comes time to withdraw those funds, you withdraw your portion of those contributions back into your own accounts, and then you execute on whatever that purchase is individually. 

Elizabeth: So you're raising a million dollars. Tell us a little bit about your round. 

Phil: Absolutely. So we raised $500,000 on a pitch deck to bring this product live to market. And now that we have our registration and our first paying customers on the platform, we're raising an additional million dollars. Out of that million, we have 750,000 committed at a $7 million safe, and we're looking for an additional $250,000 to be able to close out the rest of this round. 

Elizabeth: And what do you hope to do with this round? 

Phil: So 12 to 18 months, acquire 25,000 customers, be able to generate about a million dollars of annual recurring revenue. So we're looking to get initial product market fit in this next 12 to 18 months. 

Jesse: If you're successful at this, fast forward 5 years, 10 years out, you talked a little bit about sort of this is where you manage all your family's assets. What does that business look like to you? Are you a JP Morgan 2.0? Are you the financial institution? Are you a layer across those and maybe underneath all that is, I'm sort of getting it like, who loses? You know, if you're successful, who loses? 

Phil: That's a, that's a great question, and I don't think we have enough information today to be able to determine what that, that looks like. I'll mention my philosophy when it comes to building businesses. Build a business you want to own and so will others. So if you focus on good growth, cash flow, profitability, you could spin off cash dividends, you could be acquired, you could go public. There will be exit ramps every single step of the way. We know that there'll be interest from the incumbents. There's probably an opportunity to disrupt the incumbents. Too early to tell, but we have lots of great options, and I think we're building in the right way to get there. 

Elizabeth: At the end of the day, you know, money is a commodity. So your 529 plan is the same as everyone else's.

Phil: Correct. 

Elizabeth: So how do you think about marketing in this space and winning that business? 

Phil: The trademark definitely helps. Understanding the consumer profile and what matters to them. User experience is definitely there. So that 30 percent conversion rate from download to monetized customer is largely because we have a low cost of acquisition but then we have a great conversion rate because of a great product experience. We're doing things like pre filling things such as social security number automatically, we're pulling that from telco data and credit bureau data. And then we have a great user experience that allows them to visualize where the money is going. So the insights from the previous business, the goal based approach, the great user onboarding all helps us with that. 

Elizabeth: But the onboarding aside, I think even one step above in the funnel, like, what is the messaging that you're using that other people are not?

Phil: Yeah, it's definitely modest deposits today could be life changing for your children in the future. They're worried about home ownership. They're worried about emergency funds. They're worried about, will their children be okay? And this is a peace of mind play. um There are four main competitors in the space that we see. Early bird, obviously, Backer, UNest, and Acorns Early. All of them are focused on short term to medium term goals. No one's focused on this generational wealth building component. 

Charles: I think I have to tap out. We are small investors in UNest through an acquisition, and we have a multiplayer family money product that aims to end up in the same place as you, but from a very different starting point. And the more I hear, the more I think we're probably conflicted out. 

Phil: Okay. 

Mac: I just want to point this out. You are exactly the reason why investors like investing in repeat founders. Great pitch. 

Phil: Thank you. 

Mac: You know all your numbers inside and out. You know your strategy for like every step of the business. You understand the partners. You've been the first entrepreneur to sit in front of us and talk about your competitors. If it wasn't for the fact that I was an investor in Early Bird, oh, I'd be really interested right now. 

Phil: I appreciate the compliment. Thank you. 

Cyan: So I'm a big fan. I love Roths. I think that more people need to have them. It allows you to invest in your future and in different asset classes. It gives you a lot more flexibility. And I would like for my firm to take a look at this just because of the amount, depending on what other people say. Just cause I think it's interesting enough that we should if you're open to it.

Phil: Absolutely. That'd be great. 

Cyan: And so that's, there'll be a follow up. It's not a yes, no, but it's a maybe.

Phil: Would love that. Thank you. 

Elizabeth: I, I love these kinds of products. I'm kind of a sucker for these kinds of products. And um, you clearly know this space backwards and forwards and have built in it. So, I think it's slightly crowded, but given your background, that's a bet I'm willing to take. So I'm in for 150k. 

Phil: That's amazing. Thank you. Can't wait to work with you. 

Cyan: Whoah!

Mac: 100k left to go in the round.

Cyan: Are you willing to go over? 

Phil: We can have that conversation, absolutely. 

Jesse: I fall, I fall in Cyan's - so I don't do a ton of fintech investing. you named a bunch of names. I know Acorns. I don't know any of the others. So I'm like, for me, there's a bit of an education gap. And so I'd love to follow up on whether we could do something now or when you raise more, sort of around whatever, or for the future. I fall into the bucket of like super intrigued. like I think you're multi time founder, product market fit, like you get this. And so if there's somebody who's going to win in this space, I think it's you. 

Phil: Thank you. 

Jesse: So, so I'd love the chance to look at that as well. 

