Watch the Head-Spinning Pitch That Left Investors Stunned | Elevator Pitch S11 EP3
Think about this: every contestant who has the guts to appear on Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch is just 60 seconds away from a rise to greatness or a fall from glory. By the end of these nerve-wracking episodes, some entrepreneurs will walk away with game-changing investments, and some will go home empty-handed. Breaking out in a cold sweat yet?
And here's the thing: even if you have what it takes to deliver a solid, confident pitch, that's just the first hurdle. Our panel of investors is eager to see the next big thing, but they're not shy about asking tough questions. One contestant has their leadership style called into question, and another is asked to make a decision on the spot that would result in a big investment — but also would fundamentally change their business.
Watch to see what happens on this thrill-a-minute episode of Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch!
And here's the thing: even if you have what it takes to deliver a solid, confident pitch, that's just the first hurdle. Our panel of investors is eager to see the next big thing, but they're not shy about asking tough questions. One contestant has their leadership style called into question, and another is asked to make a decision on the spot that would result in a big investment — but also would fundamentally change their business.
Watch to see what happens on this thrill-a-minute episode of Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch!
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hello, investors. Welcome to the elevator. Going up. I'm Mark Randolph, co-founder and
00:10first CEO of Netflix. I'm Kim Perel, CEO of 100.co and serial entrepreneur. I'm Rogers
00:16Healy, CEO of Morris & Seeger Venture Capital Partners. And today I'm seeking entrepreneurs
00:22with ideas that are made for television. I loved what I heard. It was a great pitch.
00:27I think this is a bad idea. I gotta say I'm wrestling between something with a whole bunch
00:31of maybes in it. This is Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch, presented by Amazon Business. Our first
00:47entrepreneurs hope to improve the lives of everyday dreamers on the go. My name is Ryan
00:54and I'm Xander. And this is FTL. Ryan and I have known each other since we were like
00:57five years old. We grew up together. We had an entrepreneurial bug. So we got started
01:01and it took us about four years to launch our signature bag last year. I think having
01:06a partner and a co-founder through all of this has been invaluable. It's incredible
01:10to have somebody who understands it and can be by your side through it all. And frankly,
01:14I don't think I would have gotten to this point with FTL without Xander. I don't know
01:18how someone does this alone. We have so much respect for solo entrepreneurs and solo founders.
01:23Similar to Ryan, I don't think I could have done this alone.
01:33Going up. Hello, Ryan and Xander. Welcome to the elevator. Your pitch begins in three, two, one.
01:47Four years ago, while working corporate jobs, we found ourselves facing a similar problem.
01:51We'd set out to for our best days, early mornings in the gym, a packed day in the office,
01:56a late night client dinner, all with trains, cars, and planes in between. These days came
02:01with the burden of carrying multiple bags, gym bags, garment bags, briefcases, left us feeling
02:06highly disorganized, looked unprofessional, and frankly was a pain to carry. So we set out to
02:11design one bag that functionally and aesthetically would serve us on the days we were most proud of.
02:17We believe that we've developed the best bag in the market. And it seems like people are starting
02:21to agree. We launched the FTL original duffel bag last year via Kickstarter, where we did over
02:25$90,000 in sales in just 30 days. In the last six months, we've surpassed a quarter million dollars
02:31in profitable revenue, seeing an average order value of $260 and a customer acquisition cost
02:36of $75. We're here asking for $40,000 in exchange for 1% of our business to help us invest in
02:42developing new products and marketing initiatives. So we hope you'll join us on the FTL journey.
02:47I love starting with a pitch which at least manages to get everything in.
02:51But did you like what you heard? I loved what I heard. It was a great pitch. I guess the only
02:56thing for me that was missing was what differentiates this suitcase from all the other ones?
03:02Also, how do they get a valuation of $4 million? If they have lifetime revenue of $250,000,
03:08that's a pretty ambitious ask. I mean, it'll be interesting to see if we want to see it.
03:14I guess that's what our first decision is, is do we want to find out more?
03:18You guys ready to vote? Yeah, let's do it.
03:26Attention, Ryan and Xander. Your pitch has been
03:37approved. Yes. Let's go.
03:41Gentlemen, come in. You're traveling light today, it looks like.
