How an Art Student Became CEO
Madeline Fraser's Story + Invest in Gemist
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Episode #115
Listen to Gemist: The Crown Jewel of Venture or watch it! 🤩
Here’s what you can expect from The Pitch Insider this season:
Founder stories
Investment opportunities
Memes & gifs (ya gotta keep it fun)
Gemist
Madeline started her first business in college and has been an entrepreneur ever since. She didn’t go to business school.
Madeline started as a fine art major (after a gap year in rural India where she launched an art program for kids) then moved into Interior Architecture & Design. That’s where she met her first co-founders.
Together three female founders started one of the first online interior design companies, Zoom Interiors, and they took it to the Sharks on ABC. Madeline was in the cafeteria at George Washington University and saw three college boys pitching on Shark Tank. She thought “If they can do it, why can’t we?”
Madeline’s Shark Tank appearance with co-founders
The three design students scored a deal with Barabara Corcoran, but decided not to take it. They desperately needed a business mentor and Barbara couldn’t offer them the time they needed. However, a different option presented itself when their episode aired.
Tinder CEO Sean Rad contacted Madeline. He wanted to help Zoom Interiors go completely mobile and that’s when Madeline’s second company was born. Hutch - a virtual interiors app to visualize and purchase products for your space. They took that through a Series A, but five founders are a lot of the cooks in the kitchen and Madeline eventually stepped away.
It was when she started designing her own engagement ring with her long-time partner that she realized the opportunity in the jewelry industry. And Gemist was born.
Gemist started out as a D2C brand learning the pain points of the online jewelry industry, before pivoting to B2B. This vertical Saas platform must be the cure, because Madeline has managed to secure a pipeline worth $4 million dollars with her cold emails to business owners.
Madeline’s story causes me to ask…
How did an art student become a tech entrepreneur?
“I never went to business school, so my last companies were how I learned and grew - they were my education. I’m still learning every day, but I do feel like I’m a wiser entrepreneur now because of my past experiences. As you continue to grow businesses you always learn new things and if you have enough self awareness you can really grow from each one. My mantra has always been to fail fast, fix fast, and learn fast.”
What stands out to me about Madeline is her confidence. She genuinely looks comfortable pitching a panel of 5 venture capitalists. (Have you seen the video?)
Madeline tells founders, “You have to believe in yourself more than anyone else.. [Investors] need you as much as you need them. This is a partnership, right? Think about what you want, what type of people you want in your corner and build from there.”
Madeline wants you - The Pitch community - in her corner.
Invest
If you want to invest in Gemist you can do so via the syndicate.
Or apply to join The Pitch Fund to invest in the whole portfolio of Pitch companies. I’m calling it… The Pitchfolio (Josh is rubbing off on me 😅 )
See more at Gemist.io or try Gemist on the Greenwich St. Jewelers Website.
Coming Up Next
We’re talking tech in Africa!
Extra! Extra!
Applications are open for Season 11. We’re going to Miami! Share your deck at pitch.show/apply (I recommend sharing a teaser deck)
We’ve partnered with DECKO to create The Ultimate Pitch Deck Guide in weekly installments.
What people are saying about this week’s episode:
I listened to every previous episode. But watching it is completely different! Thank you for bringing it to YouTube. -@aifresnofresno
It's kinda crazy to see you speaking on video with the audio being such high (radio) quality. Love it ❤️ -@magnusholmes
This was one of my favorite episodes yet! What a really well organized & smart founder. I also love how you guys dissected & explained the thought process on some of the passes. This has become the pod I’m most excited to see pop up in my feed when new episodes are released. -@sitwithmeapp
See you next week, Insiders!
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