The TRUTH about starting a startup

We're going to do something different on this episode. I've had people submit their pitches via video. So we're going to watch them together and then I'm going to give my reaction to them and all the advice I have for how to pitch that company based on the pitch I heard.

Even better.

All right, so now we're going to hear Jacob's pitch.

I'm Jacob and I'm building superpower dot com. We're making it easy to live longer and be the healthiest version of yourself. So what that really means is we're building like the doctor's clinic of the future. So it's all the things that you wish your doctor did from kind of the cutting edge in the frontier of medicine that they're not really that knowledgeable about or equipped to be able to do. We basically went out and teamed up with a dozen of the best high end concierge, longevity and integrative holistic health doctors from around the world who work with sort of the top 0.1% and charge 50 to a few hundred K for their clinic programs. And we rebuilt everything that they've done as a tech platform so that we can get the cost down to, you know, basically $500 a year that anyone can afford and democratize access to this, to this level of care. Before this, I started a half billion dollar Series B software company and a startup incubator program. And yeah, I have a great team around me to do this for the next 30 years.

So in terms of feedback on the pitch, I think there's a lot of stuff that Jacob saved for the end, such as how much he's done before and like his background. And then he kind of hinted at his team and then he said something about doing this for the next 30 years. So the way I'd pitch this idea is like this. There's a big movement happening right now that goes beyond traditional health care. And that movement is all about longevity and people using things outside of the health care system to help themselves get healthier, live a longer life and be happier and have more energy. And so what we're building is a company around that idea. Then I would go into what the actual product was, which he didn't go into. So I don't really know how to pitch the rest of it. But I think there's a massive pitch here that's really focused on that tailwind. And then once I say that, I would give the proof of why the team that I have, that I've built is the right team. And I'm sure he's got a lot of color on that. Especially if he says we're set up to do this for the next 30 years, I want to know what that means. And I don't really know what that means yet. So there's other parts of the pitch I would refine, but I would really start real fast and hot and really focus on the tailwind so you can hook people, get them curious, and then kind of lead to the rest of the pitch. But here's the thing. I still don't know what the product is and I really wish the pitch had that to help me understand what are you actually building? Are you building a hardware company? Are you building a software company? Are you building some AI assistant coach thing? What is it? Because it could be any of them or it could be all of them. That's what was missing from the pitch and that's what I wish I understood because then I could give a better idea of how I would pitch up. Next we're going to hear Luke's pitch.

I'm Luke. I'm a co founder of the business called the Rave. We're a rewards platform that helps businesses capture and foster word of mouth growth. In E commerce. We help people like Ben. Ben's the CEO of Mindhoney, a seven figure e commerce brand. He wants to grow without growing his headcount, but he's getting killed by the constant increasing cost of Facebook and Google advertising. So what we let Ben do is get his existing customers to share with their friends, family and followers better than any existing referral program because we give actual cash rewards via Venmo and actual free items as rewards as a part of the referral campaign. On top of that, we let him set up automated affiliate campaigns where he can manage more than a thousand different affiliates without having to lift the finger in a fully automated manner. Typically, that would require a small team or a huge amount of cost. In building these affiliate platforms, we've been growing consistently 20% month on month since we've launched eight months ago. And the way we get big is by breaking out of the Shopify ecosystem into a bunch of other verticals like ticketing, insurance, anything that you could refer a friend, family or friend or family member to. And then also turning from a an integrated solution into a destination where customers can come together to shop with their friends and support their favorite brands as well as discovering new products through their favorite influencers and micro influencers.

