#111 Stigma: Whose Business Is It Anyway?

The Pitch

Josh Muccio

Technology, Business, Investing, Entrepreneurship

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 12 April 2023

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Founder Ariana Vargas wants to destigmatize talking about mental health. So she built a social app. No wait, now it’s a Slack app for the workplace? This founder is willing to do whatever it takes to secure investment - maybe too willing. Will Ariana build the business she wants, or the one investors want? Today’s investors are Jillian Manus, Charles Hudson, Elizabeth Yin, Mac Conwell, and Neal Sáles-Griffin. If you’ve been enjoying our comeback season, will you share The Pitch with a friend? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Pitch Show, day two, Pitch four.
0:04.5	Being a first-time founder is tricky.
0:08.0	Investors want you to be flexible, willing to take their feedback, but not so flexible
0:13.2	that you follow their vision instead of your own.
0:16.6	Today's founder, Ariana Vargas, is trying to figure out where to draw that line.
0:22.8	When Lisa and I first met Ariana, she had built a social mental health app.
0:27.7	It allowed strangers to support each other by sending hopeful video messages.
0:32.4	However, when Ariana showed up in the pitch room, she was in the middle of textars, and
0:37.6	the vision for her company had already changed.
0:41.3	So the app we were excited about was nowhere to be found.
0:45.6	Is Ariana's early pivot the kind of flexibility investors are looking for?
0:50.6	Or is it a sign that she'll just change her business for anyone?
0:54.8	I'm Josh Mugeo, welcome to the pitch, where relaunchpreneurs pitch to real investors for real money.
1:02.5	I'm Neil Salis Griffin, managing director here at TechSar Chicago, and I'm happy to welcome
1:07.5	me all to my city.
1:08.5	I'm Elizabeth Yen, and I'm a general partner at Hustlefund.
1:11.4	I'm Charles Hutton, managing partner, precursor ventures.
1:14.4	I'm Jillian Manes, managing partner of Structure Capital.
1:17.6	I'm a key rubber call in the second.
1:19.1	Most people call me Mac, and you follow me on Twitter as Mac the VC.
1:25.8	The pitch for stigma is coming up after this.
1:29.4	Hey, I'm Ryan Reynolds.
	...

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