Jun 18, 2025 · 34m · the-pitch
LTK for Food… Will VCs invest in this $10 TRILLION market!?
Anastasia Trofimova · 15m spoken Josh Muccio · 4m spoken Kate McAndrew · 4m spoken Elizabeth Yin · 3m spoken Charles Hudson · 1m spoken Ben Zeises · 23s spoken Lisa Muccio · 8s spoken
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
Founder Anastasia Trofimova pitches Sunday, an innovative 'LTK for groceries' that turns social media recipe videos into shoppable digital carts with powerful CPG brand analytics. Although she captures three investment offers during the pitch, rapid diligence turnarounds, valuation standoffs, and investor dropouts result in a surprising fundraising collapse.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Josh holds 16.8% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Josh as informed peer 4.7 Guest teaching 4.4 Guest disagreement 1.7 Josh pushing back 2.9
speaking balance: gold is Josh, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 28:05 Anastasia challenges Hustle Fund's $7M cap valuation
Anastasia directly questions Elizabeth's offer terms, pushing back that $7M is substantially lower than what the round will close at and trying to negotiate a higher valuation.
Hardest push from Josh ▶ 28:25 Elizabeth Yin firmly rejects valuation negotiationElizabeth completely refuses to negotiate on valuation, stating unequivocally that $7M post is her final offer due to Hustle Fund's strict model.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 11:06 Anastasia explains the macro timing shift in online groceryAnastasia breaks down historical adoption numbers, showing how online grocery grew from 2% to 20% post-pandemic to prove why previous attempts failed and why now is the right moment.
Josh holds their own ▶ 20:09 Elizabeth deconstructs multi-sided funnel drop-off risksElizabeth demonstrates her venture expertise by methodically mapping out the friction across influencers, retail partners, and CPG data before discounting the valuation.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Josh as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Josh pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meet the Investors and Room Introductions | 1 | 5 | 1 | 0 | Anastasia delivers a structured formal pitch laying out the broken food system, market data, and tech architecture with zero interruption. The room mostly listens attentively with standard pitch setup. | |
| Product Walkthrough and Ben Zeises Recusal | 4 | 4 | 2 | 3 | Investors probe the product mechanics, prompting Anastasia to clarify that the experience functions through both web links and mobile app installs. Ben recuses himself due to a conflict with Grocer's List, which Anastasia gracefully acknowledges while clarifying distinctions. | |
| Monetization Mechanics and CPG Brand Analytics | 5 | 6 | 1 | 2 | Kate asks detailed questions about monetization streams, and Anastasia lays out the three tiers including retailer cuts and CPG brand analytics. She impresses Kate by revealing they make $10 to $20 per shopped basket. | |
| Grocery Market Complexities and Why Now | 6 | 7 | 2 | 4 | Kate presses on why predecessor grocery startups failed and how hard integration is. Anastasia schools the room on macro timing shifts (online grocery moving from 2% to 20%) and announces she has already secured integration with a major nationwide retailer. | |
| Swedish Traction, Household Retention, and Dynamic Pricing | 5 | 6 | 1 | 3 | Charles asks about conversion drop-offs when shoppers see the ingredient cart. Anastasia explains their 10% checkout rate in Sweden, smart ingredient reuse tracking, and dynamic produce pricing concepts. | |
| Investment Offers from Kate, Elizabeth, and Charles | 6 | 4 | 2 | 4 | Kate offers up to $1.5M–$2M pending diligence, while Elizabeth pushes back firmly on the $10M valuation, offering $150K at a $7M cap. Anastasia pushes back tactfully on the valuation concern, pointing to her management consulting background. | |
| Investor Room Debrief: Evaluating Anastasia's Potential | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | An investor-only post-pitch debrief where Kate and Elizabeth praise Anastasia's ability to communicate complex concepts and discuss the sheer financial scale of the grocery ad market. | |
| Baukunst Diligence and Quick Weekend Rejection | 5 | 3 | 3 | 5 | Baukunst rejects after rapid diligence, leading to a follow-up call where Elizabeth holds completely firm at her $7M post cap. Anastasia tries to negotiate closer to $10M (and later $8M), but Elizabeth refuses to budge. | |
| Precursor Ventures Diligence Call with Charles Hudson | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | Charles questions competitor categories like meal kit delivery companies. Anastasia differentiates her model on margins and mass accessibility, then boldly pitches Charles to step up and lead the round before he goes silent. |
Statements from this episode (26)
Trofimova: 80% of consumers start grocery shopping on social media
“80% of modern consumers start their grocery shopping journey by opening social media to look for inspiration of what to cook for dinner from their favorite food creators.”
