Season 16: Software Is Out. Cool Stuff Is In!

Welcome to a brand new season of The Pitch! It’s our sweet 16! We’re going to prom!This season we ventured to Tampa. 18 founders and 10 VCs flew in just to swim with the manatees. JK…it was to hang out with me and Lisa. This season we’re giving you more of what you love. And less of what you don’t.

Tiya: I definitely start to blank out when we’re talking about, like, middleware AI wrappers

Software is out, actual cool stuff is in. We’ve got consumer brands.

Harrison: We're building Eight Sleep for daytime.

Hardware that helps blind people see.

Jack: They kept asking for middle finger next thing we knew we had like 10 students running around flipping each other off

We’ve got deep tech to change the weather!

Dacia: Our big vision is to make it rain and snow on demand.

Rohit: What if you wanted to not make it rain somewhere else? Like one day we’re just like screw Arizona. [laughter]

And of course… dairy.

Ashley: I never imagined my life journey would be milk

But it isn’t just the founders giving us what we want. We’ve got some new VCs and they were born for The Pitch Room.

Ellie: Entrepreneurship is the dance between hubris and humility.

Michelle: We were deep in the cut for 3 hours my brain just like, lit up!

And all your old favorites are in the room too, doing what they do best.

Mike: I got strings, I’m not an easy yes.

Elizabeth: May I ask sort of an a-hole question?

Charles: I don’t think you’re raising enough money.

Rohit: What are the weird use cases?

The VCs bring out their checkbooks, in a big way.

Iryll: I finally answer the facetime and he’s like, dude, Draper wants to invest a million dollars, and I was just like, wait, what are you talking about?

And more founders than ever before will enter the foxhole

Mike: Let me ask you a more plain, bold-faced question. Would you ever play a sport where you didn't know where the goal was?

Elsa: No.

Mike: That's what you're doing.

But what surprised me this season, is that just as much happened outside The Pitch Room as did inside.

Lisa: Have you ever committed to a founder based on a group chat before?Michelle: I can confidently say I have never, I have never

Lisa: [laughter]

We even have founders investing in each other

Jack: Natalia like comes up to me and she says “hey, do you have a quick second to chat?” and just right away she's like, All right, I really, really want to invest $10,000.

You know, when we started inviting people to these pitch events, we had no idea it would grow into something so much bigger than a podcast...

Ashley: I really didn't totally understand what I was getting myself into with this thing. You know? Like, this is a program. This is a community.

I mean, I guess we kind of knew this would happen… when we bought our show back from Spotify and then started a venture fund to let listeners to invest. Speaking of…

In season 16 we make our first investments out of The Pitch Fund TWO!

Jack: The majority of that is already signed and wired

Lisa: Who are you waiting on?

Jack: Well, you know, to put you guys on the spot, could you make a signed and wired commitment to the HapWare deal?

Josh: We’re in, Jack!

If you want to invest in what you hear this season, you can learn more at thepitch.fund. Season 16 starts next Wednesday August 19th. We’ll see you wherever you get your podcasts in da pitch room.Lisa! I didn’t know you were here.