Startup Pitches! LAUNCH Accelerator Demo Day | E1902

Jason joins seven strong startup pitches from LAUNCH Accelerator. (00:00:00)

• Jason introduces the seven startup pitches from LAUNCH Accelerator cohort 30.
• He emphasizes the importance of product velocity, great product design, and multiple founders with diverse skills.
• The founders will have three minutes to pitch and must provide concise answers to investor questions.

Jacqui kicks off the demo day. (00:01:11)

• Jacqui welcomes everyone to the demo day and expresses excitement about showcasing the seven amazing founders and their ventures.
• She highlights the honor of working with the founders and anticipates their future success.
• The founders will pitch for exactly three minutes, followed by a Q&A session with guest investor judges.
• The guest investor judges introduce themselves and provide insights into their investment focus and criteria:
  • Ben Nison from Tenas Venture Capital invests in seed and pre-seed stages, focusing on tech, excluding security, MedTech, and crypto.
  • Blaine from Outlander is a generalist fund based in New York, leading pre-seed and seed rounds ranging from $500k to $2 million.
  • Minnie from 10110 is a seed fund that typically invests in companies right after they come out of a launch program, with a focus on B2B and a "nerdy" tech component.
  • Nicole from Kenoa invests in pre-seed to Series A rounds, primarily focused on B2B SaaS.
  • Stella from Contuct Ventures invests with a flexible approach, leading or syndicating with other investors, and their check size ranges from $2 million to $10 million depending on the funding dynamics.

Justin pitches Melengo (00:04:40)

• Mango.com is a platform that simplifies the development and scaling of fashion products for brands and creators.
• It offers features such as AI-driven feedback on designs, automated techpack creation, sample production, bulk order management, and embedded lending.
• Mango.com has grown to a $366,000 net revenue run rate since its beta launch in June 2022 and has several million dollars in the funnel.
• The company plans to launch AI-generated products in Q2 of 2023 and projects $10 million in net revenue by 2025 and $100 million by 2028.
• Mango.com's ultimate vision is to reduce minimum order quantities to one unit, enabling creators to bring their ideas to life with ease.
• The co-founders have extensive experience in the fashion and tech industries, and the company has received funding from investors like Jason Bannister.
• Mango focuses on a core number of SKUs (hoodies, t-shirts, joggers, and leggings) to start, using the same materials and patterns to create a wide variety of permutations.
• The company's target market is brands with a revenue of $500,000 to $5 million and creators with over 100,000 followers.

Gusto - Get three months free when you run your first payroll (00:10:18)

• Gusto is a payroll and HR service designed specifically for small business owners.
• It automates payroll calculations, payroll taxes, open enrollment, onboarding, health insurance, 401K, time tracking, commuter benefits, and offer letters.
• Gusto provides access to HR experts.
• It allows business owners to focus on important tasks like product-market fit and customer satisfaction.
• Easy to set up and get started.
• Gusto can transfer data from other providers.
• Twist listeners get three free months of Gusto service.

Edward ptiches PodcastAI (00:11:32)

• Podcast AI automates podcast production tasks, including generating descriptions, chapters, ad reads, social posts, and creating a podcast website.
• It offers SaaS subscriptions with professional, small business, and business plans, targeting existing podcasters, businesses using podcasts for lead generation, producers, and agencies.
• The platform's core strength lies in automating manual and time-consuming tasks, saving podcasters time and money.
• Podcast AI aims to become the leading platform for podcast automation, helping podcasters create and grow their shows efficiently.
• The company's vision includes automating content production and generating synthetic content based on authors' insights.

AD2 (00:18:09)

• LinkedIn is offering the first job posting for free to help companies find the best candidates.
• LinkedIn has over a billion users, providing access to both active and passive job seekers.
• Active job seekers are actively looking for new opportunities, while passive job seekers are employed but open to better opportunities.
• LinkedIn Jobs makes it quick and easy to hire elite team members.

Daniel pitches Tolt (00:19:04)

• Told is a platform that helps technology startups launch and grow partnership programs, offering an intuitive dashboard for tracking referrals, payouts, and other metrics.
• Told has seen a significant return on investment for its users, with some startups seeing a 10x return.
• Told is constantly innovating and adding new features, such as integration with crypto pay providers, autopay, and branded partner portals.
• Told plans to reach a $1 million mark by launching more integrations, a referral marketing solution, and becoming the go-to place for any kind of partnership program.
• Told is a team of two brothers who have successfully exited two small startups.
• The platform prevents churn by helping partners earn as much as possible, which discourages startups from canceling the subscription program.

Rae pitches River (00:24:55)

• River is an in-person event and social platform that turns audiences into communities.
• It helps orchestrate events at scale with crowdsourced hosts.
• Fans can RSVP or apply to host events.
• Hosts are vetted and given limited edit access to events.
• Hosts can choose the location, time, and capacity of events.
• Attendees receive SMS reminders to snap a pick and post it on social media, tagging the event.
• River has seen significant growth since its launch in November 2022.
• It has 600 events, 1,000 volunteer hosts, 19,000 users, and 146,000 app visitors.
• River's beta pricing is $1 a month for self-service and $500 a month for white-glove community management.
• It is exploring paid memberships, affiliates, treasury, and sponsorships.
• River's target market includes podcasters, thought leaders, businesses, tech communities, streamers, influencers, musicians, celebrities, sports teams, alumni networks, and political campaigns.
• It differentiates itself from existing event tools in event management at scale, crowdsourced hosts, quality control, and permission layers.
• River plans to build out event programming, community infrastructure, and social networking in the future.
• The team behind River consists of Rae and two technical co-founders who previously worked together at s Labs in 2013.
• River is backed by investors.

Northwest Registered Agent - Get a 60% discount on your next LLC (00:27:49)

• River is an in-person event and social platform that transforms audiences into communities.
• Northwest Registered Agent offers a comprehensive service for forming LLCs, corporations, or nonprofits, including registered agent service, a business address, a website, hosting, email, and a phone number, all protected by Northwest's privacy protection.
• River currently has three customers on the $500/month plan and prioritizes product development over customer acquisition cost (CAC).
• Twitter DMs and Allin's "My First Million" program have proven effective in acquiring paying customers.
• Batch events and audience activation are the most utilized features of the River platform.
• River distinguishes itself from Meetup by centralizing leadership under the community organizer or leader, preventing fragmentation and incentivizing hosts.
• River focuses on the top 1% of passionate users who are willing to host meetups, recognizing their greater value compared to the less engaged bottom 50%.
• The software streamlines community management, replacing the need for multiple community managers and enhancing efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
• Despite being considered "lunatics" in the industry, the founders' success and influence attract investors.
• Discord serves as a valuable platform for activating communities, facilitating communication, and controlling sales efforts.
• The platform prioritizes user privacy and prevents service providers from exploiting the audience.
• The software has yielded insights into the ideal individuals for managing local meetups.

Kash pitches TaxGPT (00:34:01)

• Tax GPT is an AI co-pilot for tax professionals and accountants that automates research, question answering, and email generation, saving professionals time and increasing efficiency.
• It also offers a firm and client management platform.
• The company's total addressable market is estimated to be $17 billion, with the potential to reach $260 billion by reducing inefficiencies in the tax system.
• Tax GPT plans to onboard 2,000 tax professionals to reach $10 million and 20,000 tax professionals to reach $100 million by 2029.
• The startup's data source includes legal information and proprietary information gathered from tax professionals.
• Despite competitors like WK and Bloomberg having their own tax opinion teams, Tax GPT believes they have a larger network of tax professionals providing feedback, which gives them an edge.
• The startup has rejected four acquisition offers, believing they have the potential to build and succeed independently.

George pitches Fanfare (00:40:56)

• Fanfare is a platform where creators can grow a community, raise funds, and sell their products directly to their fans.
• Fanfare offers community tools, e-commerce tools, and high-quality traffic to creators' pages.
• Fans can upgrade to become a Super Fan for exclusive discounts, products, and content.
• Fanfare is free for creators to use, while Super Fans pay $20 a month.
• Fanfare is focusing on the $25 billion tabletop gaming industry, which is expected to double in the next 6 years.
• Fanfare has experienced 300% monthly user growth since introducing its most advanced features in January 2023.
• The team behind Fanfare has over 5 years of experience in the creator economy and has raised over $20 million for creators as their marketing consultants.

Jam pitches [Monic.ai] (00:46:31)

• Monica AI is an adaptive learning platform that uses AI to create personalized study spaces and practice exams for students.
• Since its launch in February 2022, over 85,000 users have signed up, generating 5.5 million questions from 150,000 uploaded documents.
• The platform offers a premium model with limited generations and slower speeds, a pro model at $10 per month with unlimited generations and higher speeds, and an Enterprise model at $25k per year for businesses.
• Monica AI plans to expand its reach through partnerships with college professors, SEO, and by integrating e-learning providers like Kaplan and UWorld onto its platform.
• The company is aware of the potential for competitors to ban its platform and is working to create a strong moat by leveraging its unique and proprietary data set on learning profiles and habits, combined with gamification.
• The platform allows users to create private spaces with controlled access and uses proprietary algorithms for comprehension and retention.
• Monica AI is moving away from LMS (Learning Management Systems) to open-source platforms to build these data sets.

Our panel of judges pick their top three pitches. (00:52:05)

• Jason:
  • 3rd: Tax GPT
  • 2nd: Fanfare
  • 1st: River
• Michael:
  • 3rd: River
  • 2nd: Fanfare
  • 1st: Mango
• Roy:
  • 3rd: Podcast AI
  • 2nd: Mango
  • 1st: River
• Tracy:
  • 3rd: Mon.ai
  • 2nd: Podcast AI
  • 1st: Tax GPT
• Aaron:
  • 3rd: Mon.ai
  • 2nd: Podcast AI
  • 1st: Tax GPT