#137 Gnara: Disrupting Your Pants

There’s a market ripe for disruption. It hasn’t seen innovation in decades… maybe even centuries. Whatever you think it is, I bet it’s not pants. 

Yes, I said pants. Today’s founder Georgia Grace Edwards, wants to disrupt your pants. With ~technology~

But how does one scale … pants? Georgia Grace has a trick up her sleeve. One that just might get our investors excited about a consumer product – a notoriously difficult category to fundraise for.

Will Georgia Grace line her pockets with cash? Or walk out with zip?

I’m Josh Muccio, welcome to The Pitch. Where real founders pitch real investors for real money. Let’s meet the investors.

Mac Conwell with RareBreed Ventures

Mac: As a unicorn hunter, I want to see every unicorn. 

Charles Hudson with Precursor Ventures 

Charles: I wish that had been your open. That was so good.

Elizabeth Yin with HustleFund

Elizabeth: Do you love the problem you're working on?

Paige Finn Doherty with Behind Genius Ventures

Paige: Actually I gained so much respect for her when she said that she did that.

And Cyan Banister with Long Journey Ventures

Cyan: That is the definition of a dope founder.

The Pitch for Gnara is coming up after the break. And if you’re not following the show already, subscribe to The Pitch on the Castro podcast app. Remember when podcast apps were simple and just played your favorite podcasts? Yeah, Castro is bringing that back.

You can find the uncut version of this pitch at patreon.com/thepitch

[break]

Georgia Grace: Hello.

Elizabeth: Hi.

Georgia Grace: I'm Georgia Grace.

Elizabeth: Elizabeth. Nice to meet you.

Georgia Grace: Great to meet you.

Charles: Hey, I'm Charles.

Georgia Grace: Georgia Grace. Nice to meet you, Charles.

Charles: Nice to meet you, Georgia Grace.

Cyan: Cyan.

Georgia Grace: Georgia Grace. Nice to meet you.

Paige: Paige.

Georgia Grace: Hi Paige.

Paige: Nice to meet you.

Mac: Mac.

Georgia Grace: Hi Mac. Nice to meet you. Okay. If you did not use the bathroom before this pitch, you are definitely gonna have to after, so bear with me. My name is Georgia Grace Edwards. I'm the cofounder and the CEO of Gnara, and at Gnara we are on a mission to help everyone answer nature's call, quite literally, through our patented GoFly zipper technology. The idea for this came from my work as a glacier guide in Alaska. I was spending 8 to 12 hours a day up on the ice, usually as the only woman guide. And in comparison to the guys, who could turn around, unzip, go whenever, wherever, I found myself having to trek across the glacier, carefully avoiding crevasses, until I could find a spot with enough privacy, completely remove three to four layers in freezing temperatures, do my thing, put it all back on and hike back to work. And that process was such a waste of time and energy that often left me feeling cold for hours after, to the point where I started dehydrating myself. And unfortunately, that is not an uncommon story among women in the outdoors, regardless of whether or not we're working on glaciers. 56% of us have had a bathroom accident outside in the past year alone. And that is because pants were never designed to be worn by women in the first place. Here in the United States through the 70s and 80s, women were not permitted to wear pants or shorts at colleges and universities, and women were not permitted to wear pants on the floor of the US Senate until 1993, which means this is a very young industry, and very little innovation has happened. Until now. This is the GoFly technology. It is covered by both design and utility patents in over 30 countries worldwide and counting. There is a top zipper to get the product on and off, followed by a second secret zipper that begins at the base of the first and it extends all the way to the back of the product. so the user can control the size and location of the space they need to create. We first launched this technology into the world via our award-winning Go There pants, followed by our Go There shorts. And this year, we are excited to launch our Go Free leggings. In the past 18 months, my team and I have taken this technology from the floor of my college dorm room to the floors of the largest outdoor retailers in North America, to social media virality with over 350 million views on trending videos, and to the top of gear lists by Gear Junkie, USA Today, CNN, Women's Health, and more. Now we are raising half a million dollars to make the GoFly technology the Gore-Tex of zippers via a licensing revenue stream, so that we can get this technology into as many applications as possible, and help everyone go on the go. Thank you.

Elizabeth: Wow 

Paige: Can we open them? An unboxing!

