Trying to hard to please...whom?

I give this a three star rating to suggest that this show has potential but feels unsure of its audience. Listen to a current episode and then scroll back a bit-take a pre-Gimlet episode like "C-Note". Episodes were shorter and way more dense. Investors asking sharp questions and entrepreneurs similarly well prepared.

The current crop of shoes conveys this shark tank like gorge between the sage investor and the naive entrepreneur-which while perhaps true at times feels, frankly, a played out metaphor.

The repeated intros for investors on each episode are just too long, and I find the more senior investors on the show (sorry, don't know names), so smug and condescending. Perhaps the investors will get swapped out with seasons.

My initial point was who is the audience? Feels like pre Gimlet the audience might have been a little more savvy, maybe in the biz (of starting/funding businesses). I get that in gimlet era audience necessarily must be broader and less able to enjoy an episode like C-Note (smart empowered female investor looking to do something awesome-that's a story and something worth listening to). Instead we get dudes wanting to make Las Vegas gambling toys.

Maybe just one Vegas product per season?

It's easy to be a critic and I do believe the show has potential. Avoid the trap of the struggling Gimlet properties trying to please everybody (surprisingly awesome, science vs, the new catch all show, the podcast teaser show). I hope that this show can assume more intelligence and curiosity than an NPR'd shark tank. And get in the weeds.

Nate