The Pitch

IT’S TIME!! 🎉 TechCrunch Disrupt starts today and it’s finally time to announce this year’s Startup Battlefield Top 20 Finalist!! We have been working with these outstanding founders in secret 🤫 for the last 2 months to make sure their pitches are top-notch and ready for the Disrupt Stage. I can proudly say that they are ready and excited to battle it out this week for the $100,000 grand prize and the coveted Disrupt Cup 🏆 #StartupBattlefield #TechCrunchDisrupt2024 #StartupBattlefield2024

🎉 Thrilled and humbled to announce that we've just launched one of the largest AI pilots in American higher education history: Nectir AI is partnering with the California Community Colleges system to bring AI Course Assistants to all 116 colleges, potentially impacting millions of students. The pilot will measure AI's impact on course completion, student persistence, and academic performance—building on our proven results at Los Angeles Pacific University where students using our AI Course Assistants saw a 20% increase in GPA. This groundbreaking initiative, running from Fall 2024 through Spring 2025, will be open to all 116 schools in the system, with expectations to onboard over 150 instructors by Spring 2025. We're taking a significant step toward making 24/7 personalized learning support available to every community college student in California. The scale and potential impact of this initiative could fundamentally reshape how we approach educational support in public higher education. None of this would be possible without the innovative leadership and support of Craig Hayward and the Foundation for California Community Colleges. Join us tomorrow, October 24th, 1-2pm PST, to learn more and secure your spot! We'll also be hosting another info and onboarding session in November if you aren't able to make it to this one. More info here: https://lnkd.in/gMnZ4PBU

"Dad, can you hear me? What's the water level in your house? The eyewall is still over you. This storm is moving so slow! Dad, can you hear me?" Two years ago I lost communication with my dad during a hurricane as water was coming into his house. Hurricane Ian destroyed the property and lives of many in Cape Coral, Florida. (It was the costliest storm in Florida history: $112B in damages and 160 deaths) I was less than 2 hours away, and could do nothing to help. Having lost internet, my dad relied on me to share the storm track, so he would know when the water would stop rising. Then we lost all communication. I was tense for hours. Texting everyone I knew to pray. Thankfully, my dad stayed safe. There was a lot of damage to his home, and he was without power for over a week. I wish I'd had Bridgefy. When I first spoke to founder & CEO Jorge Rios I heard how his messaging app could be used for natural disasters, large events, or anywhere without the internet. After my hurricane experience I was sold. But what really got my attention? His pivot to B2B. With contracts to license the SDK and customers that range from the city of Istanbul to payment apps in Nigeria. Plus a paid pilot with the United Nations... I invited him on The Pitch without even talking to Josh Muccio. Jorge's episode is out now. Listen or watch at https://pitch.show/144

ICYMI: We launched our Go Free 7/8 Leggings and 6" Shorts featuring our GoFly Technology last week on Kickstarter! We were funded in just 19 minutes, quickly earning Kickstarter's Projects We Love Badge, as well as a select pledge from L'Oréal's Forward Fund for Women in Tech & Beauty. To say that we've come a long way since our first crowdfunding campaign on IFundWomen in 2019 is an understatement. Back then, it took us a full 5 days to reach $15K, which we reached in a matter of hours on launch day this time around. The world of entrepreneurship can be so incredibly nebulous, and it can be hard to know whether you're actually making progress or not. This is a major sign of progress, and a major step for Gnara in fulfilling a vision we've had from the start — creating a world where everyone, but especially women and girls, don't have to think twice before venturing outside and can explore exactly as they are — safely, comfortably, and confidently. 🚀Help us reach the next funding milestone: https://lnkd.in/gy9xh7Gc A huge thank you to everyone who has backed the campaign and shared -- it means the world! We are beyond stoked to bring our most-requested product of all time into existence.