Georgia Grace: The producers helped with sizes. So I picked colors that I thought might suit you.

Paige: I really love that orange.

Cyan: I love this.

Paige: These are so cool.

Charles: Sea green. I kind of like that sea foam. 

Georgia Grace: That color is Juneau jade. So a lot of our colors are named for important places in our company's story, and I was working as a glacier guide in Juneau. 

Charles: Nice.

Elizabeth: Nice.

Josh: Could you describe what you're unwrapping?

Cyan: Yes. We're unwrapping a pair of pants. 

Paige: I have shorts.

Cyan: Yep. And they're amazing.

Elizabeth: Yeah.

Cyan: The quality is very high.

Paige: Yeah. The quality is really high.

Elizabeth: Yeah.

Paige: These are awesome. 

Elizabeth: I might just be dense, but could you explain what this tech is? Is it the zipper? Is the zipper combined with this material? Or?

Georgia Grace: Absolutely. So design and utility patents, there are 16 different claims. But the biggest three things it boils down to that we're protected on are what makes this super functional, super comfortable and super discreet. So the functionality comes from the fact that it appears like two different zippers, but this is actually one continuous zipper track that's sewn down between two pulls. The thing that makes it discreet, to make it look like any traditional pair of pants or shorts or other bottoms, are the flaps on the outside. I'm also wearing our pants right now. They look completely normal.

Charles: Yeah. Yeah.

Georgia Grace: And then there's a custom fabric flap on the inside so that they're really comfortable. So comfortable that a third of our customers actually go commando.

[laughter]

Elizabeth: Wow. 

Cyan: Okay. 

Cyan: And are the - is the patent issued? Or is it pending?

Georgia Grace: Granted.

Cyan: Granted.

Georgia Grace: Design and utility. And then we're also pending for our patents in the legging design, which is a slightly different design, as well as anything that you would put in a onesie. So overalls, ski bibs, fishing waders, flight suits, etc. 

Mac: That was great. And amazing technology that should've been created decades ago. You said you've been working on this for 18 months, you've gotten a lot of press, a lot of social buzz. You didn't tell us about how much money you've made, so would love to know, how much you've made to date.

Georgia Grace: Thank you. I forgot that part. So we've done over 18,000 units. And our lifetime revenue is about 1.75 million. Last year's revenue was just under a million. So we had over 50% growth between 2022 and 2023. We've only actually had inventory in stock for the past 18 months. 

Cyan: What is the price point for these?

Georgia Grace: For pants, full MSRP is 168. Shorts are 118. And we're expecting leggings to be 128.

Mac: And how much does it cost for you to produce each one?

Georgia Grace: Pants cost $43 to produce. Shorts cost $37 and the estimate for leggings is $27. So for our flagship product, which is the pants, we're at a 74% D2C profit margin, a 48% wholesale retail profit margin, and in the licensing revenue stream, we're looking at a 96% profit margin. We have our first signed LOI in hand from a billion dollar company that's currently testing with their pro athlete team in ski bibs and base layers So what this process will look like is they will each put in 40 hours of testing. And then at the end of the ski season, we will go over feedback, see if there's any design refinements we need to make, and then it would go straight to production to hit the market at the end of this year. 

Elizabeth: This is very impressive. Can you talk a little bit about licensing going forward?

Georgia Grace: Licensing has always been our exit strategy for this company. And in following the blueprint of top outdoor companies, they all start with a seemingly niche highly technical inhouse physical product. and then they end up getting requests to put that technology into other applications. So examples of this would be Gore-Tex started with their own waterproof lamination in a jacket, and now obviously Gore-Tex is found in everyone's jackets. They are not the only company to have that completely waterproof lamination. There are plenty of other brands that have technology that works just as well, but because Gore-Tex was first to market it's still what all customers look for. And they are a multibillion dollar company -

Elizabeth: Sure.

Georgia Grace: - revenue each year. Other examples we've looked to are Kizik shoes. So they're a hands free technology, started with their own shoes, now they have deals with Nike. BOA dials on snowboarding boots, that's how they started. Now they work with over 400 different brands doing licensing. And then Vibram, they started with the super specific mountaineering boot and now of course they're in almost all shoe soles I can think of. 