03:46So we pack efficiently. Ryan and Xander, welcome to the boardroom. The part I got to start off
03:51with is a $40,000 ask. I think that's the lowest ask I've ever heard on Elevator Pitch. What's
03:57going on? We bootstrapped this whole thing. We're scrappy entrepreneurs and we know how to do this
04:02in a very lean way. That's important to us to be profitable from the beginning. So we need capital
04:07for new product development, which we've learned to do pretty cheaply, and we need capital for
04:12creating content. Let's talk about the sales a little bit. So how much revenue will you
04:15generate this year? This year, we're looking to do about a million dollars in revenue.
04:19What are the margins on these things? Yeah, so we retail for $250,000. Our landed cost is $75,
04:25so it's about 70% margin. Single footprint, multiple colors? Yep. We also have a couple
04:31add-on products. So we have Dobkits, we have a luggage tag, and we do monogramming as well.
04:37Guys, bring us the bags. This is really a product that we thought we needed
04:43functionally. We think it's one of the best on the market. It has a garment bag to keep clothes neat
04:47for those business trips. It has a shoe pocket where you can store your shoes, dirty laundry.
04:53On the other side, it has a briefcase slot as well, and then lots of other functionality. So
04:58we think from a product standpoint, it's super functional, but it also maintains this awesome,
05:02sleek aesthetic that we were struggling to find in the market. What we hear a lot from customers is
05:06we love this product, the design, functionality, material. In your bag collection, I pretty much
05:11guarantee you don't have one that looks like this yet. Right, not yet, not yet. Okay, backing it up
05:16a little bit, what did you guys do before this? I studied engineering and entrepreneurship in
05:21college, but then I worked in the fintech industry for six years after college. So this was new to
05:26me. We've been working on this five-year side of desk, and I've learned a lot. I've been in
05:30commercial real estate the last eight years. So both of us work in corporate jobs with some of
05:33the inspiration and how we thought there was a need in the market for this. But my major in college
05:38was also design-related, so it gave me some of the foundation, which now we've been tapping back
05:42into. Tell us about the backstory of your partnership. Yeah, it's a great question. So we've been
05:46lifelong friends, have always had this shared entrepreneurial itch that we wanted to explore
05:50together. And I think in building out this company and partnership over the last four to five years,
05:55it's been a blast working together. But I think we've also found that our skills are really
05:59complementary. Is one of you CEO? We're both co-founders. So two co-founders, either no CEO
06:05or co-CEO. Okay, yikes. Wait, is it no CEO or is it co-CEO? Co-CEO for now. As soon as we ramp up
06:14and hopefully hire more people, that will become officially two separate roles. Have you decided
06:20yet who becomes CEO when you get bigger and you're splitting it up? We have not yet.
06:26So where does FTL come from? For the love of what? Not having other luggage?
06:32People say, for the love of what? And we say, for the love of, you know, that's up to you to decide.
06:38We really wanted to build a brand that celebrates great days. We found that in this day and age,
06:43people are so quick to judge, so looking for that kind of next gratification. And we're like,
06:47let's take a moment to build something that celebrates great days, whether it's getting
06:51up in the morning, crushing the gym, going to the office or a great trip. We just wanted
06:55to celebrate that. And this is kind of a product that will help get you there.
07:02I'm concerned that this is trying to be too many things to too many people, and it doesn't really
07:07solve a single thing. I mean, it just strikes me as being a kind of a solution looking for a problem.
07:15But listen, it's not about the product. It's mostly about the company.
07:18Building a brand is brutal. It's very, very expensive. And certainly with a $40,000 raise,
07:24$25,000 initial capital, you're not going to build a brand that way.
07:29And I'll leave you one last little thing that bothers me.
07:33You guys are in for a little collision course when it comes down to the co-CEO thing.
07:39That usually is not because it's a great idea to have co-CEOs,
07:42it's because you haven't yet had the hard conversation about which one of you it is.
07:48Because of all those things, I'm afraid I pass.
07:53Thank you. Well, I actually think it's very well designed. I can see the use case for sure.
08:02And I agree, it's going to be hard to build a great brand, but great brands have been built
08:07before. And who's Mark to say that you guys can't do it? I'm going to pass, but I am very excited
08:16and can't wait to follow and see what you guys end up doing. Thank you.
08:21It's great feedback. I got a curve ball for you. I think this is a bad idea.
