The fashion industry is one of the most wasteful and inefficient industries on the planet, and Elias Stahl wants to reinvent it. His company, HILOS, is creating an entirely new supply chain for shoes, made on demand with 3D printed components. But they don’t actually design, manufacture or fulfill any of the products. They’ve just built a platform that connects all the pieces. It sounds like a perfect business… almost too perfect. Today’s investors are Jillian Manus, Phil Nadel, Mark...

Our next episode drops in two weeks, until then here’s the recap on what’s been happening at The Pitch. You can check out The Pitch Fund portfolio here, RSVP for our San Diego meetup on June 7th, and most importantly, subscribe to The Pitch Insider for all the best deals, company updates, and fun extras! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alex Kosyakov claims to have discovered the holy grail of battery technology, a solid-state battery capable of mass production for electric vehicles. And with the ever increasing demand for EVs, investors are supercharged by this pitch. Can Alex convince them that his solid-state battery tech is better than the competition? Today’s investors are Jillian Manus, Phil Nadel, Mark Phillips, Victor Gutwein, and Neal Sáles-Griffin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Founder Ariana Vargas wants to destigmatize talking about mental health. So she built a social app. No wait, now it’s a Slack app for the workplace? This founder is willing to do whatever it takes to secure investment - maybe too willing. Will Ariana build the business she wants, or the one investors want?  Today’s investors are Jillian Manus, Charles Hudson, Elizabeth Yin, Mac Conwell, and Neal Sáles-Griffin. If you’ve been enjoying our comeback season, will you share The Pitch with a...

Jenna Sereni believes the best product recommendations come from family and friends. That’s the genesis of her social shopping app, HandsDown. Her pitch starts out like normal - until the investors flip the script and start pitching back, sending HandsDown on an entirely new path.   Today’s investors are Jillian Manus, Charles Hudson, Elizabeth Yin, Mac Conwell, and Neal Sáles-Griffin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When Ali Kaminetsky started her first job out of college, she quickly realized she didn’t have a stylish way to pack her lunch every day. So, she created Modern Picnic, a company that makes insulated vegan leather lunch boxes for women. The first two years of the company were a success. But then, in 2020, when Apple released IOS 14, it completely changed the way D2C companies scale. Now Ali needs to convince investors she’s found a new way to build a billion dollar consumer business. Today’s...

Ismail Salhi and Johanna Hartzheim, co-founders of Qleek, have been through the wringer. They first pitched their company on our show in 2017, when an investment from a listener helped bring them back from the brink. Today we hear the rest of the story. Ismail shares the not-so-happy ending of Qleek and what it's like to pick up the pieces and try again. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This tale starts with a problem Kehan Zhou found when trying to buy a hobby farm. Zillow didn’t have good search options for land and LandWatch.com was even worse, so Kehan ventured off to combine computer vision technology and satellite imagery to create a new rural property search platform, Terrascope. But the investors wonder if this innovative technology is wasted on the wrong customer. Today’s investors are Jillian Manus, Charles Hudson, Elizabeth Yin, Mac Conwell, and Neal...

There are tons of companies popping up in the scheduling space now that Calendly is valued at 6 billion dollars. Everyone wants to build the next billion dollar calendar app, including David Matthews, founder of Dotcal. He thinks he’s created a scheduling platform that will take over the space. But will the investors place their bets in Dotcal or is the scheduling race already overbooked?  Today’s investors are Jillian Manus, Charles Hudson, Elizabeth Yin, Phil Nadel, and Neal...

A few years ago, Claire Smith moved back to her family farm, where they practice sustainable farming, and created Teffola. It’s granola made with an ancient Ethiopian grain called teff, which is filled with lots of protein, fiber, iron, and calcium. The only problem is… no one’s heard of it. Is it too risky to invest in a business that needs to educate consumers on a rare ancient grain and on sustainable farming practices? Today’s investors are Jillian Manus, Charles Hudson, Elizabeth Yin,...

Clothing rental companies get a bad rap in the VC world. It seems like no matter how much money investors sink into them, they always just… fail? But today’s founder thinks she found a way to make it work. Capri Wheaton is going after a demographic that always has to be red carpet ready: sorority girls.  Today’s investors are Jillian Manus, Charles Hudson, Elizabeth Yin, Mac Conwell, and Neal Sáles-Griffin. If you're interested in investing in Dressd, visit pitch.show/dressd, and if you'd...

