The biggest surprise to me from flipping over to the VC side of the table is how many pitches are terrible.
When I was on the other side (At Hi5, we took three rounds of venture funding, and probably pitched over 200 times to get those three rounds), I’d just assumed that everyone who turned us down was inundated with perfect pitches, but boy was I wrong!?
Right now, I’m taking about 5 pitches a day. I set up in the XL conference room with my S’well battle, an extra-hot turmeric latte, and a notebook (I’m surprisingly old-school like that). The founders file in for 45-minute meetings all morning.
Without naming names, this morning I got…
- Rent-The-Runway for ski gear (not bad, but too niche);
- Netflix for Books (nobody reads anymore);
- Uber for podiatrists (um, thanks but no thanks);
- AirBnB for rest-rooms (would people really rent out their toilets?)
Every founder was a guy, all white, and I could guess got a GroupOn voucher for bulk buying dark hoodies. These guys were all Zuck wannabes.
And then, finally, a Queen-Bee walked through the door. She pitched a home nutrition system that was basically Nespresso for food. It was hardware plus software and met a huge pain point…what to cook for dinner?
Queen was dynamic, well-prepared (fact: female founders need to be twice as good as guys to even get half as much money), and committed.
She demonstrated the machine (like a high-tech version of my mom’s crock pot) and each meal came with a QR code, which the machine used to calibrate itself. Maybe because it was bumping against lunch time, but the steamed salmon and new potatoes were incredible. I also tasted the Chicken Kiev and it melted in my mouth.
The whole system needs a brand name, and some slick marketing, but Queen is onto something.
I offered her a 2.5 pre-money valuation and a Series A injection of 2.5 to get to market. She agreed on the spot and I leaned in to shake her hand… Queen gave me a hug instead.
She said I was the first female VC she’d met on the funding round and most of the men nodded, smiled, and either rejected her outright or said, “I’ll run this by my wife.”
It’s my first investment at XL and I can taste that it’s going to be a winner.
Full Ratchet 