Startup pitch competition: Jason invests $25K | E1819
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.2 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 29 September 2023
⏱️ 81 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This Week in Startups is brought to you by…
OpenPhone. Create business phone numbers for you and your team that work through an app on your smartphone or desktop. TWiST listeners can get an extra 20% off any plan for your first 6 months at openphone.com/twist
.Tech Domains has a new program called startups.tech, where you can get your startup featured on This Week in Startups. Go to startups.tech/jason to find out how!
Mercury. 90% of startups fail. Just 10 out of every 100 make it. Mercury exists to close that gap — helping companies succeed with banking and credit cards engineered for the startup journey. Join over 100,000 companies banking with Mercury at http://mercury.com
Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group and Evolve Bank & Trust; Members FDIC.
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Today’s show:
Kelly Schricker joins Jason to kick off another startup pitch competition featuring four companies from Founder University Cohorts 5 and 6!
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Time stamps:
(0:00) Jason and Kelly kick off another startup pitch competition!
(6:52) Why founding teams have an advantage over solo founders
(11:47) OpenPhone - Get 20% off your first six months at https://openphone.com/twist
(13:18) Founder University's program, and crafting the best pitch for your company
(22:24) .Tech Domains - Apply to get your startup featured on This Week in Startups at https://startups.tech/jason
(23:38) Jason Kappes pitches Newcomer Games
(25:58) Jason’s feedback for Newcomer Games
(32:24) Mercury - Join 100K+ startups banking with Mercury at http://mercury.com
(33:36) Matthew Majcher pitches Scrumly
(35:43) Jason’s feedback for Scrumly
(40:41) Jared Rosen pitches HomeScore
(42:59) Jason’s feedback for HomeScore
(52:21) Phoenix Do pitches Fitted
(54:26) Jason’s feedback for Fitted
(1:08:49) Kelly and Jason review the four companies and their pitches
(1:16:16) Jason picks his winning startup!
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Check out Newcomer Games: https://newcomergames.com
Check out Scrumly: https://www.scrumly.ai
Check out HomeScore: https://homescore.co
Check out Fitted: https://www.fittedcollective.com
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Follow Kelly: https://twitter.com/KSchricks
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Read LAUNCH Fund 4 Deal Memo: https://www.launch.co/four
Apply for Funding: https://www.launch.co/apply
Buy ANGEL: https://www.angelthebook.com
Great recent interviews: Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland, PrayingForExits, Jenny Lefcourt
Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis
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Follow Jason:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jason
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jason
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
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Follow TWiST:
Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin
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Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.founder.university/podcast
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | A lot of VCs get obsessive, Kelly, about, oh, you know, is this venture scale? |
| 0:04.4 | I don't know if it's venture scale. |
| 0:06.0 | When you're early, early, early, early stage like we are free incorporation of the company |
| 0:11.2 | and at the incorporation, you know, years 0, 1, 2, and 3, we get in at such a modest valuation, |
| 0:18.0 | typically low millions of dollars like Y Combinator and Arc and, you know, other, you know, |
| 0:23.8 | accelerators do, we can be a bit more frisky, a 50 million or 150 million dollar outcome for us |
| 0:29.1 | could be a great investment. This week in startups is brought to you by |
| 0:33.5 | OpenPhone brings your team's business calls, texts, and contacts into one delightful app that works |
| 0:39.3 | anywhere. Get 20% off your first six months at openphone.com slash twist. .tech domains has a new |
| 0:47.3 | program called startups.tech where you can get your company featured on this week in startups. |
| 0:53.7 | Go to startups.tech slash jason to find out how and mercury 90% of startups fail. |
| 1:02.0 | Just 10 out of every 100 make it. Mercury exists to close that gap, |
| 1:07.2 | helping companies succeed with banking and credit cards engineered for the startup journey. |
| 1:12.5 | Join over 100,000 companies banking with mercury at mercury.com. |
| 1:18.2 | All right everybody welcome back to this week in startups. |
| 1:21.3 | We have a really fun show for you today. People always ask me, can I have money? |
| 1:26.4 | I've got an idea for a startup and I want to get started. I need money and we say great. |
| 1:32.8 | What's your idea? And we always try to figure out how can we invest in these companies? But it's |
| 1:37.2 | hard because as a venture firm, we can't just be giving money to people with ideas. That doesn't |
| 1:43.2 | scale. And it results in a lot of zeros. In other words, companies that never get their products |
| 1:48.7 | launched. So what should a venture firm do? We're an early stage seed fund do with the day |
| 1:55.2 | lose people coming to them with ideas or even an MVP. But they're not incorporated yet |
... |
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