Oct 16, 2024 · 18m · the-pitch
Party Trick's $47M Pipeline: Can They Secure VC Funding?
Virginia Frischkorn · 6m spoken Josh Muccio · 1m spoken Ben Taft · 1m spoken Cyan Banister · 1m spoken Mac Conwell · 1m spoken Lisa Muccio · 59s spoken Elizabeth Yin · 22s spoken
0:00 / 0:00
▶ Watch on YouTube →
gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
Event planning veteran Virginia Frischkorn pitches Party Trick, an enterprise software platform designed to democratize luxury event planning workflows, securing competitive syndicate investment offers on The Pitch.
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 13% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Josh as informed peer 5.6 Guest teaching 3.6 Guest disagreement 1.4 Josh pushing back 4.0
speaking balance: gold is Josh, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 9:30 Virginia rejects LOI mandate
Virginia pushes back against the expectation of having signed LOIs, arguing strongly that protecting enterprise reputation in a referral-driven industry outweighs rushing paperwork.
Hardest push from Josh ▶ 8:40 Ben presses on customer willingness to payBen directly refuses to take enterprise subscription tiers at face value given the product is pre-launch, demanding concrete validation data.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 5:10 Virginia outlines the 85-15 rule and agency cost disparitiesVirginia educates the panel on agency overheads versus contractor blueprint scalability, citing her past work with high-end luxury brands like Ferrari.
Josh holds their own ▶ 9:21 Ben dissects the $47 million pipeline assertionBen exercises rigorous investor diligence by asking for the exact breakdown and contractual status of the $47 million pipeline figure.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Josh as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Josh pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virginia's Pitch: Democratizing High-End Event Planning | 5 | 5 | 1 | 3 | Virginia pitches Party Trick's transition from B2C to B2B SaaS. The panel asks clarifying questions regarding ROI tracking metrics and Elizabeth requests a clear product walkthrough. | |
| Blueprint Scalability and Elizabeth Yin's Recusal | 5 | 6 | 1 | 4 | Ben inquires how customized blueprints can scale, allowing Virginia to explain that 85% of event architectures are standard and produced affordably by contractors. Elizabeth then recuses herself due to a portfolio conflict. | |
| Pricing Tiers, SAFE Terms, and Validation Questions | 7 | 4 | 3 | 7 | Ben aggressively drills into Virginia's pricing tiers and claims of a $47M pipeline, pushing for validation and signed LOIs. Virginia defends holding off on formal LOIs to protect brand reputation. | |
| Virginia's Personal Drive and Founder Motivation | 4 | 2 | 1 | 3 | Mac asks why Virginia chose venture scale over a profitable boutique agency, prompting her emotional tribute to her late father. Moved by the narrative and vision, Cyan, Ben, and Josh immediately offer capital. | |
| Panel Post-Pitch Debrief and AI Diligence | 7 | 1 | 1 | 3 | The panel debriefs on the market opportunity, UI importance, and whether generative AI will erode event planning margins or empower Party Trick. Post-show diligence checks confirm Virginia's $1.5M personal investment. |
Statements from this episode (17)
Virginia Frischkorn built four event businesses and executed over $100M in events
“So the last 16 years of my career, I've built four different businesses in the event space, done over a hundred million dollars worth of events.”
Frischkorn: Corporate event spend is $95B within $322B total market
“Corporate spend on events is ninety five billion dollars a year. It's a three hundred twenty two billion dollar industry.”
Partytrick's consumer platform charges $89 annually or $9 monthly
“So, the product and market right now is our consumer platform. It's 89 dollars a year, nine dollars a month.”
Partytrick targets $40,000 to $100,000 ACVs for enterprise B2B SaaS
“With this evolution, the model changes a lot. It's B to BSAS, an annual contract value of roughly 40,000, scaling up to roughly 100,000 based on the size of the business.”
Virginia Frischkorn says 85% of corporate events share identical planning structures
“So there are roughly 50 plus event types in our first few segments. 85% of those events are the exact same. You just go in and you tweak that last 15%.”
Frischkorn: Party Trick pays contractors $100–$300 per blueprint in a day
“We have a team, they're all contractors, and we can go and basically pay anywhere between a 103 hundred dollars to have a blueprint created within a day.”
Elizabeth Yin recuses herself from Party Trick due to Afterwork conflict
“I think it might be good to disclose, now that you have described this, that I think this is quite similar to a portfolio company of mine called Afterwork. So I think I'm gonna have to sit out.”
Party Trick has raised $850,000 at a $9 million valuation cap
“So we are raising on a safe. It's a nine million post cap valuation, 20% discount. We're at 850,000.”
Party Trick currently has 20 brands participating in its pilot program
“So, we have 20 brands in our pilot program right now.”
Party Trick claims a $47 million enterprise sales pipeline for year one
“We have over 80 partners on our consumer platform that we've been talking to about this, and we actually have a forty-seven million dollar pipeline for year one.”
Party Trick has not issued LOIs for its enterprise pipeline
“So long story short, we have not issued LOIs.”
Mac Conwell says domain operators make better founders than outside technologists
“I love founders who are building in the space that they have deep knowledge in, who aren't the technologists, but who are the true operators and understand it.”
Cyan Banister wants Long Journey Ventures to take the remaining funding round
“So I would love for my firm, Long Journey Ventures, to take a look at this, and if we do, and it goes through diligence and everything, I would love to take the rest of the round.”
Ben Taft offers to invest $250,000 in Party Trick
“I'm in the same boat, and if Cyan would have us and our diligence checks out, then we'd love to sneak in a quarter million into that same round.”
Mac Conwell says the event space is very difficult for startups
“Generally, I'm not excited with the event space. It can be a very hard space.”