Trofimova: Nearly one-third of all Instagram content is food and recipes
“In fact, almost a third of all Instagram content is food and recipe content.”
Trofimova: Sundae is raising $1.5M with $500K already secured
“We are raising 1.5 million dollars. Half a million is already secured, and we are looking for a US based lead because US is our main market.”
Trofimova: Creator platform LTK is worth over $2 billion
“I mean, there are many companies, let's say LTK, or like to know. I mean, they're worth over two billion dollars right now, and we see that their success is really driven by the app.”
Zises passes on Sundae due to portfolio conflict with Grocer's List
“I just want to come out and say, yeah, really impressive, but just transparently, I'm invested in a competitive company, and so for that reason, I'm going to be out”
Trofimova: Sundae makes $10 to $20 per shopped grocery basket
“For every basket that gets shopped, we make between 10 to 20 dollars.”
Trofimova: Nestlé spends over $1B annually on US digital marketing
“If you take just one brand, let's say Nestle, they're spending over just in the US and just on digital marketing over a billion dollars every year.”
Trofimova: Sundae pilot increased a Swedish brand's conversion rates 22x
“We did a pilot with a Swedish brand. They were paying us 4000 dollars a month. And in the end of the pilot, we increased their conversion rates by 22 times, so they were happy to pay us double.”
Trofimova: US online grocery grew from 2-3% in 2019 to nearly 20%
“So I can tell you that in 2019, just in the US, online grocery shopping was two or three percent of the total market. Now it's almost 20%.”
Trofimova: Social commerce will grow 14x over the next five years
“And the same with the social commerce. I think it grew three X in the last three years, and it's going to 14 X in the next five years.”
Trofimova: Sundae Needs 4,000 Monthly Orders for $1M ARR
“And just to put things in perspective, so we project that we actually need about 4000 monthly shops to generate one million in ARR.”
Trofimova: Sundae is integrated and collecting commissions from a national retailer
“We're integrated, and we are receiving the commission from them. So it's not an if, it's not a when, it's happening.”
Sundae converts approximately 10% of eligible Swedish shoppers at checkout
“So we see that from people who could shop in Sweden, about 10% actually check out”
McAndrew: Baukunst typically leads pre-seed rounds between $750K and $1.5M
“We typically lead rounds like this with somewhere between 750 K and 1.5 million. That's really in the sweet spot for us.”
McAndrew offers to invest $1M to $1.5M in Sundae pending diligence
“I work in a partnership, so I have three partners, but I would be very excited to jump into diligence, and my investment would be, I would say, at least a million. I would rather do 1.25, if you'd be open to taking more. I'd even go 1.5 if you would be willing…”
Trofimova: CPG brands spend $2T globally on untraceable marketing
“It's two trillion dollars globally is what they spend on marketing, completely in the blind, with no traceability.”
Yin offers Sundae $150K at a $7M post-money valuation cap
“I unfortunately can't get behind the 10, but I would put out my offer at one 50 at seven post on a save.”
Hudson offers $25K contingent on diligence with Instacart executives
“So I'm in for 25, but one big deal is we sold the company to Instacart. A while ago, and I have a bunch of friends who are executives at the company, and I do want to better understand this model from their point of view. That would be the one big deal is insi…”
Muccio: The Pitch Fund plans to follow on in Sundae
“And Anastasia, just so all the cards are on the table, the Pitch Fund would also like to follow on this deal alongside either Elizabeth or Charles or Kate depending on where the terms land.”
McAndrew: I maintain an anti-management consultant stance on founders
“And I'm always dubious about management consultants. You know, that's like, I definitely have an anti management consultant stance and she won me over anyway, which is impressive.”
McAndrew: Grocery couponing companies generate billions in revenue
“And the scale of companies that monetize doing things in grocery, couponing companies with billions of dollars in revenue who are just putting a coupon in someone's hand when they leave the store. Like there's so much money to be made in and around this space.”
Yin: At higher levels, management consulting is all sales
“In general, I prefer operators, but I would say this is entirely a partnerships and sales game, and at the higher levels of management consulting, it's all sales, right?”
Josh Muccio: Baukunst only writes lead checks in the millions
“Baukunst doesn't really do small checks. They're either leading your entire round and investing millions, or they're out.”
Trofimova predicts Sundae will close funding round above a $7M valuation
“Seven million is a little bit lower valuation than what we will probably close this round at.”