#181 ROOK: The VC Vibe Check

The Pitch

Josh Muccio

Technology, Business, Investing, Entrepreneurship

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 11 March 2026

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Marco Benitez moved his family to the US to build Rook, an API for wearables. But when a familiar face shows up in The Pitch Room, he learns just how much vibes matter in venture. This is The Pitch for Rook. Featuring investors Elizabeth Yin, Jesse Middleton, Laura Lucas, and Mike Ma. Watch Marco’s pitch uncut on Patreon (@ThePitch) Join us for the Season 16 taping and founder happy hour in Tampa Subscribe to our email newsletter: insider.pitch.show Learn more about The Pitch Fund: thepitch.fund *Disclaimer: No offer to invest in Rook is being made to or solicited from the listening audience on today’s show. The information provided on this show is not intended to be investment advice and should not be relied upon as such. The investors on today’s episode are providing their opinions based on their own assessment of the business presented. Those opinions should not be considered professional investment advice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the pitch where startup founders raise millions and listeners can invest. I'm Josh Muccio. And I'm Lisa Muccio. And on the show today, we have Mark Go with Rook, and he's raising $1.5 million. On this show, we hear investors ask the same questions over and over again. Every pitch they want to hear about the market. They want to hear if you've got revenue, traction, what you've done in the past. Yep. But under the hood, something else is happening entirely. And we don't talk about it because it's under the hood. It's a vibe check. It's vibes. If you're not viping with an investor, you're not getting money from them. It's true. Internally, we've called it the beer test.
0:38.1	I've never heard us call it the beer test. It's in our air table in a column called beer test. Oh, well, I never go in air table. I always just call it the Lisa test. But obviously a lot of people pass the Lisa test because I like everyone that comes on this show. Well, today's founder passed the Lisa test, the vibe check,
0:55.8	the beer test, and the product test. Rook is an API for wearables, and we love wearables.
1:02.5	The question is, will Marco pass the vibe check in the pitch room? Because sometimes venture
1:07.6	can get a little messy.
1:14.0	The pitch for Rook is coming up after this.
1:15.2	But first,
1:16.5	drum roll please, Lisa.
1:22.5	We're hosting a founder happy hour on 420 in Tampa.
1:24.8	If you're a founder, if you're a listener,
1:26.5	or you're just a good human,
1:30.4	you should come hang out with us in Tampa, RSVP at pitch. Show slash party.
1:34.5	Support for this show comes from Vanta.
1:37.5	Vanta uses AI and automation to get you compliant fast.
1:41.3	Simplify your audit process and unblocked deals so you can prove to customers
1:45.8	that you take security seriously. You can think of Vanta as you're always on AI-powered
1:51.2	security expert who scales with you. That's why top startups like cursor, linear, and
1:56.1	replet use Vanta to get and stay secure. Get started at vanta.com slash Vox. That's V-A-N-T-A.com
2:05.4	slash V-A-V-A-T-A-com slash Vox. Vanta.com slash Vox. Welcome back to the pitch for Rook. Let's meet the
2:15.0	investors. Elizabeth Yin with Hustle Fund.
2:18.6	Can I ask you a very direct question?
2:20.8	Jesse Middleton with Flybridge.
	...

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