- 12 hours ago
On the latest episode of Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch, three entrepreneurs ride the elevator with one shot to pitch their big idea to Kim Perell, Jonathan Hung, and Laura Chau. The elevator might be short—but the stakes couldn’t be higher.
In this episode, investors don’t hold back. Kim calls out imperfect pitches, Laura pushes founders to focus on fundamentals instead of vanity metrics, and Jonathan demands real growth before he’s ready to commit. The result? Candid feedback every founder can learn from.
If you’ve ever wondered what actually captures an investor’s attention—or quietly kills a deal—this is must-watch TV.
In this episode, investors don’t hold back. Kim calls out imperfect pitches, Laura pushes founders to focus on fundamentals instead of vanity metrics, and Jonathan demands real growth before he’s ready to commit. The result? Candid feedback every founder can learn from.
If you’ve ever wondered what actually captures an investor’s attention—or quietly kills a deal—this is must-watch TV.
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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 is is remained to but in this building
00:21every second counts right on time looking for some actual cash very limited
00:27information on the product this is entrepreneur elevator pitch presented by
00:35Amazon Business tonight in the boardroom Kim Perel CEO of 100.co Laura Cho of
00:46Canaan Partners Venture Capital Jonathan Hung prominent venture capitalist and
00:53angel investor absolutely are you ready always it's a new day to make deals to
01:00meet entrepreneurs checkbooks let's go I brought my checkbook I'm ready I'm always
01:04ready Johnson first up an entrepreneur hoping to put brunch in a can and a buzz
01:13in your hand hello my name is Mike Rantisi I'm the co-founder of Mimosa Royale the
01:20California winery Mimosa Royale is the world's first ready to drink Mimosa and
01:24we are the most awarded flavored wine in the world we were in Las Vegas at the
01:28level of convention a couple weeks ago and all of a sudden I won it was
01:32astonishing a short time so we had everything quickly to plan to get here
01:35so not too many people know I'm here honestly it's it's all really for the
01:38family I'm a first-generation immigrant as well the story the same story you hear
01:43from other people come here with nothing and we build something so it's for my dad
01:48my mom and kids hello Mike welcome to the elevator going up your pitch begins in
02:01three two one mimosas everybody loves them no one likes to make them Mimosa
02:08Royale is a licensed California winery that makes the world's first ready drink
02:12Mimosa and the most awarded flavored wine in the world no other winery has won as
02:16many awards as Mimosa Royale our secret is our proprietary blended wine that we
02:21make in Napa we blend it with a little bit of juice and a little bit of
02:24carbonation no artificial colors no artificial flavors no sugar added gluten
02:29free and nine percent ABV we are also the only RTD company to be certified woman
02:36owned and certified kosher Mimosa Royale in the last three years has had 10x growth
02:42ranging from 500 gallons per production to 10,000 gallons of production we're in
02:47over 500 liquor stores and we just launched with total wine and more Mimosa
02:52Royale is is made to Mimosa Royale is gluten free kosher
03:02what happened man he's talking too much about product and yes no he's talking to
03:13investors like you gotta ask what you're asking for he started so strong and he
03:17demonstrated the retail reach the growth I didn't hear revenue numbers he has but
03:23there's growth but at the end he just fell apart but you know he looks so
03:27familiar to me where did we see him entrepreneur level up yes he won
03:32entrepreneurs level up event which was a vote by all of the attendees so to now
03:37he's looking for some actual cash so he won that event but today it seems like
03:4260 seconds that's all you get you know what's also interesting is that he said
03:46he's women owned but he's a guy I feel like there's a lot about the pitch that
03:50didn't make it into what we heard no but I do like a good Mimosa so do you guys
03:55think we should vote let's do attention Mike your pitch has been
04:16approved yes oh my gosh that was close
04:22Mike welcome that was hard you know as perfect as you can make that 60 seconds
04:28once you have to do it I mean listen I have to tell you it's called elevator
04:31pitch and your pitch was not perfect I messed up at the end I'm so sorry we
04:36were intrigued and we remember you from entrepreneur level up event well now that
04:40you're here we want to hear more we want to hear about your sales
04:43specifically and you said you're a women-owned company but I don't see any
04:46women yes we are certified women-owned my wife is the CEO Roxanne is the CMO
04:52DD is the CFO wait so what are you I'm the co-founder okay like we gotta try it
04:59let's try it that's a great idea so I have orange berry watermelon and mango from
05:05this one as well for you thank you everyone knows what an orange mimosa
05:15tastes like yeah so let's start with that and then we could compare and
05:19contrast with what you guys are currently drinking or making it okay
05:24cheers cheers season 13 here we go 13 so yes we make it like I said with just
05:31juice wine and a little bit of carbonation we don't add any flavorings we
05:35don't add any artificial coloring with us it's clean it's natural you could drink
05:39it all day long not to any ill fillings other than alcohol levels it says
05:43world's most awarded wine but I want to invest in the most sold wine what's going
05:48on with the sales that's what I need you guys for wait wait wait but how much
05:51have you sold already okay so our first year we sold a hundred and ten
05:56thousand dollars worth of sales our second year we went to a hundred and
06:00ninety thousand our third year we went to two hundred and fifty thousand our
06:04fourth year we had a production problem I understand production issues but what's
06:08been keeping you from growing faster in the other years I would say
06:12distribution everyone bombarded the distributors all at the same time
06:16during kovid so distributors were very hesitant to bring in new flavors new
06:19products so we had a hard time finding distribution even though we were getting
06:23the retailers it's interesting because do you think the sales are reflected of
06:28market conditions where people are actually drinking less alcohol the two
06:32trends that are raising in the alcohol business is non-alcoholics and RTDs
