Season 13: The Human Side of Venture
A Johns Hopkins ER doctor, a Formula 1 engineer, and an artist walk into The Pitch Room... meet this season's extraordinary founders! We screened 2,000 companies, and 12 made the cut. But with negotiations turned up to 11, will they be ready to face off with the sharpest VCs in the game?
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Mike: Sorry, my hair looks terrible, I usually wear a hat.
I’m Josh Muccio, host of The Pitch - where startup founders raise millions and listeners can invest. For lucky season 13, we looked at 2000 companies and selected 12 of the very best founders to pitch in Miami. They flew in from all over the country… and the world.
Michele: My name is Michele and I'm from Italy.
Julian: I'm originally from Medellin, Colombia.
Mike: I was born and raised in Maysville, Kentucky.
Therese: I'm from Baltimore, Maryland.
Anastasia: And I am from Finland.
Royi: Who am I? Good question
Al: I would consider myself as a hustler first and a tech founder second
Julian: I'm a growth monster. Like growth is my obsession.
Luisa: I am an artist at heart, but artist turned tech founder
Gabe: I am a gear head, engineer, used to design Formula 1 cars.
Whitman: competitive cyclist, and engineer aerospace engineer worked on rocket engines.
This season we’re diving even deeper into the human side of venture.
Therese: I've been a pediatric emergency physician for 10 years at Johns Hopkins. But that type of work, as powerful as it is, it doesn't scale.
Folio: This is my third startup. // This one feels very personal because my family was actually raised in public housing in Detroit.
Kelsey: I started this company // after graduating college with // $150,000 of student loan debt.
Royi: I was waking up in the morning and all I could think about was this and so I had to. I didn't have a choice
These founders were all in, ready to pitch to the sharpest early-stage VCs in the game.
Jesse: I don’t normally like edtech, but I really like you
Elizabeth: I echo those sentiments… I do want to push back, though
Jenny: Toughen up, lady! That’s healthcare!
Charles: I feel like I’m the lone dissenter
Kate: Ooh, Charles, spicy.
Charles: So I'm out.
Charles: I’m sure when they air this episode, they’ll be like, Charles is really dumb.
Kate: For those who can’t see, my jaw is currently on the floor
Everyone – the investors, founders, even me - turned up the negotiations to 11 this season.
Jesse: I would like to at least commit 50k
Michael: I absolutely hate to say this, we don't allow any investments under 100k.
Elizabeth: I'd be very interested in doing this deal, but definitely not in the valuation range you're talking about.
Josh: At what price would you be interested?
Elizabeth: I don't want to insult you, but I think it's like five.
Paige: Don't change your mind at this table because you're being asked to.
Elizabeth: I disagree with that. I think every founder should come in with multiple plans.
Charles: I disagree with that.
Josh: The Pitch Fund would like to invest in this round and this is probably a really good deal for our syndicate too so
Paige: Are you squeezing me out right now?
Mark: Yeah, he’s squeezing big time.
Josh: No!!!
Mark your calendars, lucky season 13 of The Pitch starts March 5th. Wednesdays are pitch days once again. Episodes are available to watch on YouTube and Patreon, OR listen on your favorite podcast player.
So subscribe to The Pitch right now, turn on notifications, and we’ll see you in the PITCH ROOM.
Luisa: I'm excited to be on the show.
Charles Hudson // Precursor Ventures
Investor on The Pitch Seasons 2–13
Charles Hudson is the Managing Partner and Founder of Precursor Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in the first institutional round of investment for the most promising software and hardware companies. Prior to founding Precursor Ventures, Charles was a Partner at SoftTech VC. In this role, he focused on identifying investment opportunities in mobile infrastructure.
Elizabeth Yin // Hustle Fund
Investor on The Pitch Seasons 6–13
Elizabeth Yin is the Co-Founder and General Partner at Hustle Fund, a pre-seed fund for software startups. Before founding Hustle Fund, Elizabeth was a partner at 500 Startups, where she invested in seed stage companies and ran the Mountain View accelerator. She’s also an entrepreneur who co-founded the ad-tech company LaunchBit, which was acquired in 2014. Her book is called Democratizing Knowledge: How to Build a Startup, Raise Money, Run a VC Firm, and Everything in Between.
Mark Phillips // 11 Tribes Ventures
Investor on The Pitch Seasons 9, 10 & 13
Mark Phillips is the founder and managing partner of 11 Tribes Ventures. Prior to that, Mark was a strategy consultant focused on M&A between corporations and growth stage startups. He actively supported clients throughout the due-diligence and post-merger integration processes on deals totaling more than $750M.
Paige Doherty // Behind Genius Ventures
Investor on The Pitch Seasons 10, 11 & 13
Paige Finn Doherty is a founding partner at Behind Genius Ventures and the author of Seed to Harvest, an illustrated book about venture.
Jesse Middleton // Flybridge
Investor on The Pitch Seasons 12 & 13
WeWork pioneer turned maverick VC at Flybridge. After his tenure as a founding team member at WeWork, Jesse made the transition to venture capital and has backed over fifty pre-seed and seed stage companies as an angel investor and GP at Flybridge. His investment focus centers on the future of work, emphasizing areas such as creativity, culture, collaboration, and communication.
Jesse's venture career has been marked by a series of notable successes, a number of misses, and a deep commitment to supporting early-stage companies.
Will Weisman // KittyHawk
Investor on The Pitch Season 13
Will Weisman is the founder and managing partner of KittyHawk, an investment firm focused on seed to pre-IPO companies. KittyHawk supports mission driven entrepreneurs in their quest to build world changing organizations. Prior to KittyHawk, Will was the executive director at Singularity University, a think tank and educational institution focused on solving the world’s biggest problems.
Ben Zises // Super Angel Fund
Investor on The Pitch Season 13
Ben Zises is the founding general partner of SuperAngel.Fund which invests in early-stage consumer, proptech, & future of work companies. Ben has invested over $20m into 100+ companies on behalf of more than 500 LPs, built one of the leading brands and established one of the most powerful networks and strongest reputations in the industry. Prior to starting the fund, Ben spent six years investing his own money as an angel after founding a venture-backed proptech company early in his career.
Kate McAndrew // Baukunst
Investor on The Pitch Season 13
Kate McAndrew is a Co-Founder and General Partner at Baukunst, a collective of creative technologists advancing the art of building companies. She is leading pre-seed rounds in companies at the frontiers of technology and design from Baukunst’s inaugural $100M fund.