08:27Start with the dop kit, guys. Like everyone's trying to do luggage and carry on all this
08:31kind of stuff. You guys are New York bros, background in fintech and real estate that
08:36dropped everything to try to do something disruptive, right? Maybe the hero can be the
08:40dop kit. Have fun creative designs on it and appeal to people that actually are like y'all.
08:46This is boring. But if you're the dop kit bros, that's potentially the play.
08:54If you want to go dop kit first, I'll give you $25,000 and I want 25%
08:58of just that vertical. If you go and you extend it to the other luggage, I want 10% of that in
09:03perpetuity. I think there's potentially something interesting in a royalty deal with an advisory
09:12piece. But I do think that there's been proven traction on this product from the data we've
09:19seen and the anecdotes we've heard. So we're not going to give up this. If you wanted to come in
09:25and do a royalty deal on the dop kits, I think that's something we'd be interested in.
09:34It's got to feel natural to me. It doesn't. So I'm going to respectfully pass.
09:38Okay. I understand. Well, gentlemen, unfortunately, we're going to send you
09:41home empty handed, but you have plenty of luggage space to put all the empty handed.
09:47Good luck to you. Thank you. Wish we could have walked out of there with a deal. But
09:53I think we said everything that we truly believed and we didn't see eye to eye. So that's fine. But
09:57I think we put our best foot forward. So feel really good about that. Hey, you guys are so
10:02harsh on them. It's tough love for entrepreneurs. 100%. You had your shot. You could have actually
10:08really helped them out. You could have carried home all your money you made in that bag.
10:13What do you think if we thought about giving them an extra surprise to help them?
10:20I'd be down with that. That's not a bad idea. I mean, I like the guys. I think it's cool. I think
10:24they have a great friendship. They maybe just need a little help. Agreed. Okay. Let's get them
10:29back up here. We see it as being exactly what we pitched on. We think it being one of the top bags
10:34in the category. Ryan and Xander, your presence has been requested back in the boardroom.
10:44Hey, guys. Welcome back to the boardroom. Thanks for having me back. So we discussed it and we're
10:52here to help entrepreneurs bring their ideas to life. And although we are not able to offer an
10:58investment today, on behalf of Amazon Business, we do want to gift you $10,000 cash to help you
11:05grow your business. Wow. Oh, my God. I got goosebumps. That is amazing. That's going to
11:11help us so much. We look forward to seeing you guys. Thank you so much. Feeling absolutely great.
11:17Amazing. I mean, we just got $10,000 from Amazon Business. Didn't have to give up any equity.
11:22Yeah, this is incredible. We're over the moon. It's one of the best case scenarios that we could
11:26walk out of here with. It's going to help jumpstart the business. I don't even think
11:29I'm registering exactly what happened, frankly, but honestly, walking away so happy.
11:33This is huge for us. For the love of Elevator Pitch.
11:40Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch is presented by Amazon Business.
11:44For every organization at every stage of growth.
11:47Next up, an entrepreneur improving hair care with her sleek and stylish line of head coverings.
12:01My name is Lauren Nelda Pascal and my company is Lolo's Bonnets. I'm first generation Haitian
12:06American. My grandmother risked her life to come to this country and she almost died on the journey
12:09here. She worked three jobs. She got herself a house. She provided for all of her kids who are
12:13now all successful. And she died the year of my high school graduation, like a couple months before.
12:19I always wanted to do good so that she could see and I just wanted to do good for her. And then she
12:23wasn't here to see it. So I was in a dark place for a while. But I realized that if I don't live
12:29the life that she blessed me with, her death is almost in vain. Going up.
12:42Hello, Lauren. Welcome to the elevator. Your pitch begins in three, two, one.
12:53Hi, I'm Lolo, the CEO of Lolo's Bonnets, native bonnet Lolo's on it. And believe it or not,
12:57my hair used to be about this big. How did I achieve such long, healthy hair? Quality satin
13:01bonnets. My customers and I have dealt with every hair care problem in the book from dry and brittle
13:05hair, hair thinning, hair loss, and the list goes on. Instead of being reactive by only repairing
13:10damage after it's done, my bonnets are proactive by protecting your hair before the damage even
13:14begins. 93% of women don't like their hair and 85% of men have hair related issues. So I decided
13:19to do something about it. Since starting my business, I have made over $160,000 in sales,
13:24helped thousands of people get the hair care, the hair of their dreams, and also organically grew
13:28my social media blog across all social media platforms to 160,000 followers. Today I'm asking
13:34for $200,000 for 10% of my company at a $2.5 million cap. I truly believe that Lolo's Bonnets
13:41can help everybody have healthy hair and if the investors think so too, I would be really grateful
13:45for that. Thank you so much. She's still got time.