Phil: That would be great. I appreciate that. 

Josh: Uh, since there's only 250,000 available, Elizabeth's taking most of that and then we've got two funds that normally write checks of a million or more. So…

We’ll be right back.

Josh: Since there's only 250,000 available, Elizabeth's taking most of that and then we've got two funds that normally write checks of a million or more. So...

Jesse: It's a conversation to have, it's like, do you raise more? Is there a price that makes sense to raise more versus the current one? So I think we'll have that conversation in the coming week and we can each chat. I - We can cross that bridge and if we're really excited, we will make it work. And if you're really excited, you'll make it work. And that's generally how these come together. 

Phil: Absolutely.

Cyan: You guys could also make an offer and just say to heck with us. 

Jesse: Yeah.

Cyan: But um, I would put in money personally and I would still love to. It’s just that when I see deals like this, you know, I'm always evaluating, is this an angel return or a venture return. And it could be an angel and a venture, or it could just be angel, but this is a venture return company. And I have a fiduciary responsibility to my LPs to try. So it's one of those things where I've got to try. 

Jesse: Yeah. 

Cyan: But if my fund passes, I would love to put in 50k. 

Phil: That's amazing. We'd love to work with you as well. 

Cyan: Yeah. 

Phil: And just on the venture return component, our path to $100 million in annual recurring revenue is 2 million users on the product. Three and a half million babies born in the US every single year. So we definitely think we can get to that unicorn status in five years of executing well by doing that. So, we'd love to chat. Maybe it's angel today and it's your fund when we de-risk the business even further. 

Cyan: Possibly. 

Josh: Well, Phil, before you give away the rest of your round to the people waiting out in the audience, The Pitch Fund would like at least 50k. 

Elizabeth: This round is going!

Phil: We'll make it happen. 

Mac: There's ways to make it all work. 

Mac: Congratulations. 

Elizabeth: Yeah. Congrats.

Phil: Thank you guys. It was great meeting all of you.

Jesse: It was great meeting you too. 

Cyan: Thank you for working on something important. 

Elizabeth: Yeah, thank you.

[applause from outside]

Elizabeth: I love how Josh is securing his allocation before he goes out the door. 

Josh: I’m nervous.

Jesse: While wearing his robe. 

Josh: We got some ballers out there. 

Mac: I love the industry. I love the space. I invest in the space because like personally - uh So I have 10 god kids. um 

Jesse: People really like you. 

Mac: I was the first, I was the first one of my friends to get a decent job. That equated to responsibility. 

Jesse: They all want these kids to intern for you. 

Mac: Yeah, basically. But what I would do for Christmas is I would buy them a toy and I would buy them stock in the company that that toy represented or that toy was made by. 

Josh: Ah, that's cool. 

Jesse: That's a fintech product on its own, man. 

Mac: Well, that's what Early Bird kind of does. But yeah, this is a great space. There's a couple players in it.

Jesse: Yeah.

Mac: But there's not - like there's no clear winner. 

Jesse: Yeah.

Mac: And he's coming at it from a different angle.

Elizabeth: Yeah 

Jesse: I think second time founders, especially second time -

Mac: Successful founders.

Jesse: Successful, but not too successful. There's the chip on the shoulder. So like, I have a founder that I backed, he's the vendor of Splice and like sold Group Me in 11 months, you know, for an amazing, a very good exit. But you know he came to me and he's like, I never had to have managers. I never had to make a dollar of revenue. Like this time around I'm building for the long haul. Like I want to build a real business that makes real money. So I think when you have that reasonable win and you're coming at it again, you come really prepared and you come with this feeling that like, I'm going to make a difference, an even bigger difference. 

Mac: The big hit's usually not the first one. 

Cyan: Long term, this opens up a lot of people to become angel investors. 

Elizabeth: Yeah. I would -

Cyan: Because Roth will allow that. 

Elizabeth: - really love to buy equity in startups on behalf of children. 

Elizabeth: Then, they're not taking the risk. And if it goes well, then you know, your Roth IRA at 65 would be worth like tons of money. 

Josh: Oh, the stories that could come from that. 

Cyan: Oh yeah. 

Elizabeth: That's the product I want. 

Josh: Elizabeth, you said you're a sucker for these kinds of businesses.

Elizabeth: Yeah, the sort of alternative, wealth building things, I guess you could call it. 

Josh: So like alternative asset classes or like the -

Elizabeth: Either. Either. So -

Cyan: Anything that allows people to become wealthier all around. 

Elizabeth: Yeah. Yeah.

Josh: So when he said like we're wanting to make generational wealth accessible to anyone you're like, I'm in.

Elizabeth: Well, I love that mission. You can say whatever you want, but you have to have the substance to back it up. But yeah, this is very compelling. 

Jesse: Yeah. 

Josh: So, why are you not concerned about the competition here? 

