The Exchanges

Q But you, why did you choose to invest in this, like, despite everyone, everyone else not investing in DTC anymore?

A So, Ali is a really impressive founder, and we are betting that the founder can see around corners. Um, for as long as I've been in business, there have always been events that have occurred that are outside of founder's control. There are so many reasons why a startup fails, and it could be something like Facebook ads, or like the new, um, adpocalypse, or whatever it's being called. Um, and from my experience, these are not the reasons why a startup fails. Um, startups usually fail, um, for other reasons, like maybe they don't find product market fit, or they have personnel issues, like conflict with their co-founder. You know, there's so many different things that can go wrong. And so at least when I'm looking at making an investment, I try not to pin too closely to something like the adpocalypse. All you have to do is look at Ali's track record to see that she's going to be able to sell and move product.

AI assessment note: “Ali is a really impressive founder, and we are betting that the founder can see”

Q I'm curious, like, what your just feelings have been wading into this crazy market, into pitching VCs, like, has it been what you expected going into it?

A The amount of rejection you get, you can't prepare for, unless you're, you've been dating, like, first-time dates for, like, five years straight, you know, like. It's funny how resilient you get, but I think what's really important for founders to know is that you can't just be resilient. You have to be anti-fragile. You have to come back from a stressful event or a hard event. You have to come back stronger. You can't just go back to the equilibrium. You have to come back better than you were before. The fragile response is you just Break. Like hammer tapping glass. You're just gonna break. The resilient response is like a rubber band. You stretch it, and then it just goes back to the way it was before. And then the anti-fragile response is like a muscle. So you break it down, and then it comes back stronger. What we're doing is the anti-fragile response.

AI assessment note: “The amount of rejection you get, you can't prepare for”

Q Like, why was this such an obvious yes?

A First of all, there's people in this room who are smarter about this than I am. They were all saying yes, so that made my ears perk up. But secondly, we know that there's going to be a proliferation of EV cars. We also know that the proliferation of EV cars is actually going to put a lot of strain on the grid. If you can make the argument that the EV cars actually support it, that actually makes the idea of having all the cars in the US more viable. And if you tell me, it's somebody who has an EV car, I'm going to save you 25 dollars on your electric bill. Hey, that makes a big difference. Now, admittedly, I want to dive into the competitors, but if he can make it work in Sweden, even if he doesn't get to the US, if he can own the Europe.

AI assessment note: “First of all, there's people in this room who are smarter about this than I am.”

Q So you're saying your husband did a great job of scaring the s*** out of you?

A He did a great job, and you should have seen me. I was like, no, I did not, like, it is, no one wants to have to hear about this, like, insane inconvenience to your business and your team, you know? And he was just like, this is going to change people. And so like profoundly, um, for the next 12 months that you can't really bet on anything. And, and let me tell you something that I know about investors is like, they want to de-risk and this is the riskiest environment possible to invest in. And so just knowing that the access to capital is going to be limited for a while is just something that I need to be completely prepared for.

AI assessment note: “He did a great job, and you should have seen me.”

Q problem. I need to find jeans that actually fit. They aren't sure how Ray is going to build a massive company on that. Will the quiz really be enough to set them apart? That's after the break. Welcome back. Ray has made the case that he has a good company. It's even made some profit, but he hasn't made the case that it's a company worth investing in. Here's David.

A I'm still struggling with like the main value proposition here around the smart fit technology. I feel like I've seen dozens of brands with these types of quizzes around fit. Um, I don't think there's anything novel enough in the underlying fit technology To build the whole base of the company around that. And I don't think that will scale to be a multi hundred million dollar technology platform. I would actually consider going even heavier on brand and leveraging the smart fit technology as part of the convenience, as part of the match of the materials that you use in the certain customer base and think about really diving into that brand and trying to build something that could easily be a hundred million dollar brand.

AI assessment note: “I don't think there's anything novel enough in the underlying fit technology”

Q Yeah. So how much did you raise in total and what's the final tally?

A Yeah. So we raised half a million, all the VCs passed and all the angels and customers came in. So, oh, it's not like we didn't try to raise VC. Yeah. And so I think we're just walking a path that is a little bit different. Like, money is not the most valuable thing for us because we're fine with money. I think getting smart people to take dedicated time to look at our business, huge, and to know that Sheil will be on board for a longer period of time, we're not really in it for the checks. We're in it for people who want, who want to spend time with us and give us their brains. So yeah, a hundred percent worth it.

