- 3 months ago
Watch entrepreneurs battle for massive investments from three powerhouse judges: Kim Perell (CEO of 100.co), ex-NFL star Dhani Jones, and PR mogul Jon Bier.
Impress them in 60 seconds — or the doors close on your dreams.
This episode delivers shocking rejections, instant YES deals, and the exact pitch strategies that win over investors. Whether you're building your own business or just love high-stakes drama, you'll learn what separates winners from losers when millions are at stake.
Impress them in 60 seconds — or the doors close on your dreams.
This episode delivers shocking rejections, instant YES deals, and the exact pitch strategies that win over investors. Whether you're building your own business or just love high-stakes drama, you'll learn what separates winners from losers when millions are at stake.
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NewsTranscript
00:00going up at the top floor three Titans of industry are searching for the next
00:12big idea that can rise above the rest today's the day to join our mission this
00:18year our goal is a million but in this building every second counts 60 seconds
00:24if she had 75 she'd be up here right this is entrepreneur elevator pitch presented by
00:35Amazon Business tonight in the boardroom Kim Perel CEO of 100.co Dahani Jones a former NFL
00:46player and serial entrepreneur John Beer founder of Jack Taylor PR and serial
00:53entrepreneur oh my gosh a new day I'm gonna take all your deals today Dahani look I am
00:59ready don't let the glasses fool you okay I'm a tooth chipper okay I'm coming I'm
01:03taking these deals
01:07first up an entrepreneur aiming to make lunchtime legendary with their twists on
01:14a timeless combo my name is Adrian Silver Smith and I'm the founder of Sprelly we
01:20produce a line of gourmet nut butter spreads and jellies that are designed to mix
01:23match and multiply into endless flavor pairings that elevate your peanut
01:28butter and jelly experience I had an entrepreneur contest to come and pitch
01:32your idea on stage which gave me enough validation to go you know what I should
01:36try to monetize this thing enough people like this let's see what I can do
01:39right now it's just me I'm a solopreneur I'm known as the peanut butter guy
01:43around town which is awesome but I've had this grand vision to really spread the
01:47Sprelly love around the entire country hello Adrian welcome to the elevator
01:56going up your pitch begins in three two one the peanut butter and jelly a comfort
02:04food enjoyed by millions every single day but here's the thing it really hasn't
02:10changed much since 1901 and it's always creamy versus crunchy or strawberry versus grape so
02:16while you've enjoyed it have you ever truly experienced peanut butter and jelly I'm about
02:21to change everything you know about this classic comfort food introducing Sprelly the
02:27new way to PB&J Sprelly produces a line of gourmet nut butter spreads and jellies that
02:33are designed to mix match and multiply into endless flavor pairings that elevate your peanut butter and
02:40jelly experience my name is Adrian Silver Smith and I'm the founder of Sprelly I'm from Fredericksburg
02:46Virginia where I own and operate a gourmet peanut butter and jelly micro factory and retail storefront
02:51I'm here seeking three hundred thousand dollars for 15% of my business to help spread the Sprelly
02:58love into homes nationwide so who's ready to get nuts and join me on this journey I mean he had me at
03:06Sprelly over there peanut butter and jelly a new take on an iconic classic that no one was asking for but
03:14everybody's open to but this is peanut butter and jelly that's it we don't know I mean that's what it seems like
03:19it's Sprelly I want innovation in this category because it's so delicious already that I'm open
03:25to it I mean listen I thought his pitch was very dead on the only thing I missed out on is what's
03:31his current revenue he has a storefront and I think actually I was trying to figure out where I know him
03:37from he pitched at the entrepreneur level up event and he won his ticket to be on this show right
03:44now pitching us so he's already in line is that what you're saying I'm just saying the inside
03:49track is that what you're saying he's voted and he won the ticket here so a lot of people a lot
03:55of people want Sprelly a lot of people wanted Sprelly so do you want Sprelly do you want Sprelly
04:00maybe we should maybe we should vote y'all didn't ask if I wanted Sprelly well do you want Sprelly I'm
04:05going to vote attention Adrian your pitch has been approved everyone voted up yeah everybody did even
04:32you yeah even me feel like you were on the fence a little yeah you know I'm just I'm just thinking
04:36about how many things can you do with jelly how many things can you do with peanut butter I mean
04:40it's a sandwich wait then why'd you vote him up because you know maybe there's something there
04:45I'm allowed to change my mind yeah I get it there's but you're talking about an emotional reaction to the
04:51familiarity that you have with just peanut butter and jelly imagine what Sprelly can do you're right
04:56let's see him yes yes hello Adrian how are you I'm excellent how are y'all doing today doing really
05:07well we we hear very good things about you okay there's whispers down the down the lane here tell
05:13us a little bit about yourself I'm from Fredericksburg Virginia this whole thing got started kind of sort
05:18of by accident my wife and our two young daughters we were at a frozen yogurt shop and there they had a
05:23peanut butter flavored frozen yogurt so I just had my aha moment it was one of those I'm a very
05:28creative I'm very entrepreneurial it's like well instead of frozen yogurt why not have flavored
05:33peanut butters and flavored jams and you make a store out of it and then there should be like a
05:37chain of these stores because it doesn't exist it's not out there so I thought about the idea I went home
05:42that night I was like well what are you gonna call this thing what do you do with peanut butter you
05:45spread it and what do you spread it with you spread it with jelly Sprelly and I can have many spreads and
05:51many jellies put them all together fantastic by luck on a divine intervention I got fired for
05:56my long-term sales job one week after I had my idea so I had a real serious conversation with my wife
06:02and I said look I can get another job or I could choose to be happy and pursue this wouldn't be happy
06:08I wouldn't be happy having a job he's an entrepreneur man look happy right now he's doubling down I want to
06:17know about the double down it's a pretty awesome place to be I'm very grateful to be able to say
06:20that but you have a storefront right yes I do yes is that what you do all day that's what I do all
06:25day that's my full-time gig and I've been doing it for about 11 years now I'm feeling like I gotta
06:29try some okay awesome let's get some samples thank you it smells so good which one did you smell first I
06:37can smell all of it well I can just smell peanut butter and jelly these are our top selling flavors that we
06:43have some of the original flavors we've done since day one the white chocolate almond butter paired with
06:49the strawberry Prosecco jam okay so good so good so we have a core of seven pairings that we have most
07:05of them are up here but then we do seasonal stuff so good they work alone they work together they work
07:10outside of the sandwich yep you've kind of expanded the market to exist outside of the sandwich that's
07:16powerful I'm redefining how you think about the peanut butter and jelly how much revenue
07:19do you currently make on them so my lifetime sales are a million dollars all of this is me I'm a
07:25solopreneur so I'm the one coming up with the recipes I design the label I package it I go out and
07:31sell it in person events that we go to when you talk about in-person events are these like farmers markets and
07:37farmers markets like craft gathering church shows beer festivals how are you making a living currently
07:43from the store itself like that those that's not including the the sales from the store this is my
07:48full-time and I this is how I make a living and our annual revenue is about a hundred and fifteen
07:53thousand dollars from the store and the products together yeah online and everything yes where do you
07:58see the big opportunity here the goal or the idea is to have storefronts because if I said let's go get
08:05some coffee or hamburgers or pizza there are these individual food places that you can go to but
08:12there isn't any peanut butter and jelly stores out there so I envisioned this as a network of peanut
08:18butter and jelly micro factories that are also retail shops it seems to me that the team around you still
08:25needs to be formulated do you feel yourself as the chef so to speak the business leader so to speak the
08:32creative so to speak definitely the the creator I don't mind being on the other side of the camera
08:38talking about my product but how do we make more profit out of it because with profit you can hire
08:42more people first is I really need to lean into the social media aspect more I believe that I need a team
08:49or someone who can really take the reins on that side of it but then I want to offer an opportunity to
08:56the gig economy workers to those weekend warrior types the the ones that like to have a side hustle
09:01side income right now you could hire three individuals on the weekend that want to hustle and sell I mean
09:08there's people that want to do that have you tried hiring people to do that yet yeah and that's why my idea
09:13for the gig economy has happened because in these past 10 years that's what we did what's the margin on
09:19on a jelly or a peanut butter so the cost so depends on the you know what it is if it's jelly and the
09:26flavor but the cost ranges from $1.86 up to about $3.90 per jar and I'm retailing them online for $8.99
09:34oh wow so my my gross profit margin is about 64 percent you look very happy by the way you look
09:41much happier than I typically see entrepreneurs 10 years in making $100,000 a year gross
09:48which is a great thing but it is more of a passion right now than a than a business yeah
09:55Adrian I'm just gonna jump in and just decide I love your business I think that you have a good
10:05wholesome family niche company but for me you know this the size and the trajectory if you will
10:14where it can can go I think I'm gonna just frankly have to pass appreciate the time very much thanks
10:21for trying us out too I love the product it's so delicious and I would definitely be a consumer
10:28I just can't see how you're going to scale this and I don't know if 300,000 is going to get you to
10:33where you need to go I would really look how do I just drive this online as opposed to building more
10:37physical stores at this point because we haven't proven out that the physical store is even
10:41a viable model to scale it works for you because you're there but at scale the individual stores in
10:48each different market and then it's a lot of management it requires a lot of infrastructure
10:52does it work and is it profitable so unfortunately I'm going to pass
10:57I think you have a brand issue more than anything you already have a hub that's a vessel like I want
11:05you actually stuffed into the doughnuts at Dunkin Donuts and and on the menus at restaurants on the
11:11dessert like that's what brand in this space actually means and you're already there you just don't know
11:16how to do it I think I can help you with that okay I hear some positive feedback I love it like I really
11:25see the opportunity which flavor got you the almond butter the white chocolate at first and the mixed
11:29berry I will say this about the mixed berry it felt high quality
11:36I'm going to offer you uh fifty thousand dollars in brand and strategy and communications work
11:45and fifty thousand dollars in cash to help build this up
11:49sounds like we have a deal wait wait he didn't he didn't say that he liked the deal
11:54right he said he had a deal I'm new here
12:06heck yeah heck yeah the only thing is you kind of have to do exactly what I tell you but I will explain
12:15why there's usually a right answer I got no problem with that look at this match look at this match
12:19all right come on let's do it well done congratulations thank you thank you exciting thank you so much
12:27have a good day rally oh man I'm feeling fantastic this is incredible the first person I'm going to call
12:33will be my wife uh and just let her know that it went excellent and that we have a partner now and
12:38it's going to be pretty exciting you're locked in I'm locked in I'm excited about it because it's true
12:43this is not a business this is a passion project look how happy he is you're the perfect partner
12:47with your branding expertise Sprelly is going to be national and you can do that I think so I'm just
12:54hoping I get the new flavors
12:59Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch is presented by Amazon Business for every organization at every stage of
13:05growth our next entrepreneur is creating personal care products that nourish women and the planet
13:19hello my name is Marilyn Califano and I'm CEO and co-founder of Pempress Hygienics Pempress Hygienics is an
13:23organic sustainable period and personal care brand I think that the world deserves better products and
13:29I feel like I'm able to bring that forward I think I have the energy and the delusion to keep working so
13:37I'm excited about the future and about making a better world in general
13:43hello Marilyn welcome to the elevator
13:48going up your pitch begins in three
13:52three two one hello my name is Marilyn Califano and I'm CEO and co-founder of Pempress Hygienics
13:59an organic sustainable period and personal care brand held in over 700 stores nationwide
14:04I started Hempress in 2019 in college because I wanted to end period care pollution hemp had just
14:09been legalized and I realized it could revolutionize the industry because hemp absorbs up to two times
14:14more than cotton uses five times less water three times less land and is fully carbon negative
14:19all while being naturally antimicrobial reducing bacteria like staph which causes toxic stock
14:23syndrome we were the first company to commercialize hemp fiber non-wovens and worked with industry
14:27experts to file provisional patents on our tampons pads and liners and since then have developed 14
14:33SKUs seven of which are in market I'm here because I need help scaling I have one strategic investor
14:39who's also our manufacturer giving us unlimited production capacity and full control over our supply chain
14:44we need about 300k last year this year our goal is a million and I'm raising 500 000 for 8% equity
14:51Pempress isn't just a period care brand we are changing the product cycle
14:56oh what happened she was getting to the good part she got a lot of details in there but she went a
15:01little long what are you talking about that pitch was excellent that is a real addressable market that is
15:07an organic product they're getting it's a really tough market it's such a hard of course it's a tough market
15:12that's where the opportunity i don't know but it's it's so hard seconds she kept talking i don't know
15:17what happened 60 seconds if she had 75 she'd be up here right but she doesn't have 75 this elevator
15:22well for 15 seconds i think she said enough looks like she has traction in the market the question
15:28i would ask is what's the competition well it seems to me like there is no competition because
15:33the majority of people are utilizing cotton i don't think so i'm not necessarily the market demographic
15:38for it so we got to put it to a vote and then we can decide whether we'd like to welcome her into
15:44the room what's up all right let's vote
15:56attention marilyn your pitch has been
16:02i thought the pitch went well i had all the information i wanted to include stuttered a
16:13little bit at the end but um yeah i felt like it was strong are you upset that we didn't approve
16:19not particularly so then you just wanted to hear more information i would have liked to hear a little
16:24bit more because that market is growing and people are ready to hear about these things that they weren't
16:30even looking for i think the good news is is knowing that there are investors like you that are
16:36looking to invest in this type of product so you get told no but you got to keep going i think
16:43there's two men and one woman maybe they don't aren't passionate about period care um or hemp
16:49attention marilyn your presence has been requested back in the boardroom
16:53welcome in marilyn thank you kim and i didn't vote you up john did and i know that he had a couple
17:05of questions that he might want to ask and learn a little bit more about your business yeah thank you
17:11so much i really appreciate it i've been doing this for six years going on i started it in college
17:19as i mentioned and it's been a grind a lot of hurdles we were the first ever to commercialize
17:24hemp fiber i started by sourcing random hemp suppliers all over the world testing them in labs
17:30we're going through the first ever fda approval for hemp-based tampons right now so it's been
17:35a huge lever of love so women and the environment and everybody can take as much value out of what i'm
17:40building as possible incredible i like the branding a lot
17:43i like the category a lot i think it's growing
17:50i think you're going to be really successful
17:54so on behalf of amazon business we'd like to gift you ten thousand dollars cash to help propel
17:59and grow your business well thank you so much i appreciate it thank you for the opportunity come
18:03on give us a hug thank you congratulations thank you but another step in your journey thank you
18:09thank you i'm feeling ten thousand dollars better than i was a few minutes ago it was good to know
18:14john was a fan and everything so yeah it was nice thank you amazon business so much for the ten thousand
18:19dollars this is going to go so far for you know expanding my business and making my startup successful
18:25she's going to put that money to good use she seems to you know be taking all the steps she's
18:29impressive and i love her passion any business is a hard business we can never ever ever forget that
18:34all the grind will be worth it that's the dream right this will make her not break her yes
18:43success isn't about talent alone it's about showing up every single day i personally rely
18:48upon routines and prioritization and the most important thing consistency everyone wants to make
18:54sure you show up that's how you win
18:57next up in the elevator an entrepreneur who hopes to turn a new page for book lovers everywhere
19:10hi my name is kamani harrison and i'm the founder of the key bookstore i had a real life never-ending
19:16story experience so i went to a local bookstore and found this amazing book and i went looking on
19:23social media website and i eventually went back to that bookstore and it disappeared i was left with
19:30all these questions like who's this author where's their community what should i read next and who else
19:36has read this book and that planted the seeds for me to start developing the key bookstore platform for
19:42book lovers to stay immersed in reading culture storytelling is such a powerful technology it's one of
19:49the oldest technologies to ever exist and i want to see a more well-read world where we can connect
19:56over each other's stories for the betterment of humanity hello kamani welcome to the elevator
20:07going up your pitch begins in three two one hello investors my name is kamani harrison and i invite you
20:17to re-imagine the bookstore with me for book lovers the bookstore is the pinnacle of the book
20:21experience the bookstore is a hub for discovery community gathering and revelry in book culture
20:28until you go home feeling disconnected to continue your book journey in isolation i designed the key
20:34bookstore as an omnipresent evolution of the bookstore the key bookstore is more than your favorite place
20:39to buy books but creates a social networking club for book lovers in a tech infused ecosystem of reading
20:46culture by strategically operating as a lifestyle brand for reading culture we've generated nearly half
20:53a million dollars in sales in 10 countries today we're raising 250k to complete our social network
21:00mvp and scale our membership to a projected 3.5 million dollars today's the day to join our mission
21:07extra time she had some extra time
21:15that was a great pitch but i'm not sure is it a good pitch right it was it was a good pitch
21:20what is it is a social media network for a book club it's books are they actually selling books
21:26i thought that's what i heard no that's the key i don't know you're right fine i was a little bit
21:33you guys have no idea but the energy the energy was there the crispness from a communication
21:39perspective it was very good it sounded good well do you guys want to vote okay
21:55attention kamani your pitch has been
22:06approved
22:11welcome to the boardroom kamani thank you so much welcome in welcome welcome well i want you to know
22:18these two gentlemen voted to send you up and i didn't and it was because you had great communication
22:25but i couldn't actually understand if you're selling books or you're selling a social platform
22:30for books i missed that the key bookstore is actually a bookstore and social platform so we're
22:37developing a social network to connect book lovers to the technologies they're driving the
22:42largest niche communities on social platforms like book talk with over 370 billion views on content
22:49wait wait how many 370 billion views on book talk yes these are just like communities of people that
22:56just want to read books yes they want to read books they want to share books and they want to connect
23:01over books the thing about book talk is book talk is not built to scale reading culture the key bookstore
23:08is so i'd like to hand you all your books for us your books oh our books oh okay oh did you write a book
23:18children's book you wrote a children's book we didn't know that what's the book about heart-based
23:24meditations for kids love that and actually there is a tech enabled interaction with every single one
23:32of your books so so you do something with your your phone and some technology through the through the book
23:37yes is there a qr code or is there a chip that's built in and you can pass the phone click so you
23:46tap the phone on the key bookstore seal and it brings up the key bookstore platform this jacket same thing
23:53we can connect with each other through the fashion as well look we can buy your jacket
24:00it's an interesting way to to connect people but when we're in here we're thinking about how do we
24:06invest in a profitable growing opportunity in a business most importantly in the entrepreneur
24:10themselves so just give us some context to that the social community the social aspect has more
24:16profitability even more so than than the books themselves but we're going onto the platform to
24:21purchase the book yes you can not only buy books but you can expand your experience to community as
24:27well it's not just a social media but more of a social network and you've made half a million dollars so
24:32far four hundred thousand dollars four hundred thousand is that from book sales or so we have
24:36five streams of revenue we have e-commerce we have merchandise b2b services ebook and audiobook
24:44subscriptions as well as event-based sales in the digital platform it restores our membership value
24:51once again and then it adds the additional opportunity for the sale of digital products
24:58services and subscriptions how many users are on the platform right now ten thousand
25:05how much did you make last month made about four thousand last month so you're making about four
25:11thousand dollars in book sales sales okay yes and a couple of merchandise pieces but how do we scale
25:18this that that's what makes this building it as a technology platform more scalable than a storefront
25:26or a mobile bookstore business or anything like that the ecosystem this would be a great place to
25:32sell to authors to host book clubs on ad leaders authors educators influencers and book club institutions so
25:41that schools libraries corporations we've started those relationships and to scale them the technology
25:50will do all those things so the market the economy is insane i understand why i would buy merchandise
25:56say that if it was featuring books that i felt really reached me but why would i buy your merchandise
26:03even though it is not just pretty good you see the back it is excellent the attention to detail there is
26:09stellar but why would i buy that not only for fashionable reasons but like i said this is also tech
26:15enabled so you can co-brand with the key bookstore so you have books to sell and you have other things
26:23connected to your brand to sell so when you're networking with people and they're like yo that jacket
26:30is dope you're like oh yeah connect to me and my brand through my jacket and it blows their minds
26:36got it really cool i love books and i think what you have developed is very unique
26:42but i still want to see more traction in order to really understand if there's a viable there there
26:52so unfortunately i'm going to pass
26:56i love the books i think about you know how many people probably thought that a lot of people in the
27:02bookstore business were crazy when they first started off and there's a lot of examples of success
27:07along the way um and i'm sure you're going to be successful for me right now where you sit
27:14i'm going to have to pass you have a very clear vision and this is a really strong presentation i
27:21think you do a really good job of taking what makes local bookstores great and the community element and
27:27actually bringing that which is you know a real dying industry and that's why they're they're so special
27:33i don't know what exactly that looks like and you know where it goes from here uh so i am gonna pass
27:44but i also do believe in you you have a very clear vision here and passion and i do believe in you
27:51thanks thank you thank you all thank you thank you so much good luck good luck
27:56i was hoping for the investors to be a little more open-minded to a different type of platform i
28:05know the it's a bookstore it's it's hard to conceive i'm hoping in the future they'll see what this
28:11platform grows into people love books love books i mean people thought jeff bezos was crazy selling
28:18books online and then all of a sudden it just became one of the largest business we could regret this
28:23to see i know we could we could i'm still thinking i'm still thinking about the 300 billion people
28:27on book talk there's definitely something there it's just there's a lot of there's a lot of unknowns for
28:34me also
28:38it was another banner day of deals as adrian from sprelly secured a high-flying deal with john
28:45and maryland from hemp press hygienics was awarded a 10 000 prize courtesy of amazon business however
28:55while kumani from key bookstore made it into the boardroom she wasn't able to close the deal and
29:01return to the elevator empty-handed tune in next week as entrepreneur elevator pitch continues that's
29:10insulting we're investors we're here to make money and to apply for the next season
29:16go to entrepreneur.com elevator pitch
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