Have you ever watched The Pitch where startup founders raise millions from VCs (and listeners can invest alongside them via The Pitch Fund)? If not, you have to check it out! This week's findfunding.vc spotlight is on Lisa Muccio from The Pitch Fund. She: 🌴 Is Florida based 🎙️ Co-founded The Pitch with her husband Josh Muccio which has since grown to an audience in the hundreds-of-thousands 🎶 Has worked with Gimlet Media and Spotify to turn The Pitch into the media franchise it is today Amongst founders, Lisa and Josh are known for really digging in with them to help them craft their story in a way that resonates with both investors and listeners of The Pitch. Having been on The Pitch show myself as an investor / having led the pre-seed in Thoras.ai that pitched on the show, I cannot recommend enough going on the show for both pre-seed / seed founders and investors. It's not only a great way to raise / see companies and comes with a lot of visibility but it's also a lot of fun and Lisa and Josh are amazing! Make sure to: ✉️ Pitch her on LinkedIn or at pitch.show/apply  🎧 Subscribe and listen to The Pitch (on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, etc)! For more, check out our funder spotlight card below along with The Pitch Fund's profile on findfunding.vc (link in comments).

What if you could take someone’s vitals, using just the sound of their voice? 🤔 Nyamitse-Calvin says his technology will save lives. I was skeptical at first. A lot of "life saving" technology ends up being prohibitively expensive, making it inaccessible to those who need it most. But then I found out that Nyamitse-Calvin uses a technology so simple, so unassuming, that literally anyone can use it. You don’t need to buy a device, download an app, or even go to the doctor to use it. All you need to do is pick up the phone. This is The Pitch for Vital Audio Inc | TS23 Will Nyamitse-Calvin convince Cyan Banister, Charles Hudson, McKeever (Mac) Conwell,II, Jesse Middleton or Lee J. to invest? Watch episode 143 on YouTube or listen in your favorite podcast app 🎧 linked below 👇

How to Kill the Next Billion Dollar Idea My gut reaction when my spouse/GP/cofounder told me about Christie’s Chips? “A venture-backed potato chip? No way, Jose!” Lisa had the same reaction when our venture scout Peter L. first introduced her to Christie. Despite my unfounded bias against chips… (who was I kidding? I love chips!)  I took the call. Just as Lisa had done before me. To my surprise, Christie’s became one of my favorite companies on season 12, and my all-time favorite CPG company ever. 🎥 Watch Christie’s pitch on YouTube (https://lnkd.in/dEiX9xu5) or listen in your favorite podcast app 🎧 What makes Christie’s pitch so special? I think you need to hear it from Christie herself. I say that because I dismissed Christie before I heard her pitch. But when I got on the call with Christie… I was hooked. This got me thinking… How many would-be deals get killed because the higher-ups don’t like the pitch from a team member at the firm? Yes, processes are good, checks and balances are good, due-diligence is good! And we do all of those things at The Pitch. But here’s something we do differently: Whenever someone on our team likes a deal, the founder immediately gets a call scheduled on my calendar. I take the meeting. No questions asked. And I rarely hear a pitch from a team member before taking the call with the founder. This is not normal fund behavior. Typically a fund has internal pitch meetings where partners pitch each other and decisions are made. But we’ve chosen to purposefully keep each-other in the dark. Why? To cut down on bias? No, though that may be an added benefit. We do it because that’s the experience VCs get when they hear a pitch on our show. They get no prep beforehand. No pitch deck, no byline, just the name of the company delivered moments before the founder walks in the room. At our last recording event in Oakland, there was a brief interaction that illustrates how even the most self-aware VCs can struggle to keep an open mind. Moments before the start of a new pitch, I unveiled the company name and the VCs responded: Charles Hudson: This sounds ad techy… Jesse Middleton: It does.  Charles: I’m trying not to like… go there. Elizabeth Yin: Preconceived notions. Charles: I know. I know! Jesse: This is why we aren’t allowed to see anything before they come in. Elizabeth: We shouldn’t even be allowed to see the name of the company! Jesse: It’s just Company III. McKeever (Mac) Conwell,II: That’s actually a good company name! Jesse: I name my companies in series. Despite the potential for name bias, of the 21 founders that pitched at our taping in Oakland, the vast majority of them got a deal in the room. Over seventy percent. Whatever we’re doing, it seems to be working. Which is why I say… just let the founder pitch.