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.
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#108 Qleek Pt. III: A Postmortem and a Comeback

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 Sáles-Griffin.
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#107 Terrascope: A Computer Vision Tale

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 Sáles-Griffin.
If you would like to invest in Dotcal, go to pitch.show/dotcal
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#106 Dotcal: The Calendar Wars

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, Phil Nadel, and Neal Sáles-Griffin.
To try the 'Granola Guy Approved' snack yourself, visit pitch.show/granola
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#105 Teffola: Granola Guy Approved

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 like to taste the product on next week's episode, go to pitch.show/granola
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#104 Dressd: Red Carpet or Red Ocean?

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 some AWSM sauce yourself, head over to pitch.show/sauce and check out The Pitch Pack.
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#103 Get Lost in the AWSM Sauce

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, visit pitch.show/tether and if you'd like to literally taste next week's pitch alongside the investors, go to pitch.show/sauce 🌶️
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#102 Tether: Bodyguard of the Grid

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 February 8th. See you in The Pitch Room.
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Our Comeback Season Is Here!

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
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#101 Josh Pitches The Pitch

Host Josh Muccio picks up the mic once again... with some personal news.
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Return of The Pitch

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.
Today's potential LPs are Jillian Manus, Daniel Gulati and Charles Hudson.
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#100 When Investors Take the Hot Seat

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.
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#99 The Friends & Family Gap

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


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#98 Hello! You’ve Reached The Pitch Helpline

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. 
Today's investors are Sarah Downey, Michael Hyatt, Jillian Manus, Phil Nadel and Charles Hudson.
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#97 Secret Sauce or Snake Oil?

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.
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#96 A Test of Time

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.
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#95 You Asked. Investors Answered. Now What?

When gyms closed at the start of the pandemic, Kevin Allen’s at-home fitness app, Row Vigor, went gangbusters. But there was a problem -- a few lines of code were preventing Kevin from cashing in. 
The investors present at Kevin's original pitch were Phil Nadel, Jillian Manus, Daniel Gulati and Charles Hudson.
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#94 The Breaking Point

When Alon Shwartz started his parental control app, UnGlue, he thought Apple would be an ally. But then Apple decided to make their own competing product and Alon was forced to go toe-to-toe with the biggest tech company in the world.
The investors present at Alon's original pitch were Phil Nadel, Jillian Manus, Daniel Gulati and Charles Hudson.
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#93 David vs. Godzilla

We talk to three startup founders who got money from the Paycheck Protection Program and try to find out, what did the PPP money actually do?
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#92 Who Did the PPP Actually Save?

In 2018, founder Cody Candee raised $150,000 on our show. He went on to raise over a million dollars in funding that led to extraordinary growth for his startup, Bounce. But then Cody found out the hard way that to keep growing fast you have to become the boss.
The investors present at Cody's original pitch were Phil Nadel, Jillian Manus, Nicole Verkindt, Michael Hyatt and Charles Hudson.
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