The Feedback Loop

Welcome to the ultimate startup stage, where early founders step into the hot seat and present their big ideas – from revolutionary space manufacturing infrastructure to next-gen property management SaaS. And after they've had their minute to pitch, they get feedback from two check-writing investors – feedback to help them push forward, telling a better story as they continue to raise money, hire teammates, and sell their product.This is Episode 045 of The Feedback Loop.In this episode:- how to craft a crisp, memorable startup pitch that resonates with venture capitalists, even when you're still in the problem maze- telling a tellable story: how to pitch in a way that enables an investor to tell their friends about your tech company- the distraction of too many good ideas versus the value of a niche ICP when you're building a tarpit startupBe 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. He's a many-time startup founder, angel investor, and LP in multiple venture capital funds.​Today's guest investor is Marty Ringlein. On the venture capital side, he's a GP at Adventure Fund, which has invested in early to growth stage companies like Figma, Chime, Plaid, SpaceX, Beehiiv, and SwagUp, to name a few. As a founder, Marty has started and served as CEO at three startups acquired by Twitter, WPP, and Eventbrite, respectively.Now, he's on his latest upstart journey as Co-founder & CEO of Agree.com, an e-signature and payments platform. In other words, the man knows both how to recognize and craft an excellent startup pitch. There are few resumes in tech as dense as this one.Follow Sherveen on X: https://www.x.com/sherveenFollow Sherveen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherveenmFollow Marty on X: https://www.x.com/martymadridTo 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.Startup founders – get inside the mind of top investors as they pinpoint weak spots, highlight opportunities for narrative, and shape early-stage ramblings into venture-ready narratives. You need a one-liner that resonates, you need to shape your TAM, and you need to pivot on the fly. Subscribe to the channel to get more essential feedback to feed your early stage journey.Spacetech, hardtech, reusable space vehicles, Varda Space, smart CRM, selfies, networking apps, property management SaaS, proptech, investor feedback, venture capital philosophy, early stage founder journeys, startup stories, and so much more.

Watch three ambitious AI startup founders pitch their visions for the future to two venture capitalists in the latest episode of The Feedback Loop! From AI-powered academic research analysis to an artificial intelligence real estate agent with a human name, these founders are pushing the boundaries of what's possible with applied AI.On Episode 044 of The Feedback Loop, you'll hear..- investors challenge a founder's vision of replacing real estate agents, and it gets... heated- about an AI research tool that faces tough questions about differentiation from foundational LLMs- a restaurant owner's inspiration to change how he and his peers support their customers' dietsAs always, hosted by Sherveen Mashayekhi, Founder & CEO of Free Agency. ​Today's guest investor, Anna Garcia, Founder and Managing Partner at Altari 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.UNRELATED/RELATEDIn a job search in tech? You've seen Sherveen on stage giving startup founders feedback on The Feedback Loop, having deep dive tech and foundership conversations on Three Course Founders, and talking about the latest in business and society on The Sherveen Show.But he's also the founder/CEO of Free Agency and, since 2019, has helped hundreds of candidates in tech win over $400M in offers – he knows job search, and now you can learn it from him, too. For those in an active search (or who will be in the next 6 months), Breakthrough Job Search is a cohort-based course for tech industry professionals looking for an edge in this historically challenging job market. Enroll: https://www.freeagency.com/breakthroughMore on our guest investor for the episode:Anna Garcia is a long-time financial services director turned venture capitalist. She is the Founder and Managing Partner at Altari Ventures, which invests in enterprise fintech. She was previously GP at Runway Venture Partners, focused on Series A investments. She has been an angel investor and advisor in the NYC tech ecosystem since 2013, advising accelerators like ERA and Barclays/Techstars along the way. Prior to her time in the tech startup space, she served in senior positions at JP Morgan, Jefferies, and Merrill Lynch.Follow Sherveen on X: https://www.x.com/sherveenFollow Sherveen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherveenmFollow Anna: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annagarciavcTo 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.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.Disclaimer: The Feedback Loop is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing within is investment advice.