Oooh… this just went from a potentially unattractive consumer product investment, to a billion dollar licensing business … Savvy move Georgia Grace. But will the investors see it that way? That’s coming up

BREAK

Welcome back. The investors’ ears perked wayyy up when Georgia Grace told them about the licensing side of the business. She already has a letter of intent from a billion dollar brand with a ski team. Here’s Elizabeth.

Elizabeth: And so what is the nature of your licensing deal that you are working out right now.

Georgia Grace: So the strategy here is to start with non-competitive markets and products, things that we will never do ourselves. Often because they are niche in terms of season, or in terms of the number of women who are actually participating in that activity. So that makes ideal industries: workwear, military, ski and snow. In terms of the structure of these deals, they are typically set up with a two-part fee: the first is an upfront knowledge transfer fee. So that covers the right to utilize the rights and the patent. The second part of that structure comes from a per unit royalty fee, and that's where the true exponential growth happens. So once they test it in one SKU, it's likely that they then want to expand to all 150,000 SKUs, for example. The range of licensing fees in this industry is 3 to 12% Our goal that we're aiming for is 7%. We'll see where we end up on this first deal. But that's how we're thinking about it from a negotiation standpoint. 

Paige: How much have you raised to date?

Georgia Grace: We have raised $1.5 million to date from a mix of VCs, family offices and angels, and we have over 50% women on our cap table, which we're really proud of.

Paige: Cool. 

Georgia Grace: And then about 225k in cash grants, pitch competition wins, etc. 

Mac: What's your current burn and what's your runway? 

Georgia Grace: Our average burn for 2023 was just under 60k a month. At our highest, we were looking at 75 and we ended the year in Q4 very lean - under 25k a month. And our runway with this raise is 12 months, so it gets us to Q1 of -

Mac: What's your runway currently? Not with the raise.

Georgia Grace: Runway currently is six months.

Mac: Okay. And so you raised 1.5, you're now raising another five. What's this five for?

Georgia Grace: The five is to really get the licensing up and running. So not just have the signed LOI in hand, but actively have revenue coming from it before we go out for a priced round. 

Elizabeth: Do you spend a lot of money on inventory right now?

Georgia Grace: Yes. Because we are still physical product based, that is mainly where our cashflow gets tied up. We have been able to secure over $400,000 of debt, which we're halfway through paying off, and so that's helped cover most of our inventory costs. 

Elizabeth: Mhm. 

Elizabeth: What are the terms?

Cyan: Well, yeah. Also what was the valuation of the last round?

Georgia Grace: So this round is on the existing convertible note. The terms that we've raised 1.5 on to date, are 25k minimum and 11 million pre money value cap. 

Charles: Are there any other alternative approaches to solving this problem that don't violate your patent? Like other people who are working on trying to bring this much needed innovation to the outdoors? 

Georgia Grace: So the only thing on the market actively trying to solve for the bathroom are FUDs - female urination devices. I'm not sure if you've ever seen one, but it's essentially a pee funnel. The top complaints with them are overflow and leakage issues, both of which are solved with the GoFly zipper And at Gnara, it's our belief that the problem is not our anatomy; it's our clothing. And so you shouldn't need to carry around extra gear. But if that works for you, it works with our products too. And since we have been first to market, there have been three smaller Kickstarter campaigns with similar ideas. So they don't have the IP, the functionality, the look that we do. So for example, there's one with an uncovered zipper that starts in the back of the product, which doesn't make a ton of sense, since you only need to unzip so far for most of what you need to do. And then there are ones that feature overlapping flaps, for example, but they're harder to use because it requires two hands.

Charles: Thank you.

Georgia Grace: Yeah. 

Mac: So at this point in the proceedings -

[laughter]

Georgia Grace: I'm on trial.

Mac: You're really impressive, you know your numbers. You're still early and inventory's an issue, which is why you're raising this bridge round. But, this innovation's dope. You're dope. I have a problem, though.

Georgia Grace: Okay.

Mac: The problem is I'm an investor in a company called Unspun. They make print on demand jeans. I doubt that there's too much overlap, and they could probably be a customer for your licensing. But I have a policy where I have to talk to my founders first and see if there's a conflict. So I'm going to say no for now. But I'm going to introduce you to the founder and if he says there's not we could have another follow-up conversation.

Georgia Grace: That would be great.

Mac: Because you seem really awesome.

Georgia Grace: Thanks. 

Paige: So to follow off what Mac said, some of the things that really stuck out was like you know your numbers, you have an incredible pitch, you have spent time in the outdoors, like personally experienced the problem. The one thing that I'm struggling with on my decision is the bridge round, given your current cash position, uh it - I guess before I go further with this, my question would be like are you open to raising a larger round? Because it sounds like you've been tight on runway for a bit. 

Georgia Grace: Our thought process here, and we definitely have considered raising more, and it's not fully off the table if someone would like to write us a check for more - but the way that we thought about this, was what is the least amount of money we can raise to get where we think of our proof of traction should be And so that's how we landed at that number. There is a world in which this round could be bigger or it could be the priced round. Though again, 50% of it is committed.

Paige: Yeah, yeah. 

Georgia Grace: But we're - we're definitely open to discussing that.

Paige:Okay. I think for - for this round, because of those dynamics, I'm going to be out. But I would love to reconnect at a later stage in a different round. I just - like, when I invest, I want to make sure that the founder has at least like 18 to 24 months of runway for your sanity as a founder. 

Elizabeth: I mean, I think if we're gonna be realistic for ecommerce, it's really hard to get to 18 to 24 months of runway.

Georgia Grace: Yeah, I don't know any founders -

Elizabeth: I don’t know if we have any ecommerce founders in that boat.

Paige: Yeah.

Elizabeth: So I think just - I don't know. It's just a different category of investing, right. Unlike the software founders.

Paige: Yeah. 

Elizabeth: I imagine that's also what has shaped your fundraise, right? Like, I'm sure it's been a hard journey and I'm very impressed by how much you've built with so little.

Georgia Grace: Thank you.

Cyan: So I have an investment in my portfolio that you remind me of: Sheertex. 

Elizabeth: Oh, Sheertex is amazing. 

Cyan: Very similar story, when she came in, had a patent on unrippable pantyhose or whatever you want to call them. Leggings. And a lot of people said no to her, because they didn't think that people wore leggings any more.

[laughter]

Cyan: And it turns out the entire service industry has to wear leggings. um Airline attendants, etc. And so I also love wearing jumpsuits. You see I'm wearing a jumpsuit right now, and I would give anything for this zipper in my jumpsuit, because every time you take a jumpsuit off in the bathroom, let's just say, the whole thing comes off.

Georgia Grace: You're not just ass naked, it's full frontal.

Charles: Yeah.

[laughter]

Cyan: I'm in. I think I'm gonna go with 50k. 

Georgia Grace: Super excited to have you on board.

Cyan: Yeah.

Charles: I think I am in a similar position to Mac. We've made a couple of investments in outdoors ski company called Halfdays, we have outdoor products company called Kinfield. I do have one company that makes hiking pants called Alpine Parrot focused on a different dynamic -

Georgia Grace: I know Alpine Parrot very well.

Charles: Yeah. I would wanna talk to Raquel about this, cos it's a very different use case, but it's a similar product. but I'd want to double check for conflict first.

Georgia Grace: Thank you. I appreciate it. 

Elizabeth: Cool. I love this. I've certainly faced this problem myself, personally. I'm very impressed, like I said, by how much you've done with so little. Hustle Fund does not invest in non-software, but I do do a number of angel investments and I would love to do this personally, as a small check. I wouldn't be able to hit your 25k minimum, but if you would have me I would love to invest.

Georgia Grace: Okay. Sounds good. It would be an honor. I'm very excited. Thank you all. 

Cyan: Yeah. Thank you. You're amazing.

[thank yous]

Paige: Yeah. It's really impressive.

[more thanks]

Cyan: That parts cool.

Charles: The clap track is cool. We definitely need to keep that. 

Mac: I might have to figure out a way to come up with like - maybe do something personally. Like -

Cyan: Yeah. I mean she's so impressive. 

Elizabeth: Yeah. 

Mac: She was super impressive. She was very confident. But then when we got down to the numbers or what all the things are, you could see where the shakiness was. When you've raised 1.5 and you're raising a 500k, you know, bridge round for a physical product company, that's - like some sirens start to go off, which is unfortunate, because for this product, this innovation, the IP she has, she should be far better capitalized than she is.