AI assessment note: “we raised half a million, all the VCs passed and all the angels and customers”

Q with a 25,000 dollar commitment from Jillian. He also walked away with a clear message from all the investors. Dude, you gotta pick a side. Are you the Yelp for renters, or are you building software for landlords? Because you can't do both. And Ofo didn't really get to communicate this in his pitch, but in talking to him a couple months afterwards, it was clear he couldn't disagree more.

A When we sat down with Bercadia in August to really put this all together, our partnership, you know, they asked us, they said, it sounds like two businesses in one. And they said, we like that very much. The beauty and what's going to be the gold of your business is that you do marry the two. This isn't just a landlord driven company where you don't care about the residential, about the dollar signs from the landlord. This isn't just a tenant driven company where it's all about just, you know, shitting on your landlord, lack of better terminology on it. And then doing away and not caring about how landlords, property managers, developers feel. The reality is somewhere in the middle is always the truth. I've looked at our information and data. I know the beat of a millennial in general, especially in urban environments, being cities, and I can speak to those experiences. So this is where I really genuinely feel like the founders of a company come into play because my personality has always been bridging that gap. And there's so much money right in the middle.

AI assessment note: “The beauty and what's going to be the gold of your business is that you do marry the two.”

Q Since Josh's time in the pitch room, vaping was in the news a lot. Over 2000 people were hospitalized and over 40 people died because of vaping. How have those events and the increased scrutiny on vaping affected you?

A I think both positively and negatively. If you look at nicotine-based vapes, there hasn't been any directly related health crisis or crises that have sprung up because of them. It's all been linked to THC and vitamin E or vitamin A acetate and the THC kind of black market pods. The product that we're building, our North Star metric is smoking cessation, nicotine de-addiction. We are not these other guys Trying to sell to teenagers. We are not an addiction alternative, and we're certainly not a THC-based vape. Our product has to pass through non-clinical clinical trials for safety and efficacy. So once it is FDA approved, it's for certain that it's not going to cause these major health issues that we're seeing in the news.

AI assessment note: “I think both positively and negatively. If you look at nicotine-based vapes”

Q screen the next round of applicants instead of Tiffany having to do it all herself. Alright, so, um, you did say in your pitch that you had binged a bunch of episodes of, of this show before you started fundraising, and you credited this show as one of the things that led to your successful fundraise. So I'm really curious, after binging the show, like, what, what did you learn?

A So, I have to be honest, I was really shocked in listening to so many episodes that, Whether or not someone liked you mattered so much. You know, you, you, it's like you listen to episode after episode, in which afterward, somebody says, you know, I really like her. I really liked him. And you're like, wow, this is a very subjective process. Like, I'm used to being in, like, very formal organizations where, you know, like, you could get sued for, like, suggesting that just because you like someone, you know, you could, like, invest in them. So I thought, wow, ok. So basically, I gotta make these people Like me. This is really, this is kind of a storyteller's game here.

AI assessment note: “Whether or not someone liked you mattered so much.”

Q It's decision time. Has Xiao convinced investors to set aside their concerns about his numbers and focus instead on his larger vision? Michael's up first.

A So I, um, I like you. I think you're very smart. You've done a lot of very smart things. Uh, you're passionate. You're thoughtful. So in that bucket, I, I get, I check that off. Um, in the, in the market, it's super interesting. I mean, this is a big, big issue. Um, I, I, I guess my, my, when I step back and I look at this, um, I don't think your business is actually that investable right now. I wanted you to come here today at the stage you're at and the amount you're asking for is to say, listen, this is what we worked out. This is how much money, this is how we're going to get to a bigger bottom line. I was expecting you to really lay out ancillary services and actually lay out some more math to your business. You haven't come here and said, I'm bringing something to the table that's awesome and new. I like the idea that you're going to play with data. That's smart. But I really haven't seen anything that, you know, sets you apart. So for those reasons, I'm passing, but I wish you the best.

AI assessment note: “I don't think your business is actually that investable right now... I'm passing”

Q So are these like your customers interested in buying you, like big meat companies, meat packing companies?

A So whenever we do deal with a really big enterprise, there's always that question, which is something I've had to get used to, where they're like, are you open to acquisition? Which is always very flattering. I mean, what do you say on the spot? I just say, of course we are. And we'll just sort of use that as part of the funnel because, I mean, we're learning about them as they're learning about us anyway. And then we, we get to see into their strategy where we sort of fit, um, and where they want to do things. And then we can kind of continue the conversation there. But it, I just sort of look at it like fundraising as in, you know, what is the goal of every startup? It's either to become one of these companies or to get bought by one of these companies.