What makes a great startup pitch? It's complicated! It depends on your stage, your market, and the main obstacle in your way – sometimes, you need to answer "why does this matter at all," and other times, that's obvious, & so the question becomes "but how will you win?"So much of it is context and pattern matching – which is why it's exciting to have 3 early stage founders pitching today on Episode 043 of The Feedback Loop!Each founder gets ONE MINUTE to pitch their tech startup and vision of the future. Then, they'll get questions and feedback from two venture capitalists – investors who know founders, startups, pitches, and patterns like the back of their hands.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, Anna Garcia, Founder and Managing Partner at Altari 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:Anna Garcia is a long-time financial services director turned venture capitalist. She is the Founder and Managing Partner at Altari Ventures, which invests in enterprise fintech. She was previously GP at Runway Venture Partners, focused on Series A investments. She has been an angel investor and advisor in the NYC tech ecosystem since 2013, advising accelerators like ERA and Barclays/Techstars along the way. Prior to her time in the tech startup space, she served in senior positions at JP Morgan, Jefferies, and Merrill Lynch.Follow Sherveen on X: https://www.x.com/sherveenFollow Sherveen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherveenmFollow Anna: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annagarciavcTo 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.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.

Startups at their earliest stage are still figuring things out -- their pitch, their go-to-market, their monetization, their landing page copy... Underrated as part of that journey is getting as much feedback and data as possible, which is why it's exciting to have 3 very early stage founders pitching today here on Episode 042 of The Feedback Loop.They'll each have 1 minute to tell us about their concept, and then they'll get questions and feedback from two venture capitalists -- two investors who understand startups at a more fundamental level. And it all happens with the goal of helping move these founders forward in their storytelling journey -- or, in this case, even to jam on what their product could be!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, Rachel ten Brink, co-founder and General Partner at Red Bike Capital.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:​Rachel ten Brink is the co-founder and General Partner of Red Bike Capital, an early-stage venture fund based in NYC focused on fintech, SaaS, and digital health. She was previously co-founder and CMO/CRO at Scentbird, a YC-backed startup offering consumer subscriptions for fragrances – they’ve raised $29M, and during Rachel’s tenure, she led the growth and partnership teams responsible for scaling the company to $100M+ in revenue and over 84 enterprise clients.​Prior to being a founder, she spent 15 years building billion dollar brands at Procter & Gamble, L’Oreal, Estee Lauder, Elizabeth Arden, and Bacardi. She holds an MBA from Columbia. In other words, she’s bringing an exciting mix of entrepreneurship, go to market and growth, plus big-brand marketing experience to the table.Follow Sherveen on X: https://www.x.com/sherveenFollow Sherveen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherveenmFollow Rachel: https://x.com/rtenbrink1To 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.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.

Joining the tank this week: Rachel ten Brink is a venture investor and GP at Red Bike Capital. She was previously co-founder and CMO/CRO at Scentbird, a YC-backed startup where she led growth during the company's scale to $150M+ in revenue. So, how does a founder turned startup investor think about evaluating early stage founders and pitches?Find out on Episode 041 of The Feedback Loop! 3 startup founders pitch 2 experienced investors.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 concepts in immigration assistance, AI-driven employee coaching, and a modular CRM.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, Rachel ten Brink, co-founder and General Partner at Red Bike Capital.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:​Rachel ten Brink is the co-founder and General Partner of Red Bike Capital, an early-stage venture fund based in NYC focused on fintech, SaaS, and digital health. She was previously co-founder and CMO/CRO at Scentbird, a YC-backed startup offering consumer subscriptions for fragrances – they’ve raised $29M, and during Rachel’s tenure, she led the growth and partnership teams responsible for scaling the company to $100M+ in revenue and over 84 enterprise clients.Follow Sherveen: https://x.com/SherveenFollow Rachel: https://x.com/rtenbrink1​Prior to being a founder, she spent 15 years building billion dollar brands at Procter & Gamble, L’Oreal, Estee Lauder, Elizabeth Arden, and Bacardi. She holds an MBA from Columbia. In other words, she’s bringing an exciting mix of entrepreneurship, go to market and growth, plus big-brand marketing experience to the table.To 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.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.

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!