13:54Number one, great success on her social media, on her organic growth, but it seems like I'm
14:01not actually sure what the product is. I think it sounds like a fun business and obviously she's
14:05passionate about it, but yeah, I don't think it really excites me. It's one of the things that I
14:10look at is not just the entrepreneur and not just what's happening, but what is the opportunity?
14:15Yeah. And I can't really get a sense of what the opportunity is here. Let's put it to a vote. Are
14:20you guys ready? Absolutely. Yeah.
14:28Attention, Lauren, your pitch has been
14:39denied. Okay. I feel disappointed right now. I was really looking forward to making connections
14:45with the investors, talking to them, even if I didn't get an investment, just getting their
14:49feedback. Every rejection is just a redirection. Everything will come back full circle. You're
14:54going to have to hear no a few times and you're going to have to get used to how that feels.
15:01Things aren't always going to go well, so don't be afraid to deliver bad news,
15:05but what I do want to hear is you've got your hands on the wheel. You understood what went
15:10wrong. You have a plan to fix it, but what I want to hear most of all is you say, I've got this.
15:20Last in the elevator is an entrepreneur who's innovating the way we monitor our health
15:25with her groundbreaking device.
15:36Going up. Hello, Anna. Welcome to the elevator. Your pitch begins in three, two, one.
15:50I'm Anna Barnacka. I'm CEO and founder of MindMics, previously NASA Einstein fellow at Harvard. We seek
15:571 million on convertible note with a cap of 40 millions. Did you know that your ears works as a
16:04speaker broadcasting every heartbeat? With our earbuds, we can listen to your heartbeats while
16:10you're listening to music. Our goal is to enable this technology into hundreds of millions of
16:16earbuds for licensing. This not only positions us for a significant revenue growth, but also
16:23gives us a shot to one day eliminate heart failure as a leading cause of death globally.
16:29Our earbuds prove the technology and we're partnering with the top earbud brands and
16:34manufacturers to bring it to market. Join us to help us build future of health and enable it
16:43through the ear. A founder with purpose. Sounds like she's got a story. There's probably something
16:51behind it. And, you know, she's going to help lead the charge of eliminating the leading cause
16:55of death. Maybe there's something there. What do y'all think? It sounds like it's some kind of
16:59device to listen for heartbeat, measure heartbeat. Something about heartbeat and in your ear pods.
17:06I think the good news is she mentioned licensing. Maybe she's got something worth hearing more
17:10about. I got to say, I'm wrestling between something which seems interesting, but something
17:15which has a whole bunch of maybes in it. OK, well, I think it's time to bring it to a vote.
17:19Let's see what happens. Let's see what we think.
17:22Attention, Anna. Your pitch has been. Approved. All right, Anna, welcome to the boardroom.
17:43Great to meet you. Great to meet you. You got three yeses. I'm already so excited.
17:49Maybe kick off a little bit. Tell us the story behind Mind Mics and what led you here.
17:53Oh, absolutely. So first of all, actually, my background is in astrophysics. So I spent a
17:57decade building telescopes. And then also I landed at Harvard, which was a great experience.
18:03But also I spent a decade basically working day and night, being absolutely exhausted.
18:09So I thought I've been always using science to solve the problems and we can detect gravitational
18:15waves that are traveling from distant parts of the universe with the accuracy that's so incredible.
18:21So for me, that was not a question like, yes, we should be able also to monitor our health
18:26with a much higher precision that we can do it today with the watches.
18:30The ear works as a speaker and is broadcasting everything that is happening in our body.
18:36And one of the loudest organs that we have, it's in our chest. It's hard.
18:42So your technology is right now measuring heartbeat. So I mean, I noticed that you're
18:48wearing a whoop. Yep.
18:50There is an aural ring. These are devices that we can wear 24-7.
18:54Yes. Why is this better than one of those?
18:57So number one, this technology is different. What we do with the watches is the optical
19:01light. So you only see just below the skin with Mind Mics using the sound waves. So we can see
19:07actually what's happening internally. So we have a precise picture of every heartbeat.
