Episodes
April 15, 2020
#88 How Startups Can Succeed in a Pandemic
In the last few weeks, COVID-19 has changed just about every business in the country. Investors everywhere are scrambling to help their startups survive the pandemic. On today’s show, investors Elizabeth Yin and Charles Huds…
April 1, 2020
#87 Uber for Pets
Last year, investors woke up to the fact that the biggest ridesharing companies still struggle to make money. But today’s founder, Aparna Srinivasan, thinks she can buck that trend by introducing pets into the equation. But …
March 25, 2020
#86 If the Suit Fits, Invest.
Founder Ray Li says he can make you a custom suit, out of a quiz. And his company, Sene, is already making a profit. Ray wants to pursue the technology AND build up a cool brand but the investors wonder if Ray would be bette…
March 11, 2020
#85 Will Coronavirus Kill This Deal?
There’s a tried and true playbook in tech: get a ton of users, then figure out how to monetize them. Today’s founder, Ofo Ezeugwu, has plenty of users on his site, but the investors press Ofo about his plans to monetize. And…
March 4, 2020
#84 The Napkin Pitch
Tiffany Walling McGarity called in to the show and you, our listeners, voted her on to pitch the investors. But from the moment she stepped in the room, it was clear that this pitch would play out differently from the rest. …
Feb. 19, 2020
#83 Can Small Bras Be a Big Market?
In VC, investors want to win big — that’s why they love highly scalable tech companies so much. But today’s founder, Jaclyn Fu, is selling actual things. Her startup, Pepper, makes real bras in a very real factory. There’s n…
Feb. 12, 2020
#82 A Deal Too Perfect to Pass Up
This is how much of a go-getter Bobbie Racette is: when she got laid off, she started a business to help thousands of other people who were out of work. Now, she has so many customers, she can’t keep up. And Michael Hyatt, o…
Jan. 29, 2020
#81 Jillian to the Rescue
During our last call-in show, Thor Wood wowed us with his 30-second elevator pitch for SnapShyft, a company that matches workers with open shifts at restaurants. Now Thor will have to convince a much tougher crowd, the inves…
Jan. 22, 2020
#80 Can This App Silence The Trolls?
Ben Trenda thinks he can stop the trolls on Twitter and other social spaces. He’s building Goodtalk, where famous people can have public one-on-one conversations without interruption. But if you strip away the bad, will you …
Jan. 8, 2020
#79 The Anti-JUUL
“Move fast and break things” is a mantra for a lot of startup founders — but what if the federal government is slowing you down? That’s the situation that Josh Israel is in with his startup, Hava Health. Josh needs to wait f…
Nov. 13, 2019
#78 Got Goals? Grab a Cru
Tiffany Dufu has spent her career uplifting women and girls. Now, she’s turning a lifetime’s worth of expertise into a venture-backed business. Her startup, The Cru, is dedicated to helping women achieve their goals by conne…
Nov. 6, 2019
#77 Sell Online or Go Door to Door
Kate Flynn has a plan to make her healthy snack bites stand out: skip the grocery stores, and find potential customers when and where they need a snack. It’s a strategy that’s outside of the investors’ wheelhouse, but if she…
Oct. 30, 2019
#76 Pitchline Bonanza
Back in September, we invited listeners to call in and give us their best elevator pitch for their startup. And the response was off the hook! In this episode we play our favorite calls — and choose one lucky winner to come …
Oct. 9, 2019
#75 “I Want Bro Money Too”
The 2.4 trillion dollar fashion industry is due for a makeover, according to Andrea Madho. She says her company, Lab141, will be the biggest change to the way clothes are made in over a century. But it’s a moonshot and she k…
Oct. 2, 2019
#74 Stop Killing Your Plants
Ryan Lee says he has a better way to buy plants, on his website, Rooted. To conquer the market, Ryan has a big, audacious plan, and this is his very first time pitching it to VCs. Find out if he can convince the investors th…
Sept. 25, 2019
#73 Enough Sales Calls Already!
For businesses, the process of buying software is brutal. Founder Andrew Hoagland launched his company to make it a breeze. In fact, he says that his startup Vetd has made it so easy that he can’t keep up with the demand he’…
Sept. 18, 2019
#72 How Niche Is Too Niche?
Orion Brown is very early in her journey as an entrepreneur. In fact, this is her first pitch to venture capitalists! At this early stage, the investors are listening for something a bit different. They just want to know, is…
Sept. 11, 2019
#71 Raising Kids Is Hard. So Is Raising a Startup.
When founder Jen Saxton landed a partnership with a big name retailer in the baby industry, she thought her startup, Tot Squad, was on the way to startup stardom. But five years into the deal, things just weren’t working out…
Sept. 4, 2019
#70 What Is Michael Phelps Jamming to Right Now?
What if you could listen to the exact same music as your favorite celebrities, at exactly the same time? That’s the question that drove NFL lineman Jason Fox to build an app for that. An app called Earbuds. Now if Jason can …
Aug. 21, 2019
When You Grow Too Fast
A little over a year ago, Xiao Wang came on the show to pitch his startup, Boundless. He told investors that his company was going to help immigrants cut through all the bureaucracy and paperwork required to get legal status…
Aug. 14, 2019
#69 When Less Is Not More
Founder Rahul Jindal might be the king of bootstrapping. And when investors see similarities between his startup, Hyde Closet, and a billion dollar business known as Rent the Runway, they start dreaming of unicorns. Until a …
Aug. 7, 2019
#68 Dogs & Dating: A Match Made in Heaven?
Back in May we asked entrepreneurs to call in and give us their best pitches. The winner was Leigh Isaacson and her startup Dig — a dating app for people who love dogs. In this episode, Leigh enters the pitch room and asks f…
July 17, 2019
I’ve Looked Death in the Eye
When he came on the show two years ago, Amado Guloy said his startup would change the business of animal agriculture. And the investors bought it! But since then, Amado has found himself at a crossroads between his own healt…
June 26, 2019
Fighting the 24/7 Startup Grind
Back in 2018, Margot Schmorak pitched our investors on Hostfully. It’s a startup that ushers old-style vacation-rental companies into the digital age. Margot ginned up a lot of excitement in the room that day. But then, she …