Elizabeth: But I - Mac, like all of my -

Mac: I know!

Elizabeth: - ecommerce companies have no money.

Mac: I said should. I didn't say would.

Charles: It's super hard.

Cyan: It's a tough category to raise for in general, you know. And I just - I'm rooting for her because, you know, I saw what happened with Sheertex -

Elizabeth: Yeah.

Cyan: - and -

Elizabeth: And that's an amazing story.

Cyan: It's an amazing story. Like she pitched hundreds of VCs and nobody could see a venture scalable company out of it. I mean, she defined the category and there's a lot of copycats now. But she also licenses Sheertex and it goes into sportswear and into all sorts of things. But she's slaying and - you know, same sort - exact pitch with Gore-Tex when she came in, she's like, I'm going to be the Spanx or the Gore-Tex of my category and - 

Mac: For me, that's what won the pitch, when she started going through the case studies, she knew what she was talking about, she knew the industry. And it's like, yes, licensing is where the money is. It's never in the clothing. We have three companies in our portfolio that started off with an apparel product, but that was never the business. And the apparel product did well enough that they got the traction where the big business came. Like we've seen this model time and time again, so I think it's interesting. 

Josh: Do you think there's a version of this business - like, let's say she doesn't get the runway she needs, where she's able to then like shutter the D2C side to give herself more runway to figure out the licensing? 

Mac: The reason - the D2C side is just the marketing. So if you get rid of the D2C brand, you've now taken away your largest marketing tool for the industry.

Elizabeth: She has to keep up the D2C side. 

Mac: Yeah.

Elizabeth: But I think as she progresses, she'll be able to get better terms on the loan. Maybe an expanded line of credit. Certainly more revenue to attract equity investors. So I'm hopeful that things, you know, if they keep moving in the right direction. They'll just keep clawing their way up. 

Josh: So - uh

Mac: Actually, hold on. Charles, you always be so quiet.

Charles: No, I just - my only small - I mean, like, Halfdays is doing really, really well in ski. We have four or five of our biggest outcomes at the firm level will be product companies, actually not software companies. They're incredibly hard to finance. But I like these - I just thought she was really great. I don't know. I'm also just an optimist. I think like we've had so many founders who wade into categories where they don't know anything, and they just kind of figure it out. 

Mac: Yeah.

Charles: And so I was like, I think she's like pretty good at figuring these things out. And will she do the optimal licensing deal the first time? Probably not. But my hunch is it probably has more to do with a lack of leverage than a lack of knowledge. And I also have a sneaking suspicion that D2C is going to take her farther than she thinks it will.

Mac: Probably.

Charles: And I think investing in D2C is going to be critical to keeping leverage with her licensing partners. And she might find out that she doesn't need them as much as she thinks she does. 

Cyan: But I want to see her go into rompers and jumpsuits.

Charles: Yeah.

Cyan: I mean I'm a fanatic for jumpsuits and I think about this every time I put one on. I’m like, if only this had a hidden zipper. My life - I would wear nothing but jumpsuits, and that would be it. 

Elizabeth: Well, maybe your dream will come true.

Cyan: Yeah. I thought she was the answer to my prayers.

[laughter]

Cyan: To be honest. 

Mac: Jumpsuits and rompers.

Cyan: Yeah. Jumpsuits and rompers. Like, go after FARM Rio. They put out something like ten jumpsuits and rompers every season.

Mac: Overalls.

Cyan: Overalls!

Elizabeth: Oh yeah. Overalls.

Charles: That's FARM Rio, yeah.

Cyan: Carhartt. Yep. This is FARM Rio. 

Who’s to say exactly how much Georgia Grace raised in the room, or in the room just outside? Wink wink… We’ll find out if she got a steady stream of commitments when we come back.

[BREAK]

Welcome back. Georgia Grace got somewhere between 2 and 4 commitments in the room. Charles Hudson ended up backing out because of a conflict. And then, a few months later, Lisa & I caught up with Georgia Grace to hear what happened with everyone else. 

Josh: Tell me about the day you pitched on our show. 

Georgia Grace: Oh man. That day was a doozy 

Josh: A doozy?