AI assessment note: “whenever we do deal with a really big enterprise, there's always that question”

Q No, wasn't planning on it. So Michael, you were, you were super engaged with Dennis during his pitch. And in fact, you really put him through the ringer. And then in the end, like you were like, you were excited. You said, I'm ready to go in. Like you wanted to invest, but then Dennis wasn't able to get ahold of you afterward. Like what happened?

A You know, I'm gonna have to take a Mia Copa on this one. I think I, I kind of messed this one up and I'll tell you what happened. After the show, you know, you're, you're delused with a whole bunch of stuff, and then you get back into your working life, and then you have a whole bunch of deals going on, and I know this is a poor excuse for the people who listen to this show, but I literally dropped the ball on this one, and in fact, the sad part is, is that he was emailing an email address that I don't use as often, and it also went into my spam folder, and then he did try to contact me a number of times, But I mean, the excuse sounds like my dog ate my homework and I don't blame this entrepreneur. You know, he did reach out. I did find the emails. It was too late. It was my screw up.

AI assessment note: “I literally dropped the ball on this one... he was emailing an email address”

Q Ok, so Spencer says that people want to be the best version of themselves, but they don't know how, and that he can help them. Now that's an audacious promise. So where do you even start?

A Students today have the worst problem with this. They have a lot on their plate and their stress is astronomical. So we thought we could help students by building a 10 times better life manager than what they have today. And we did that. Today we're helping students build and maintain healthy routines, and then we use that data to also help them track daily tasks and stuff like that. This is all in the effort of tracking micro actions people take to building a map of human behavior. Now, what this allows us to do in the future is to empower people with these insights so that they don't make the same mistakes everyone keeps making. So that's a little bit about what we're doing at WeDo. Happy to answer some specific questions.

AI assessment note: “we thought we could help students by building a 10 times better life manager”

Q Sizov and her fruit biosensor startup, Strela, rounded out the pitches. Now, it's time for the investors to decide. Let's bring back in the founders. Let's give it up. Jessica, Muneer, Catherine. Here we are. Alright, so before you announce the winner, Do you guys have some feedback for each of these founders? We'll start with, uh, the first company you saw, uh, which was Rezio and founder, uh, Jessica.

A Well, first I just will say the three of you all did a great job, really. I mean, Really good pitches. You knew your stuff, and it was a pleasure, uh, listening to you and getting to know a little bit about you and the businesses, so thank you. Um, so starting with Jessica, I mean, I think first you're solving a real problem, and I think that, um, uh, you know, it's, it's becoming more and more of a problem, especially with, like, sort of mounting college costs, you know, increasing college costs, so I think No doubt you're solving a problem. I'm, I think both of us are a little bit concerned about the, the, uh, the student adoption piece, right? And also the long path to proving value with the data sets, you know, in terms of four years plus and tracking. And, and so there's, is a long cycle there, a long path before you can actually prove value.

AI assessment note: “starting with Jessica, I mean, I think first you're solving a real problem”

Q So then, uh, do you think that changed the course of your pitch?

A I think so. Um, because I, I think I'm, I mean, I don't know what the audio version of visibly is, but I was visibly shaken, I think probably in the room and, you know, maybe came across that way in audio. Uh, and so, yeah, I had to re reset that and figure out how to make sure I positioned it because nothing's worse than, you know, getting, you know, a gut punch that early into the presentation as we were still trying to talk about the problem, talk about how unique our solution is, why we're the right people to do it. Uh, but at the same time, I still had to just refocus on the fact that we went into the room for Jillian to be our investor. Uh, with all the research and everything that we learned about it, Jillian was the number one person we wanted. Um, and we wanted Michael to come in as well, and we didn't think we'd have a chance with anyone else. So that, so that really had to say, okay, how do I reframe this to make Jillian and Michael possibly comfortable with the answers that we're giving to this new information that was presented in the room from Howie?

AI assessment note: “I think so. Um, because I, I think I'm... visibly shaken”

Q the brand and be the face of the company because of who you are and how, how genuine it was, um, with your story. But then you wanted to focus on selling your business, selling business to business. So selling your bars to food service companies, airlines, and things like that. Did that make you like their disagreement on some of those things? Did it make you reconsider your strategy?