AWSM Sauce founders Carl and Paul have perfected a sustainable way of making sauce. But then, they had another idea – a futuristic way of getting sauce on our plates. Will the investors see this as a two-innovations-in-one deal, or will they get lost in the sauce?  Today’s investors are Jillian Manus, Charles Hudson, Elizabeth Yin, Phil Nadel, and Neal Sáles-Griffin. Carl and Paul were kind enough to put together a sample pack of what the investors tasted in the room. So if you’d like to try...

Founder Luis Medina Rivas travels across the world to pitch his big vision on how to solve one of the most important problems of our time - energy. His pitch is close to perfect. However, the VCs worry about the location of his company and come back to him with an easy solution, but it’s up to the founder to decide what’s right for his company. Today’s investors are Jillian Manus, Charles Hudson, Elizabeth Yin, Mac Conwell, and Neal Sáles-Griffin. If you are interested in investing in Tether,...

The Pitch is back! And a whole lot has changed since buying the show from Gimlet, bringing host Josh Muccio and cofounder Lisa Muccio somewhere they never thought they’d be — pitching in front of the investors…on their own show. But is the host of The Pitch any good at pitching? Today’s investors are Jillian Manus, Phil Nadel, Mark Phillips, Victor Gutwein and Neal Sáles-Griffin. Learn more about the fund and apply to invest at thepitch.fund Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...

Welcome back to The Pitch! This season, we head to Chicago to meet 14 founders with 12 business ideas big enough to change the world. Everything from a better ketchup to a potential solution to one of the biggest problems of our time - energy. The founders just need one thing... money. And on this season, investors commit over $900,000 to bring those ideas to life. Plus, for the first time, we’re letting listeners invest alongside the investors on our show. New episodes drop weekly starting...

Host Josh Muccio picks up the mic once again... with some personal news. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we've got a show like no other. Instead of startup founders asking for money to grow their business, we hear investors Jake Chapman and Howie Diamond pitch their new venture capital fund. And they learn right away that things on the other side of the table are a lot harder.

In VC, before you pitch investors, you’re expected to get some initial cash from friends and family. Getting this money is a critical first step for a new startup. But what if your friends and family aren’t wealthy? Two founders tell us what that experience is like, and how it’s shaped the way VC investors view their companies.

Why does so little venture capital money go to women, Black, and Latinx founders? In this episode, investors Charles Hudson and Elizabeth Yin explain how VC is set up in a way that excludes many founders and businesses, and what their funds are doing to expand access to capital. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're now in a business climate transformed by Covid. And founders need help figuring out how to impress investors, find new customers, and connect with potential cofounders in this uncertain time. We wanted to help out. So we got investors Elizabeth Yin from Hustle Fund and Hunter Walk from Homebrew to hop on The Pitch hotline to take your calls. The Callers: Rebecca Colett, Calyxeum Graham Hawley, TRID Shwetha Maddur, Catalyst Bryan McGehee, GATR Coolers Jeff Walsh, Illuminent

Today's founder had everything going for him: a huge market, loads of experience, and $70k in monthly revenue. But then, everything went wrong. Christopher Hussain's startup, RealKey, is supposed to make the complicated mortgage lending process simpler, but his pitch left our investors scratching their heads. The investors on today’s show are Jillian Manus, Phil Nadel, Sarah Downey, Michael Hyatt and Charles Hudson.

On Wednesday, September 30th we are opening up the phone lines for founders to call-in and ask investors for advice. Elizabeth Yin with Hustle Fund and Hunter Walk with Homebrew will be standing by, ready to give you fresh ideas on how to keep your startup going in this economy. The number to call is 833-748-2448. We'll keep the lines open from 4-6pm Eastern on Wednesday, September 30th. ttyl

It was three years ago, when Claire Coder went in front of our investors to pitch Aunt Flow. At the time, her startup was a very risky bet. But now, in 2020, Claire’s business has stood the test of time. We find out just how far a business can go in three years. Today’s investors are Jillian Manus, Phil Nadel, James Altucher and Daniel Gulati.

In the spring, founders desperate for ideas about how to keep their companies afloat called in to get advice from our investors. Several months later, the economy is still far from recovering, so we called the founders back to see if the investors’ advice was working.

Is getting a software patent actually a good idea? For many startups a patent is a shield meant to prevent the competition from stealing their most innovative ideas. But in this episode, investors Sarah Downey and Phil Nadel explain how software patents can be a trap. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices