The Feedback Loop

Welcome back to The Feedback Loop, where we feature bold founders pitching their startup ideas to real venture investors – live, candid, and unfiltered. In Episode 053, we’re joined by guest investor Leeor Mushin of Formation, a pre-seed and seed stage venture fund laser-focused on helping founders from the earliest phases of company building. Each founder has one minute to pitch. Then, they recei...

AI for RFP Automation? Local language models for SaaS? Corporate sustainability and B Corp certification? We’ve got all that — and more... Welcome to Episode 052 of The Feedback Loop — where early-stage founders get direct, no-nonsense feedback from real venture investors! In this episode, two founders step into the hot seat to pitch their big ideas: one is building local language models to automa...

Welcome back to the ultimate startup stage — where ambitious founders pitch their bold visions and receive unfiltered, transformative feedback from real venture investors. In Episode 051 of The Feedback Loop, we dive into two radically technical yet incredibly compelling pitches that push the boundaries of what’s possible in AI-driven engineering and SaaS innovation. Each founder has just one minu...

Welcome back to the ultimate startup stage, where early-stage founders score direct, constructive feedback from real venture investors. In this episode, we've got AI-driven short-form video creation and a platform to catch early signs of dementia, all in the spotlight. Each founder gets one minute to pitch. Then, they hear how they can refine their story to fuel fundraising, hiring, and product gr...

2 founders step into the spotlight to pitch solutions for wildly different industries – then get raw feedback from an expert investor. Welcome to Episode 049 of The Feedback Loop! Every week, early-stage founders step into the hot seat to present their big ideas – from AI-powered order management for restaurant suppliers to cutting-edge blockchain security solutions. After their minute to pitch, t...

2 startup founders have 1 minute to pitch! Then, they get feedback – from an expert investor who is a venture-backed founder himself. Welcome to Episode 048 of The Feedback Loop! Every week, early stage founders step into the hot seat to present their big ideas – from AI-powered tools, consumer social apps, new approaches to community, all the way to space tech and hardtech. After their minute to...

3 startup founders have 1 minute to pitch! Then, they get feedback – from an expert investor who is a venture-backed founder himself. Welcome to Episode 047 of The Feedback Loop! Every week, early stage founders step into the hot seat to present their big ideas – from AI-powered accessibility tools to revolutionary laundry marketplaces. After their minute to pitch, they get candid feedback from Sh...

Welcome to the ultimate startup stage, where early stage founders get discrete and constructive feedback from real venture investors. And today, we'll hear ideas across AI, developer tools, and neurodiversity edtech. Each founder gets one to pitch. Then, they get feedback from two venture capitalists – feedback to help them push forward, telling a better story as they continue to raise money, hire...

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...

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 c...

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 E...

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...

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...

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 st...

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 skinca...

3 ambitious startup founders take the stage to pitch their concepts to two venture capitalists! On Episode 038, 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 c...

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 c...

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...

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 intros 02:42 - AI for marketing ops (Waxwing AI) 18:54 - Male fertility (Hera Fertility) 34:32 - AI for...

It's time for Episode 034 of The Feedback Loop! And this one gets intense. We go from talking about a fintech platform focused on retail loyalty programs to predictive AI for medical billing to the concept of investing in high-value influencers... all the way to a debate about whether our phones listen to us or 2020 had puppeteers behind it. Timestamps: 00:00 - Welcome and intros 01:55 - Rewards a...

It's time for Episode 033 of The Feedback Loop! We hear from founders building: an AI copilot for product managers, an AI platform for wealth management firms, Duolingo for entrepreneurs, and an AI-enabled construction project management platform. As always, hosted by Sherveen Mashayekhi, Founder & CEO of Free Agency. ​Today's guest investor is Lainy Painter Singh, Partner at Craft Ventures. T...

On Episode 032 of The Feedback Loop! We hear from founders building: a marketplace for market research, a new way for you to get your veggies every day, a platform for Internet radio and micro-communities, and a zero-waste, non-toxic cleaning products brand. As always, hosted by Sherveen Mashayekhi, Founder & CEO of Free Agency. ​Today's guest investor is Nika Duan, Partner at Inflect Capital....

On Episode 031 of The Feedback Loop! We hear from founders building: a social workout app, a medical supply chain SaaS company, a private credit marketplace, and an Augmented Reality art + furniture marketplace. As always, hosted by Sherveen Mashayekhi, Founder & CEO of Free Agency. ​Today's guest investor is Nika Duan, Partner at Inflect Capital. The Feedback Loop is all about getting ambitio...

On Episode 030 of The Feedback Loop! We hear from founders building: AI-driven enterprise marketing for impact, a wearable for tracking your stress and emotions, an AI-driven platform for business intelligence insights, and a marketplace for college admissions mentorship and guidance. As always, hosted by Sherveen Mashayekhi, Founder & CEO of Free Agency. ​Today's guest investor is Jesse Middl...

On Episode 029 of The Feedback Loop! We hear from founders building: an AI-driven API platform, an AI copilot for product marketing managers, and a package delivery protection product. As always, hosted by Sherveen Mashayekhi, Founder & CEO of Free Agency. ​Today's guest investor is Jesse Middleton, General Partner at Flybridge. More on Jesse below. The Feedback Loop is all about getting ambit...