A Not really. I mean, the truth is when we launch, we're going to kind of need to figure it out and pivot. But, um, I still think the direct to consumer and, you know, having the brand and communicating right with the consumer is important will be step one of the company. But, uh, step two, I mean, what we did is we, we just hired a COO to come on and kind of run the business day to day. Um, so when we do want to sell the airlines and hospitals and schools, it frees me up to go tell the story and essentially Same thing. Make that connection with people and tell the story of the brand. So I think you can operate in tandem, both direct to consumer and B to B. You don't, you don't think it matters.

AI assessment note: “Not really. I mean, the truth is when we launch, we're going to”

Q you have this unbelievable clarity around who's buying your products, what they like and what drives them. And it's like, it made me think of like the business textbooks. They like tell you to do all of that, but I've never actually seen somebody like embody that in such a way like you did in the room that day. How? Like, how, how do you, how do you do that?

A I mean, I, I think there's two reasons. The first is that I am the customer. And, um, and in fact, when you look at some of our competition, which are like younger, more urban brands, they were started by younger, more urban guys who make products for their customers. So, you know, when you're living the product, um, it, it's easy, it's easier to connect with that person. But the second is honestly, we had a hard time getting it right in the beginning because I had everything You know, back in the day, we just had a single pair of pants. I had everything from twenty-year-old guys going to Europe, bringing that one pair of pants, to an eighty-five-year-old guy who slept in our pants just to prove to his wife that they wouldn't wrinkle. And so people like, you know.

AI assessment note: “I think there's two reasons. The first is that I am the customer.”

Q Kind of switching gears a little bit. So then like in the room, um, that's your first pitch to these four investors in the room. How do you think it went?

A You know, it was interesting. I, I am pretty instinctual and I can read a room very quickly. And when I walked in, um, I, my first impression was a, a visceral impression, but more, um, of the ilk of, oh, this is going to be a tough crowd because they don't really understand beauty or understand this brand. Like, that was a visceral reaction I had. I could tell from the body language. I could tell, and in reflection on, on the pitch and, um, what did I do that went well? What did I do that I could have done Better. I realized I was too anxious to, um, share the product with them. And usually in my one-on-one pitches, I'm, I control the product, um, experience much more. And in this instance, which was really unusual, I don't know why I did that. Maybe it was nerves. Maybe it was because, you know, it was just a very different setup standing in front of a microphone and, and pitching versus like at a table.

AI assessment note: “my first impression was... oh, this is going to be a tough crowd”

Q And I, I, like, I'm wondering, like, because treatment centers will be held accountable, will it actually be harder to sell to them? Like, like they'll want to avoid that accountability?

A Yeah. And you know, the thing is that the bottom line is this. There are treatment centers that are fly-by-nights that are here to make a quick buck. Those come up really quick, and they disappear just as fast. They're not real businesses. The ones that are actually legit, that do operate properly, that do have the right kind of staffing, that actually care about their patients, they're going to want us. They're going to want to use in recovery. And, you know, those are the kind of treatment centers that we're targeting anyway. We're not really, you know, we're not going to waste our time and go after treatment centers that we know are fraudulent. Those guys will be, they'll be gone. You know, insurance is cracking us so hard on that, that they'll be gone in the You know, in a couple months. I don't foresee them surviving beyond this year.

AI assessment note: “The ones that are actually legit... they're going to want us.”

Q Oh my goodness. I'm glad we're sneaking in this call when we are. Um, okay, so, uh, switching to the, to the other 50% of your life, I don't know if it's an equal balance, but how is the, the fundraising round going?

A You know, the fundraising round is going well. I have several interested investors. Um, I, I haven't pulled the trigger on opening the round formally yet because I just wanted to make sure that I had enough time to do everything properly. And so I actually reached out to all of them recently and said, Hey, putting a pause, everything's going really well with the business. It's just not the right time for me to jam in closing around before I deliver, especially because that's Kind of an ambiguous date. Like I could go into labor tomorrow, right? So it didn't seem fair to the investors, to the team, to me. And, um, and we're fine. Like, so we're not feeling the pinch. Um, and we have plenty of time to raise in the fall. So I'm just going to go back to it then.

AI assessment note: “fundraising round is going well. I have several interested investors.”

Q So talking about the CEO thing, um, it was interesting how open you were to advice, and it seemed like you assumed that you needed to bring in other people to fill that CEO role, and of course the investors were like, why couldn't that be you? Why not you? What was that like in that moment hearing that feedback from them?