Elizabeth: I think with his angle, I've seen Early Bird and, at least at this moment, they're pretty focused on 529s. Obviously, that can change. But I really just really like this Roth IRA angle. And maybe it's because it's top of mind. I've been thinking about this a lot recently. My older one is 10 and she's selling orange juice this summer. I was actually just running spreadsheets around this, like, I don't think she's going to get to 7,000 this summer.

Jesse: But that's the -

Elizabeth: But like, if she got to X, then what would that turn out to be when she's 65 and it's really meaningful money. Like even if you're not putting away a lot every year, just the compounding factor is pretty amazing.

Jesse: Yeah. 

Jesse: My eight year old was like, we talk about private companies all the time and stocks and he knows he owns a little bit of Open AI and he knows he owns this and that, whatever. And he's like, how can I buy stuff? And then he said to me, he goes, do you know what I'd buy? He said, I fly Delta Airlines a lot. So I would buy Delta. he'd buy Target because there's a lot of people that go to Target. 

Elizabeth: Yeah.

Jesse: And his third one, he said, what's that thing where they pay you when you own the stock? And I said, you mean dividends? And he goes, yeah, he goes, which stocks pay dividends? There's a bunch of things. It could be Microsoft, it could be Pepsi. He goes, Pepsi sounds good. I was like, all right, there you go. I said, you're going to beat the market. So I like - but there's no good programs for that.

Elizabeth: There's no good programs. 

Jesse: Yeah. 

Elizabeth: Yeah. 

Josh: All right. That's great. One more pitch. 

Charles: All right. 

Cyan: I like the name Junior Roth. 

Jesse: I, it's a great, it's a great brand. 

Cyan: He should also trademark Roth Jr. 

Phil walked out of the pitch room with commitments of $150k from Elizabeth, $50k from The Pitch Fund, and two potential lead investors. But as you heard, there’s not a lot of room left in this round. 

Let the fight for allocation begin! 

Elizabeth: So. Why is it that you have to have the account open for 15 years before?

Philip: It's a, um, it's a rule. It's part of the Secure Act 2. 0. 

Elizabeth: Oh, wow. That's a really long term game. So in 15, if I open up something today in 15 years, you will, you will send me an alert. 

Philip: We will work with you along the entire process. 

Elizabeth: Mmm, okay…

Jesse: It is super impressive, the onboarding flow, that with only your phone number, It filled out the entire form with my current address and social security number. So your onboarding flow is better than any other fintech product I've ever signed up for. So I'll give you that. 

Philip: I spend sleepless nights obsessing over onboarding flow. You can tell. 

Jesse: I think it's exciting to do something with you guys and let's see, see where the next few months take us. I'm stoked to be involved.

Diligence on this deal is happening as we speak! Tune in to our season finale on December 11th to hear how the story ends. You can register for the season finale watch party at pitch.show/party.

Assuming no red flags come up in diligence, The Pitch Fund is planning to invest in FutureMoney.

If you’re listening and thinking “hey, I’d like to invest in FutureMoney too,” you can do so without violating SEC rules around public solicitation by becoming an LP in The Pitch Fund. LPs in our fund get first access whenever there’s additional allocation and we’re happy to make those intros to founders behind the scenes. 

The Pitch Fund I will close to the general public this December. So if you’ve been on the fence, taking a wait and see approach, this is the last opportunity. The window to invest in fund I will close on December 15th. After that, you’ll have to wait for fund II in 2026.

If you’re interested, learn more at thepitch.fund

Next week on The Pitch…

Capella: Traditionally to attach two objects, you need tape, glue or suction. This isn't a tape. This isn't a glue. This isn't a suction 

Capella: We're currently on the international space station. Honda, Ford, Toyota, GE, Intel, Hyundai are just a few of our some of our customers here on Earth. 

Mac: So this is like the, the things you see in all the info commercials that are supposed to hold your picture frame up and never actually work.

Charles: Except this one actually works. 

Jesse: Except this one works. 

Capella: We sell it for $1,000 

Mac: A thousand dollars for how much of it? 

Capella: 11 square inches. 

Cyan: The application I'm thinking of this is for magicians. 

Capella: Oh. 

Mac: So this valuation is really high. 

Capella: There is no valuation set. 

That’s next week! Subscribe to The Pitch right now, and turn on notifications so you don’t miss it. 

Oh! And in two weeks, if you want to get snacky with the VCs on our show, you can taste test a bag of Christie’s Chips. Find them at your local Sprouts or online at pitch.show/chips.

–

This episode was made by me, Josh Muccio, Lisa Muccio, Anna Ladd, Enoch Kim, and Jackie Papanier. With casting help from Peter Liu and John Alvarez.

Thanks to friend of the show Darrel Frater for introducing us to Phil with FutureMoney.

Music in this episode is by The Muse Maker, Breakmaster Cylinder, FYRSTYX, The Brow, Land of Legs, Phantom Sun, and boxwood orchestra. 

The Pitch is made in partnership with the Vox Media Podcast Network.