As a solo general partner of a venture fund, I rarely share notes when making an investment decision.
That changed when I filmed my first season of the Pitch in June 2023. The Pitch is like Shark Tank if all the judges on Shark Tank were venture capitalists investing their & others’ capital instead of angels investing their own money.
The format of the pitch is six entrepreneurs are selected to pitch five venture capitalists one by one – and we either have to pass and give a reason why we’re not investing or commit to terms in that meeting.
We filmed season ten a stone’s throw from where I grew up in Rancho Bernardo in San Diego. My friend Erica Wenger from Park Rangers Capital recruited me to join last minute.
I was excited to be judging alongside Charles Hudson of Precursor Ventures and Elizabeth Yin of Hustle Fund who I’d ended up coinvested with on deals but never discussed investing in those companies with, and San Diego native Neal Bloom of Interlock Capital and Mark Phillips of 11 Tribes.
Dhaval, founder of Lotus Labs, was born with twisted knees and himself experienced mobility challenges. He vividly recalls having issues simply turning off his light at night, being unable to get out of bed. So, he designed his product for not only individuals from mobility challenges, various disabilities, elderly individuals, and more. Dhaval spent over eight years at Apple as a senior engineering manager, working on iconic products such as the iPhone, the Apple Watch, AirPods, and much more. He also has 37 patents to his name.
On air, I committed to a $150k check into Dhaval Patel of Lotus Labs – and then got to discuss it afterwards with the other VCs while our host, Josh Muccio, asked tough questions about what moves us to conviction. Dhaval’s crispness of storytelling, personal mission, high execution velocity, and relentless customer obsession really stood out. You can watch his pitch (and my eyes light up) here:
My mom & dad also got to attend one of the pitches – a bring your parents to work day! My mom even got to click the clapper board (just googled that writing this):
One of my takeaways was that I really enjoyed listening to how other investors came to conviction and the types of questions or hesitations other investors would have. I pride myself on independent conviction, but I am always trying to find ways to improve my investment process. I can’t stress how rare it is to have real time feedback or discussion as a solo GP – so this was a really cool learning opportunity.
I also got more comfortable giving founders feedback on a first call that it wouldn’t be a fit for us right now. Before, I’d often wait to pass in an email, and I’m trying to get better at passing sooner or in the call if possible. Since 99% percent of companies I see end up getting a no, practicing saying no thoughtfully and quickly significantly increases both my and the founder’s time.
One interesting transition I’ve been making in the past year or so since I started investing in 2020 has been evaluating founders / companies in person. The majority of our 27 Fund II investments were made over Zoom, but now I’m investing more in founders I met in person before and attending in person demo days like HF0 or Andreessen Horowitz’s gaming accelerator. The energy is so cool at in person events!
So in January 2024, I flew to Miami to film my second (and the 11th) season of the Pitch. I found a really great company, and I’m really excited for the episode to drop.
The next season of the pitch comes out in two weeks – and I thought I’d share the trailer: