The Feedback Loop

Startups age in dog years. Startups at the idea stage look and feel very different just 3 or 6 months later. And so too do the dynamics of how VCs think about those startups. Are they investing in a founder, a vision, traction, early evidence, or an engine of experiments?On Episode 040 of The Feedback Loop, you'll see 2 investors wrestle with this dynamic - and with each other - as 3 ambitious startup founders take the stage to pitch their business.If you're interested in startups and founders building the future, and the venture capitalists funding them, this is a must watch. And today, we hear from founders across healthtech (can AI and LLMs solve insurance coverage issues?), fashion and commerce (an omnichannel AI personal stylist?), and Jarvis for account executives (is AI for sales already oversaturated?).It's Episode 040 of The Feedback Loop, and it's a fun one!Be sure to leave a comment talking about your favorite pitch down below! And leave your own feedback for these founders and judges, because feedback is a gift, after all.As always, hosted by Sherveen Mashayekhi, Founder & CEO of Free Agency. ​Today's guest investor, returning to the show for the FIFTH time, was Mike Ma of Sidecut Ventures.The Feedback Loop is all about getting ambitious founders on stage to pitch and get unfiltered feedback from experienced, honest investors.Because the thing that can hold even the best founders back from reaching their ambition? Their pitch. Whether a startup founder is raising money, recruiting a team, or selling their product, it's the pitch at the start of any given conversation that starts them on a journey to success.For those founders on stage and in the audience, it's an answer to the essential query: how to pitch your startup.More on our guest investor for the episode:​​Mike is a tech CMO turned venture investor — he runs Sidecut Ventures, backing mission-driven pre-seed founders, and is an Operating Partner at Sway Ventures. He was previously MD at Nex Cubed, a pre-seed accelerator for underrepresented founders. In other words, he knows startup storytelling!Follow Sherveen: https://x.com/SherveenFollow Mike: https://www.instagram.com/michaelwmaTo attend The Feedback Loop in-person or apply to pitch as a founder, head to afterfeedback.com.Thank you to all of the brave founders who participated in this episode. The Feedback Loop is dedicated to creating an engine of support for startup founders attempting to change the way the earth spins. We're on your side.Curious as to this episode's takeaways? You'll hear about a lot, including about how in the weeds to get re: your user experience, whether to cater your pitch to specific investors, how to talk about a long-term vision without confusing the short-term product roadmap, competing in a heavily crowded space, and so much more.This is purpose-built for startup nerds, tech industry fanatics, future founders, and everyone in between. Venture capitalist? You should get in the comments below and let us know whether you'd take a meeting with the founders on stage.

How do venture capitalists REALLY think through a startup pitch? Well, today is Episode 039 of you getting to find out, as we get to hear pitches from 3 startup founders and see 2 investors react in real-time.If you're interested in startups and founders building the future, and the venture capitalists funding them, this is a must watch. And today, we hear from founders across personalized skincare (can we finally get over all the conflicting advice on TikTok?), AI-driven nutritional tracking (our investor wants this for his gym bro son), and experiential employee benefits (can this fix our loneliness epidemic, or at least make a dent?).It's Episode 039 of The Feedback Loop, and it's a fun one!Pitch 1 (VAIN)Pitch 2 (Acurixx)Pitch 3 (ANI)As always, hosted by Sherveen Mashayekhi, Founder & CEO of Free Agency. ​Today's guest investor, returning to the show for the FIFTH time, was Mike Ma of Sidecut Ventures.The Feedback Loop is all about getting ambitious founders on stage to pitch and get unfiltered feedback from experienced, honest investors.Because the thing that can hold even the best founders back from reaching their ambition? Their pitch. Whether a startup founder is raising money, recruiting a team, or selling their product, it's the pitch at the start of any given conversation that starts them on a journey to success.For those founders on stage and in the audience, it's an answer to the essential query: how to pitch your startup.More on our guest investor for the episode:​​Mike is a tech CMO turned venture investor — he runs Sidecut Ventures, backing mission-driven pre-seed founders, and is an Operating Partner at Sway Ventures. He was previously MD at Nex Cubed, a pre-seed accelerator for underrepresented founders. In other words, he knows startup storytelling!Follow Sherveen: https://x.com/SherveenFollow Mike: https://www.instagram.com/michaelwmaTo attend The Feedback Loop in-person or apply to pitch as a founder, head to afterfeedback.com.Thank you to all of the brave founders who participated in this episode. The Feedback Loop is dedicated to creating an engine of support for startup founders attempting to change the way the earth spins. We're on your side.Curious as to this episode's takeaways? You'll hear about a lot, including how to think about AI features and staying competitive in the AI-driven app space, how men are stealing their girlfriends' skincare, how to sequence a startup pitch, why a question in a pitch meeting is an invitation, how to bring up your credibility as a founder, the challenges of pitching an innovative idea in a legacy industry, and so much more.This is purpose-built for startup nerds, tech industry fanatics, future founders, and everyone in between.

3 ambitious startup founders take the stage to pitch their concepts to two venture capitalists! On Episode 037, these investors are ready to evaluate, ask questions, and offer unfiltered feedback – the sort of feedback that can help any entrepreneur tell a compelling story and win multi-million dollar investments.If you're interested in startups and founders building the future, and the venture capitalists funding them, this is a must watch. And today, we hear from founders across an AI CRM (watch out, Salesforce), an observability platform for developers and SMBs, and an AI-powered benefits broker.And not all of these pitches go as planned.Timestamps:00:00 Hello!00:40 Pitch 1 (Dossy)16:36 Pitch 2 (Aeroview)33.48 Pitch 3 (Juniper)46:53 Takeaways, Favorites!Be sure to leave a comment talking about your favorite pitch down below!Hosted by Sherveen Mashayekhi, Founder & CEO of Free Agency. ​Today's guest investor: Ihar Mahaniok, Managing Partner at Geek Ventures.The Feedback Loop is all about getting ambitious founders on stage to pitch and get unfiltered feedback from experienced, honest investors.Because the thing that can hold even the best founders back from reaching their ambition? Their pitch. Whether a startup founder is raising money, recruiting a team, or selling their product, it's the pitch at the start of any given conversation that starts them on a journey to success.For those founders on stage and in the audience, it's an answer to the essential query: how to pitch your startup.More on our guest investor for the episode:​Ihar Mahaniok is Managing Partner at Geek Ventures, which he founded in 2021 to support immigrant entrepreneurs building at the pre-seed and seed stage. He’s made more than 200+ investments over the past decade, and has invested early in companies like Instacart, People.ai, Chainalysis, PandaDoc, and Airbyte, to name a few.Before becoming a full time investor, Ihar was a software engineer at Google for 8 years, where he worked on AI solutions for Maps, Ads, Offers, Search, and the Play Store. He went on to become an engineering leader at Facebook, WeWork, and Grid AI. In other words, he brings a technical leader’s POV to the world of early stage investing.Follow Sherveen: https://x.com/SherveenFollow Ihar: https://x.com/mahaniokTo attend The Feedback Loop in-person or apply to pitch as a founder, head to afterfeedback.com.Thank you to all of the brave founders who participated in this episode. The Feedback Loop is dedicated to creating an engine of support for startup founders attempting to change the way the earth spins. We're on your side.Why to watch this episode: learn how to pitch your startup while avoiding the tarpit, talk like a technical founder even to non-technical investors, understand what catches an investor's eye and what raises red flags, bring up your past experience in ways that generate FOMO, and hear firsthand from investors who are funding the future. Share with your favorite startup and entrepreneur friends!