Georgia Grace: Yeah, I obviously do a lot of pitching. A lot of public speaking, have for a long time and I was more nervous for the pitch podcast recording than I think I've ever been for any other speaking engagement ever. I only get to say what I want to say for two minutes and then it's like, It's the Wild West after that. Like anything could happen. I could be asked anything. but I actually really enjoyed it. And I was so grateful to be in a room of those specific investors with their backgrounds and their experience. That's not something I think I would have had access to otherwise 

Josh: When all was said and done, you got investments in the room from Cyan and Elizabeth. Mac had a potential conflict, but wanted to check. And then I think Charles ended up being conflicted out as well. Let's start with Mac. was there a conflict? 

Georgia Grace: Not a conflict. He was interested in committing 50 K and we're just working to figure out timing he’s like in between closing fund 1 and opening fund 2 no definitive answer there yet, but hopeful. 

Josh: Okay. So he's, he's a maybe,

Georgia Grace: He’s a maybe

Josh: But he still wants to invest.

Georgia Grace: Yes. 

Josh: Okay All right. Then Elizabeth. wanted to invest personally, but she wasn't able to meet your minimum investment of 25,000. But from what I understand, you had your lawyer come in and amend the terms of the round so she could be a part of it. Why did you go through all of that for a small check? 

Georgia Grace: Because it was Elizabeth, I'd say of all the investors in the room that day, she was the one who I felt like was most on my side and immediately had my back and understood, from her experience, what was going on, asked really good questions things like that. and so I, I knew that I wanted her on the cap table and wanted to find a way to make it happen. 

Josh: So Elizabeth invested 5,000? 

Georgia Grace: She did. Yes. 

Josh: That's awesome. 

Josh: So Cyan, you had one call with Cyan after the show?

Georgia Grace: Yes. I had one call. I think she had one due diligence question and that was that.

Cyan: I have all my notes on revenue and things like that, that I made the decision with on the show, so I'm not really sure what else you guys want me to ask because I'm, I'm already committed. I have a pretty hard rule that if I commit to something, unless something is really material that comes forth. I don't ever back out of an investment decision. I always say a banister pays her debts 

Georgia Grace: Well, as a founder, we certainly appreciate that because not everyone is like that. 

Georgia Grace: And so she came in at the 50k mark 

Josh: She invested? 

Georgia Grace: She invested. 

Josh: That's awesome. 

Georgia Grace: Yes. I knew who she had invested in previously, but when I looked into it even more, I was blown away of like the founders that she's backed and believed in in the past.

Josh: Like who? 

Georgia Grace: Like SpaceX. I'm a pee pants company and I share an investor with SpaceX. That's incredible. Like that lends a ton of legitimacy. 

Lisa: Yesss! 

Josh: yeah, I mean, maybe you could license your technology for like people in space, right? Like people in space need to go Pee too. 

Georgia Grace: Well, especially now that they're putting more women in space, they also just redid all of the toilets at the ISS because they were all basically like urinal-like So there's lots of market signals that this is important everywhere, including out of this world.

Josh: Yeah

Lisa: Pee pants that are out of this world. 

Josh: The Pitch Fund also got to invest in your round. So thank you for letting us invest. 

Georgia Grace: Thank you. 

Josh: How much did you end up raising in total? 

Georgia Grace: In total between in the actual pitch room and mingling with people immediately after the pitch, we walked away with 180 K. 

Josh: So you got an investment from a pitch VIP. 

Georgia Grace: Mhm!

Josh: How much did they invest? 

Georgia Grace: 25K What really closed that deal is that He took the only pair of pants I had on me, from me, which I was very, very hesitant to do because I'd literally been wearing them for the past week of travel, so they hadn't been washed. I'd just gone canyoneering so I'd really put them through the ringer 

Josh: Why did he need your pants? 

Georgia Grace: Well, he wanted to bring them home to his partner to get her take as well before making the investment. And so it was one of those moments where I was like, oof, I would much rather just mail her a brand new pair. It can be in the color she wants in the right size.

Josh: Yeah. 

Georgia Grace: but the other part of me was like, we're here in person now You can have my pants, but please wash them first and please give this caveat cause it, you know, the unboxing is not going to be the normal experience that we strive for.

Josh: Oh my gosh The things we do for a check. 