19:12We starting with things we can do today quickly without FDA approval and provide as a well-being
19:18system. But the future, what this can do, what we show with the clinical study, this is where
19:22it gets exciting. The fact that we can see our opening, closing in real time, that we can see
19:27actually how the blood is being pushed through the aorta in the way that is non-invasive.
19:33That's what is, what makes me leave the academia. Okay, like this is, I'm going to dedicate every
19:38day to make it happen. The ultimate model here for you
19:42is basically monetizing the IP by licensing out to other hardware manufacturers.
19:47Licensing of the IP as well as algorithms as well, because we also build a whole platform
19:51where we can really accelerate that development of the new algorithms as well. So today,
19:57you can get our earbuds and also we have an app which is already on the App Store.
20:02So this is in market right now? Yes.
20:04How many users? Actually, we're not going D2C with it.
20:07We're going with this product to hearing aids, to earbud brands as well to show what they can do.
20:13So actually, the one partnership that I can disclose is with the company Master & Dynamic.
20:18They're making absolutely gorgeous, wonderful earbuds. And now we're working on enabling
20:23our technology for licensing in their earbuds. This goes really well. What are the revenues
20:28look like two, three, four years out? So this is a very good question. And it's
20:32very variable because closing any licensing partnership with companies like Samsung or Apple,
20:39just to give you the numbers, Apple has a 22% of the market share. Samsung has 8% of the market
20:45share. And basically last year, the total number of earbuds sold was about 300 million units.
20:53So this is we're talking here about huge market.
20:57It's a big market opportunity, but how far will the million dollars get you?
21:02One million will last about eight months. So we will also raise more money. So that's the part
21:07of the race, that one million. In total, I would like to raise 2.5 million. And that would take us
21:13for about almost two years, including the revenue. How much run rate do you have right now?
21:19We have about three months for the run rate.
21:27I love what you're doing. I think it's a huge market opportunity. But as an investor,
21:31I want someone to come to me when they have 12 months minimum of revenue in the bank.
21:37If someone comes to me and they have three months left before they have to raise capital,
21:41it scares me. And so for that reason, we're going to...
21:48I like this a lot. What I really like is I see the opportunity here.
21:53And in terms of an idea, it's really brilliant.
21:59I don't restrict myself to investing only in things I understand, but I sure try.
22:06And I don't understand where this goes from here.
22:09I don't know what this looks like revenue-wise. I don't know what the risks and rewards are.
22:16Wow, this is one that I'm sure I'm going to regret, but I'm afraid I have to pass as well.
22:22Thank you.
22:23All right, Anna, I am your new dumbest friend, and you are definitely the smartest person I've
22:27potentially ever met. Your background is amazing. You've got a reason. And from where I come from,
22:32from where I come from, saving lives is recession-proof. So here's my thought.
22:37I'll offer you $100,000 at your current valuation,
22:41contingent upon you raising that $2.4 million in the next six months.
22:48Anna, what's going through your mind right now?
22:51It's quite a lot of things to think about.
22:56There's a lot of things that go through my mind in terms of
23:00what we need for this business to succeed.
23:05We have a lot to achieve, so much to achieve ahead of us.
23:09And we need the right people that can help us to make this successful.
23:16So you have a deal.
23:23Man, way to make me sweat in my denim shirt. I literally was over here wondering what's going on.
23:27Well, great job. I'm excited. Great to meet you. We'll give a hug.
23:31Thank you so much.
23:32Congratulations. Enjoy the rest of your day. We've got some work to do.
23:35Thank you so much. I'm super excited. I got the deal with Rogers, which is
23:39fabulous. And the future of Mighty Mike's is bright.
23:46Many entrepreneurs bravely stepped into the elevator today,
23:50but just three made it into the boardroom.
23:54And only one was able to secure a high-flying deal with our investors.
24:01However, Ryan and Xander were able to secure a $10,000 prize, courtesy of Amazon Business.
24:09In the high-stakes world of business, if you want to achieve your dreams,
24:15you must rise to the occasion to get to the top.
24:20Yes!
24:22Tune in next week as Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch continues.
24:27It's called Elevator Pitch.
24:29There's time on the clock. Come on!
24:32And to apply for the next season, go to entrepreneur.com slash elevator pitch.