Your Favorite Investor Hands Down
Demo Day + Vote your Favorite VC
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In this issue:
Vote for your favorite investor!
Fun facts from behind-the-scenes of the HandsDown episode
Link to Jenna’s Demo Day pitch
Around the Web: E. Yin writes how to fix struggling startups & Charles Hudson gains clarity around AI.
Episode Drop
Episode 110 HandsDown: The Accelerator Pitch
If you’ve ever considered an accelerator for your startup, this episode is for you. Also: have you been through an accelerator? I wanna hear your feedback. Share with the class in the comments.
(Did you know there’s a button at the bottom to comment? There’s also a heart so I can know if you like what you read.)
Vol 1. Issue 11
HandsDown is a shopping app that helps moms save other moms time through trusted product recommendations for all things motherhood.
BUT it started as a list of favorites. And we want to know who would make your favorites list from The Pitch panel!
The origin story of HandsDown started with a group text. (You can hear that story in episode 110 if you fast forward to 2:45.)
💎 Fun fact:
The founder, Jenna, was advised to take the story about the group text out of her pitch.
Josh advised her to keep it in – we tell every founder to include a story in their opening pitch. It’s the WHY behind the product.
In the end, the investors fell harder for the story than the product. 💔
💎 Fun Fact #2:
Jenna brought HandsDown business cards with QR codes into her pitch. She handed them out and invited the investors to quickly get on her app and try it out. 10/10 recommend.
💎 Fun Fact #3:
Elle Bruno, Managing Director of Techstars Boulder, told me what she loved about HandsDown. She said:
Team!! Elle loved their professional experience & understanding of consumer behaviors.
2022 is the first year that online shopping sales decreased. Consumer trust is waning and there is a lack of ROI for brands in current acquisition channels. HandsDown solves this problem.
💎 Fun Fact #4:
HandsDown made it on The Pitch because someone else shared their deck with Josh in a Twitter DM. A good deck will spread like a rumor.
HandsDown Links
Get a FREE Ticket to the VIRTUAL DEMO DAY happening today at Noon Eastern Time!
Get the HandsDown App or send it to your favorite moms!
Coming up Next
Next week we hear from a founder who was going through an accelerator when she came on the show. She gave a completely different pitch from the one we heard during the application process.
Around the Web
I know I share all of Elizabeth Yin’s stuff, but how can I not?! She has so much wisdom to share. The challenges of growth: where startups struggle and how to fix them
Charles Hudson writes about gaining clarity in the AI space as he’s struggled to figure out where the real opportunities are as a pre-seed investor.
The Pitch Deals
The following are open deals from The Pitch Syndicate. Click the company name to learn more and apply. Or invest in all these deals via The Pitch Fund!
Tether - This syndicate is almost ready to go! (Listen to ep. #102)
Dressd - Clothing rental w/local pickup for sororities. (Listen to ep. #104)
Modern Picnic - Y’all are showing Ali the love! (Listen to ep. #109)
The Social Scene
Video Shorts are on Tik Tok, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Twitter suddenly stopped allowing link embeds on Substack so this week we get another fun poll in the social section. Hopefully, Twitter comes to its senses by next Friday.
Apply to The Pitch to record this June in San Diego, CA.
Sharing is caring ❤️
Love the fun facts. So cool to see HandsDown evolve through this episode and then Techstars.
I just listened to Jenna Sereni's episode. The investors were pretty passionate about there being bad accellorators but said there are good ones out there. Can you maybe list some of the "Pitch approved" good ones?