A Well, it was nice feedback that even in the very short time that we spoke, they felt like I would be qualified to do that. And I don't necessarily to expect to have myself replaced as a CEO. I think that conversation started with the recognition that sometimes that happens as a condition of larger venture capital funding, and that I would be okay with that. And I, I am really open to coaching because, you know, all of this, especially when you, you've got a new technology in a changing industry, It's kind of a brand new world. So, you know, people that have a different perspective, I may take their advice, I may not, but I want to hear it.

AI assessment note: “Well, it was nice feedback that even in the very short time that we spoke”

Q the break. Welcome back. Three months have passed since Alon's pitched to investors, so I called him up with a few questions. So, it was interesting for me to watch your pitch because it, all signs from the investor's perspective showed a lot of interest and fascination with your technology and what you were building, but then, of course, like, they didn't invest. What, what was the disconnect, you think?

A I think I talked more about too much about the product and not enough about the business. Um, and that's, that's a, sometimes a trap I'm falling into, uh, admittedly so. And I think part of the problem is that there have been so many broken promises in this space. There are a lot of, uh, historically parental control solutions that have promised to fix this problem. And there is a certain level of fatigue, um, Both from parents as well as investors that have not seen success in this space yet. What maybe I haven't, I, you know, kind of failed to convince them is that our way of doing things is vastly different. And that's why so far we're very successful.

AI assessment note: “I think I talked more about too much about the product and not enough about the business.”

Q Sure. Like, what was the most surprising pitch to an LP you've ever made?

A Oh sure, a funny one. Uh, so I'm gonna change, change his name to protect the innocent, but, um, we'll call this guy Donny. So we were in Manhattan pitching a bunch of folks in New York, and this is like the last meeting we're taking, and the investor we're meeting with is late, running late to our hotel. He gets there, he shows up, Pulls up in, you know, like a half a million dollar supercar, parks it in front of the hotel. When I say park, like, he double parks, because there's no parking in front of this hotel. He just, like, pulls up, stops in the street, gets out of his car, and they don't have parking or valets, but he, like, finds the, like, bellboy and, like, throws his keys to him and says, you know, park this. And the guy's like, we don't do parking. And so he takes, like, a wad of money out of his pocket. And just, like, shoves it into his hands and is like, I'm gonna be meeting upstairs in the bar for the next hour. Like, make sure it doesn't get towed or nothing happens to it. And that's, that's like how the meeting starts with this guy. So, we're thinking this is gonna be a, like, a total waste of our time, and this guy's just gonna be a huge a-hole, right?

AI assessment note: “we'll call this guy Donny. So we were in Manhattan pitching a bunch of folks”

Q graduate to the Series A. They've raised seed money, but they can't get to the next stage. So what do those founders do? They have to go back to their previous investors and say, hey, um, do you think you could give us some more money to help bridge us to the Series A? And that isn't exactly music to an investor's ears, but Howie and Jake see it differently.

A Bridged means something completely different today than it does That it did five, 10 years ago. There was a negative stigma attached to the term bridge, and now people are calling it post seed, seed extension, whatever. C two. There are companies that are in these bridge rounds that are distressed companies that are looking for an influx of capital to help them resuscitate and get them, you know, back on track. However, we started seeing these, a small subset of these companies that were doing quite well. They were overperforming against their growth projections, and we started seeing this crazy performance From this particular, um, cohort of companies that we were investing in, anywhere from like, two X to 2.5 X over the course of 12 months from when we invested to Series A.

AI assessment note: “Bridged means something completely different today than it does That it did five, 10 years ago.”

Q I mean, yeah, 25 K, that's, that's meaningful. What ended up happening with Jesse?

A Jesse was apparently busy for a few months after the show. I think it was almost three months after the show that we were trying to email him, and, uh, then he replied asking, um, offering to hop on a call. We hopped on a call, and he said that He didn't see a lot of opportunities for our technology that it wasn't like a super strong need, but it wasn't nice to have and that he must have. Ironically, he was having connection problems when we were on the call and he said, he's, he's explicitly said, I don't, I don't have a cell service here where I am. He was in some country in the Middle East that he said that, yeah, it wasn't for him. It wasn't for his fund. So that was that.

AI assessment note: “he said that, yeah, it wasn't for him. It wasn't for his fund.”

Q That's Chad Wilson with Immersion Ed, the other EdTech founder this season. We asked him the same question. Do you play within the current system and make it better? Or you just, just like Hulk smash the entire thing and start over?