This is a pitch that I've heard over the years over and over again. That's why, like I'm in, because I know the investors that might find this interesting. But the key thing that Luke said was that it's going to go beyond E Commerce. And I think that's really important for a pitch like this because we've heard these rewards programs and platforms to do them and they generally see the kind of growth he's seeing. I mean, 20% growth month over month growth for eight months is not shabby. He should be able to raise money. But the biggest issue is a lot of companies in this space have the same thing that has happened to them and then they hit some form of revenue which is not insignificant, and then they die because they're just a cap on E Commerce. And you know, this build versus buy, new platform comes around, has new capabilities, you switch it, all these things exist. So what you're really trying to do in this business is create something that has more longevity and goes beyond E commerce. And he hinted at that, but I wish he would have like done more with that. With that said, the way I pitch this idea is I don't actually lead with we're growing 20% month over month for the last eight months. And then I would say what we do is we've created a unique rewards program that allows people to get rewards for, for real goods that they actually want. And we think this can expand to many different verticals beyond E Commerce. Come talk to us. That's what I would say with the information I was presented on the pitch. But I'm sure that there's additional things that Luke could get value from in the pitch. If I knew what those were and he didn't share those in the pitch. For example, why do you start the company? Who else is on the team? Where is the kernel of the idea and where did it come from? What's the origin story? Those kind of things are really important because what I'm looking for in the pitch is where do you start and how do you evolve the pitch? In his case, if you lead with the thing he has that's most impactful, which is that 20% month over month growth for eight months, that's a good hook to get people listening to the rest of it. And quite frankly, a lot of the other parts of this pitch are pretty like standard for this type of company. So it's really the growth rate I would lean on because I assume it's pretty early stage round and that's what people can get excited about. All right, up next, we're going to hear Valentin's pitch.

So, Aidan, you're a serial entrepreneur, right? So I'm sure you've been dealing with equity compensation and know a thing or two about it. And I hope you'll agree with me that it's one of the most powerful tool to attract and retain top talent in a startup, right? Yet it's just a legal mess and so costly to manage. So many founders just struggle with communicating accurately the value of the equity they're granting now. Just think about how painful this can be when you're hiring outside of the us. So many companies are going global from day one these days, with team members in India, France, Australia, the uk, you name it, right? Just think about local regulations and the additional complexity you need to think about. Well, we've just built ESOP to solve that. We've built the first equity compensation solution for global teams with ethop. You're just one click away from compensating your team with equity in a compliant, transparent and cost efficient way. We integrate with Carla and Pulley and let founders operate independently from law firms all over the globe and get their equity compensation jumped down at a fraction of the price they would pay otherwise.

With Valentin's pitch, I was out until I heard what he didn't say, which is there are law firms that manage this process that costs a lot of money. And once I realized that that's the piece he's replacing, I got more excited. So I'm in on making intros because of that kind of final little note he said that really got me and hooked me. And I wish that he had basically taken that part and kind of blown it out more. I'm okay with him talking about the pain because when he's talking to an investor, the investor is very likely going to understand this pain. But at first when he started talking about equity, right away I thought of Carta and Pulley and these other tools and I'm like, wait, what are you talking about? They already do that for me. But really he fills a gap. That's a very important gap that today lawyers are filling. So it's all manual labor and it's a services business and it's very messy. He's right. Giving equity to people who are in other countries, internationally, whether it's like you're in like France and trying to give equity to US person or you're in the US trying to give equity to someone in France is. Gets very complicated. So these types of things are one of those kind of startups where it's like you gotta go after the nuance because everybody knows Carta, everybody knows Pulley most likely, or Carta alternatives, just like, what are you doing? So this is kind of how I'd pitch it. I talk about the gap in the market when it comes to this is the only way to get compliant equity given out internationally, which is through a law firm and working with lawyers and getting charged a lot of money. So basically he can say we built an alternative to that and we've partnered or integrated whatever it is that makes sense with Carta and Pulley, because then you've kind of taken care of the objections. And then I would get into the whole business and I would talk more about what the real opportunity is. Because to me the opportunity isn't just American companies going international, it's also non US based companies going international, their version of international, which is to US employees and things like that. So I think it's a very powerful business. I'm curious about how much traction he has and I'm curious about all kinds of other things that he didn't address in the pitch, which are all things that I would add to the pitch. But in terms of the pitch being powerful and it being impactful, I think it's not that hard because there's a lot of pain here and the alternatives, if I'm assuming this correctly, are very expensive. That's a wrap for this pitch feedback session that was a little different. If you want to pitch me, go to Heaton show H I T e n dot S H o W and you'll find a way to apply to pitch.

The show is produced by Supermix. Thanks for joining.