Georgia Grace: Oof I've done some crazy things for checks. I actually started writing a LinkedIn post about this and my partner read it and was like, you can't put this on LinkedIn. Like, you don't want to admit to these things. 

Lisa: Oh my gosh. 

Josh: Oh no. But can you put them on a podcast? Is that acceptable? 

Georgia Grace: Uh, um, Some of them are just like, you know, reading about the rules of golf so that I can be well versed, because I will only be relevant

Josh: Oh classic…

Georgia Grace: if I know about golf. Other crazy things I have done for investment. Crash a friends, family, and cast only film release party because I knew there would be wealthy people in the room looking to fund directors and producers. So, why not also me? The pee pants girl? I stayed up until 4am to attend a DJ rave where I knew an interested investor would be present. I, don't do anything with rave culture. So that was like an experience for me another thing was follow an investor down a double black diamond mogul filled ski run.

Lisa: What??

Josh: Yes I love this

Georgia Grace: It was worth noting that at this point in time, I was a five days a year, like Pizza slice skier. 

Lisa: Oh lord have mercy 

Georgia: also the prototype I was wearing was Blue ski bibs with a bright yellow uncovered zipper in the crotch. So That entire scene I wish there were foot - actually i'm glad there's not footage of it. I don't want to see that

Lisa: Oh my gosh

Um, I also showed up at the beverly hills hotel for a Working room service lunch where I proceeded to accidentally order off the dog room service menu

Lisa: What? 

Georgia: I'm sorry, in my opinion, brown rice superfood salmon bowls are intended for humans, but 

Josh: uh yeah!

Georgia Grace: and the last thing I had on my list was actually entertaining a conversation about converting religions to, to a more lucrative one. I didn't do that, but I did consider it for a second

Josh: A more lucrative religion? I have so many questions.

Georgia Grace: They'll have to stay questions. Josh You gotta do what you gotta do to raise money.

Josh: What is your dream brand or product to get GoFly technology incorporated into? 

Georgia Grace: If you think of like the top brand in each industry, they're my goals. So like, if you are someone who makes workwear We would like to work with you. If you are someone who is a top fishing wader brand we would like to work with you. If you are a branch of the military and would like to have a top technology in your products, we would like to work with you. If you're making products for not Earth, we would like to work with you. The list, it's like endless applications. We just actually, since with the pitch podcast recording, a woman set a world record, Cole Brower. she's the first American woman to sail the world solo, and she did it with our Go There Pants and our Go There Shorts. 

 Josh: Stop that’s amazing! 

So there's a whole boating, rafting, sailing application that is a great example of something that I didn't even think about solving for at the start

Josh: I mean this our first investment where I think, to the moon! Like literally, let’s take this thing to the moon 

Georgia Grace: I’m here for it, let’s do it!

Georgia Grace just announced Gnara’s first licensing deal with a workwear brand called LVSN. Soon you’ll be able to find GoFly technology in a pair of overalls near you!

Next week… The Exit is back. This time, we’re interviewing the founder who created the very first robo-advisor. 

Alexa: if you have tons of money, literally, people are running after you to give you advice. When you have no money, nobody talks to you at all about your money. 

Josh: How do you actually raise the money to kick off the business? 

Alex: People were incredibly skeptical of this idea that in the rearview mirror seemed so stupidly obvious. In fact, it's uncool how obvious it is in the rearview mirror. 

Josh: So you leave Tech Crunch and you launch the business? 

Alexa: Thousands upon thousands of people signed up And I was like, look at this data. They want this. This is real. This is not just me having a gut instinct. This is real. 

Josh: Was it always just up and to the right? 

Alexa: No. God, no. I earned every wrinkle because it was just good old fashioned hard work. 

Josh: How do you negotiate those term sheets?

Alexa: This has nothing to do with me, my job is to go and be a steward of the company 

Josh: Do you have any regrets about selling LearnVest when you did? 

How Alexa Von Tobel started, scaled and sold Learnvest for $375 million. That’s next week! Subscribe to The Pitch right now, and turn on notifications so you don’t miss it. 

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

Music in this episode is by The Muse Maker, Breakmaster Cylinder, FYRSTYX, Our Many Stars, Imagined Nostalgia, Graham Barton, and A\YO 

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