A So it's, it's an interesting question, right? I think that ultimately trying to Hulk smash the education system is different from trying to Hulk smash a non-government sponsored Industry in the same way. And so I think the reality of the world is something that you need to function within. And so when I hear people saying, oh, well, let's just get rid of the whole system. I'm like, first of all, do you know the turmoil you would cause in the interim period and the amount of damage you would cause there? I think I'm very wary of that. I, I think that what you do see though, is that there are systems within education that foster more innovation and those lead to change. And so say Immersion Ed ends up being a gigantic smash hit in charter schools and private schools and homeschooling. That will make its way to districts down the line as a result, but it wouldn't necessarily, there's a chance that that's where it thrives initially more so.

AI assessment note: “the reality of the world is something that you need to function within”

Q What did you think going into that suite? Did you feel like a big deal?

A No, no, I didn't. I felt like a little guy because I knew they were a big public company. I told him about our business and our size and before I even walked out of the room, he said, well, we're trying to grow in this space. We'd be interested in acquiring your business. And, uh, and he just threw out a number to me and said, you know, how does that sound? Is this something you might be interested in? And I said, well, let's let me, let me think about that a little bit. I, I, I didn't want to respond immediately. So I just, Said, hey, I'll get back to you, and that was the start of our relationship.

AI assessment note: “No, no, I didn't. I felt like a little guy”

Q Does it matter to you what perspective they come as an investor? Like, whether they bring faith to it, or whether they come in without faith, but curious to be a part of the business?

A Yeah, you know, you know what, Josh? There are people who have faith, and there are those who don't have faith, and both of those types of individuals can have ulterior motives. So what really matters to us the most is that the individual aligns with the overall mission of the business, which is to get churches and communities connected to transform real estate That's underutilized and to really build the community from within. I think that's what we really believe in the most at church base is that community development doesn't start from the outside. It doesn't start by bringing a whole bunch of real estate developers from outside of the community to make decisions and to put up really tall, big buildings and say, hey, we've created something nice and beautiful for you. Use it. But it starts with the resources and the people who are already there and figuring out intuitive And unique ways to take the things that have been overlooked and beautify them and make them available for people in, in a simple way.

AI assessment note: “what really matters to us the most is that the individual aligns with the overall mission”

Q out whether you really want to raise money or not. And if you are, let's talk more. But you needed to, like, really know which road you were gonna go, and Daniel in particular was like, I'm not sure, he's like, I don't think you convinced me that you necessarily are going to be raising the money, or like, that you want the money right now. What's happened since then?

A So, uh, Daniel and I met, uh, like a week later after the show, um, and, and it was amazing. He was really, he blew me away, uh, with his insights, and, and he really got a lot of what we were trying to do, and, and I got this, you know, wonderful sense from him that he was really trying to figure out what was best for one second every day, and, you know, uh, you know, he was able to really break down a lot of the, uh, ways that we can continue moving forward with or without VC funding, Um, and it certainly does come down to an extent to, uh, what it is that we are ultimately willing to put all our chips into. Uh, because yeah, like, you know, I remember he, he said on the show something along the lines of, you know, once we jump into the express lane, like, there's really, it's very, really difficult to get out of the express lane. Um, and yeah, we, one of the, you know, one of the best things he said that really, like, That made so much perfect sense, uh, when, when Daniel put it this way was like, you know, essentially you're, you're, you know, you raise money to build, to create, or you raise money to scale a company. Um, and so, uh, I think really, like really grasping that, really being able to bring all the data points from the past couple of weeks into like these two roads of money to create money to scale was able to kind of help me, uh, you know, gather my thoughts a …

AI assessment note: “Daniel and I met, uh, like a week later after the show”

Q last pitch for a while. When we come back, why stopping your fundraise could actually help your fundraise. This episode will after continue after this. Welcome back to The Pitch, Africa edition. Jillian and Erica did connect with Mariam after the fact, but nothing came of it. A month later, I called Mariam to check in, and first things first, how do you feel about your pitch on our show?

A I felt good about it. I thought Jillian was gonna flip. I was like, come on, Jillian, because I read her bio earlier, and I was like, you've done this. There was one mistake. I did my math wrong, which is I always know not to do math on the spot, and I think I, I pushed, um, Jillian, I'm like, oh, you know, I think it was like one out of six, uh, people. And you said it was like 12% success rate or something? Yeah, it's definitely not 12%, and so. definitely not That was the one where I was like, oh my god, I'm gonna go on like the podcast and like she doesn't know math. Um, and so, yeah. You're good.

AI assessment note: “I felt good about it. I thought Jillian was gonna flip.”