On Episode 037 of The Feedback Loop, we hear from founders building in: support platform for people in crisis, SEO for LLMs, and an AI-driven workflow for product compliance.Timestamps:00:00 Hello!06:59 Support platform for people in crisis (Samaritan)12:16 AI-generated meditation (Exhale AI)21:49 SEO for Large Language Models (Pearls of Wisdom)39:18 AI-driven workflow platform for product complianceAs always, hosted by Sherveen Mashayekhi, Founder & CEO of Free Agency. ​Today's guest investor, Ihar Mahaniok, Managing Partner at Geek Ventures.The Feedback Loop is all about getting ambitious founders on stage to pitch and get unfiltered feedback from experienced, honest investors.Because the thing that can hold even the best founders back from reaching their ambition? Their pitch. Whether a startup founder is raising money, recruiting a team, or selling their product, it's the pitch at the start of any given conversation that starts them on a journey to success.For those founders on stage and in the audience, it's an answer to the essential query: how to pitch your startup.More on our guest investor for the episode:​Ihar Mahaniok is Managing Partner at Geek Ventures, which he founded in 2021 to support immigrant entrepreneurs building at the pre-seed and seed stage. He’s made more than 200+ investments over the past decade, and has invested early in companies like Instacart, People.ai, Chainalysis, PandaDoc, and Airbyte, to name a few.Before becoming a full time investor, Ihar was a software engineer at Google for 8 years, where he worked on AI solutions for Maps, Ads, Offers, Search, and the Play Store. He went on to become an engineering leader at Facebook, WeWork, and Grid AI. In other words, he brings a technical leader’s POV to the world of early stage investing.Follow Sherveen: https://x.com/SherveenFollow Ihar: https://x.com/mahaniokTo attend The Feedback Loop in-person or apply to pitch as a founder, head to afterfeedback.com.Thank you to all of the brave founders who participated in this episode. The Feedback Loop is dedicated to creating an engine of support for startup founders attempting to change the way the earth spins. We're on your side.

On Episode 036 of The Feedback Loop, we hear from founders building in: industrial automation, AI for meditation, and end-to-end encrypted AI!As always, hosted by Sherveen Mashayekhi, Founder & CEO of Free Agency. ​Today's guest investor, returning to the show for the fourth time, was Mike Ma of Sidecut Ventures.The Feedback Loop is all about getting ambitious founders on stage to pitch and get unfiltered feedback from experienced, honest investors.Because the thing that can hold even the best founders back from reaching their ambition? Their pitch. Whether a startup founder is raising money, recruiting a team, or selling their product, it's the pitch at the start of any given conversation that starts them on a journey to success.For those founders on stage and in the audience, it's an answer to the essential query: how to pitch your startup.More on our guest investor for the episode:​​Mike is a tech CMO turned venture investor — he runs Sidecut Ventures, backing mission-driven pre-seed founders, and is an Operating Partner at Sway Ventures. He was previously MD at Nex Cubed, a pre-seed accelerator for underrepresented founders. In other words, he knows startup storytelling!Follow Sherveen: https://x.com/SherveenFollow Mike: https://www.instagram.com/michaelwmaTo attend The Feedback Loop in-person or apply to pitch as a founder, head to afterfeedback.com.Thank you to all of the brave founders who participated in this episode. The Feedback Loop is dedicated to creating an engine of support for startup founders attempting to change the way the earth spins. We're on your side.

Ready for Episode 035 of The Feedback Loop!?Three startup founders get up on stage to talk about: an AI toolkit for marketing operations, a clinician-enabled at-home fertility testing kit for men, and an AI-enabled knowledge management system for the enterprise.Timestamps:00:00 - Welcome and intros02:42 - AI for marketing ops (Waxwing AI)18:54 - Male fertility (Hera Fertility)34:32 - AI for knowledge management (LEAD)As always, hosted by Sherveen Mashayekhi, Founder & CEO of Free Agency. ​Today's guest investor, returning to the show for the fourth time, was Mike Ma of Sidecut Ventures.The Feedback Loop is all about getting ambitious founders on stage to pitch and get unfiltered feedback from experienced, honest investors.Because the thing that can hold even the best founders back from reaching their ambition? Their pitch. Whether a startup founder is raising money, recruiting a team, or selling their product, it's the pitch at the start of any given conversation that starts them on a journey to success.For those founders on stage and in the audience, it's an answer to the essential query: how to pitch your startup.More on our guest investor for the episode:​​Mike is a tech CMO turned venture investor — he runs Sidecut Ventures, backing mission-driven pre-seed founders, and is an Operating Partner at Sway Ventures. He was previously MD at Nex Cubed, a pre-seed accelerator for underrepresented founders. In other words, he knows startup storytelling!Follow Sherveen: https://x.com/SherveenFollow Mike: https://www.instagram.com/michaelwmaTo attend The Feedback Loop in-person or apply to pitch as a founder, head to afterfeedback.com.Thank you to all of the brave founders who participated in this episode. The Feedback Loop is dedicated to creating an engine of support for startup founders attempting to change the way the earth spins. We're on your side.