06:36specifically premium RTDs every other aspect of the alcohol business is on a
06:42decline but we are on the uptrend and what's your cost our cost to make these is
06:47about a dollar 20 and they're retailing for three dollars and 99 cents to four
06:52dollars and 99 cents everyone's making 35 to 40 percent profit margins from
06:56supplier to wholesaler to retailer can we see the can absolutely grab you guys a
07:01bunch of different cans watermelons great let's try the mango watermelons are
07:05newest flavor this is the mango berry watermelon it tastes great I mean the
07:12fact that a half a bottle of wines in this can it's a little scary to be honest I
07:17don't know if I can drink a whole run what are you looking for from us money
07:21wise I'm looking for 500,000 out of 10 million dollar pre money valuation what I
07:25need is someone that has the connections to take this to the national level
07:29regional national worldwide level that already has a system in place that we can
07:35just plug and play I built the base as big and as strong as I can now it's time to
07:39build up and this is where I need your guys I like the RTD cans it's expensive
07:44though so my question in the valuation of 10 million worth only 200k in sales how
07:50did you come up with that obviously our our our market valuation or our market
07:55potential but I don't invest on potential right I'm investing on where you at
07:59today today I'm at 250,000 last year and then we had a little setback the year
08:04before this is what kind of brings us to that have you raised any money so far no this
08:08our first time raising any money but this like I said I feel like I did
08:11everything there's no other winery that has these metals there's no other
08:15winery that has the packaging the beautiful packaging we have skews six
08:20skews of cans two skews of bottles you're selling wine too so they're the exact
08:25same thing that's in the cans but it comes in a bottle form as well we started
08:30with the bottles okay we pivoted we realized the cans is a lot a lot more
08:35successful Jonathan you're a big investor to CPG and this category what's your
08:40thoughts alcohol is so hard and Mike I like you I really do but my problem is you
08:46don't have the sales I hear you but but I feel like being the product
08:51differentiation that we have the the just not being any competitors really right
08:55now this is Mimosa Royale everyone already knows what's in the can just
08:59from the name the packaging as soon as you walk through the shelf makes you buy
09:02it because there's so many colors and flavors this sells itself this will be
09:06worldwide I already been talking to Mexico I've already talked to Israel
09:10because we're coaster certified Israel wants to buy it
09:13I admire the hustle I need you guys that's the thing I need you sorry I let
09:21me see that let me see you grow next year okay true new growth with this can we
09:26can talk all right right now I have to pass
09:30Mike there's so much passion that you have this is a tough category I'm not
09:35surprised that you've won too many awards but I've seen a lot of companies that
09:39win awards because the product is really high quality but the issue is go to
09:43market how do you actually scale the business I think you've done a good job
09:46with growing profitably to get it out there but I haven't seen enough traction to
09:51demonstrate that you can really scale and given the fact that the ready-to-drink can
09:56has only been in the market for less than a year it's too early for me to be
10:00able to tell the trend behind that and so for that reason I'm gonna pass thank
10:04you very much I echo Laura's sentiment in terms of you being an incredible
10:09entrepreneur and obviously you're very passionate about what you're producing
10:13which really makes a difference I love the product but I feel at this point where
10:17you're at even our 500k if I was to invest isn't going to get you where you need to go
10:22you truly need a strategic investor that can help you in all aspects of the
10:27business and unfortunately I'm not that so I'm going to have to pass I appreciate even
10:32this opportunity to be here thank you so much thank you Mike thank you guys so
10:35much love Mike thank you oh I feel relieved that it's over but I'm
10:42disappointed I wasn't able to get a deal I practice that 60 second pitch
10:46perfectly for weeks and then when you're on there and it's just funny how you
10:50just lose your train of thought it's delicious it's just the sales aren't
10:53there you know and you have to have a little more touch I get it it does say
10:57Mimosa Royale great name it's a great name it's a great product us keeping that
11:02capital doesn't mean that we can unlock every one of those doors maybe there's
11:06something we could do though we got to continue doing what we're doing we got
11:09total wine to fulfill we're gonna be growing with them attention Mike that we
11:14your presence has been requested back in the boardroom who's mine
11:20Mike welcome back what happened we were really moved by the way in which you were
11:29fighting and the way in which you had a passion and so we had an idea yeah you
11:35know what Mike behalf of Amazon business we'd like to give you ten thousand
11:41dollars to help propel and grow your business oh my god it's amazing thank you
11:45guys so much let's toast you can always come back I will be coming back thank
11:59you guys thank you Amazon business I love his tenacity he's like I don't care it's
12:07gonna be a global brand like good for you Mike and he's profitable like you
12:10mentioned he's not losing money if he was losing money I would tell him to stop I
12:13think with this additional cash he has a chance to really make it something big
12:19entrepreneur elevator pitch is presented by Amazon business for every
12:25organization at every stage of growth
12:31next up in the elevator an entrepreneur who hopes to speak the investors
12:35language with their revolutionary learning app my name is Malcolm Lee and I am the
12:41CEO of Gab global we help people learn new languages in record time I built this
12:46business because I had questions in mind about how people think and how they
12:50learn and how we could speed up the learning process that became a part of who I am no
12:54matter where you come from what classrooms you've been a part of a new
12:57language is not far away from you
12:59hello Malcolm welcome to the elevator going up your pitch begins in three two one
13:12now investors I know you have no idea what I just said and that makes sense because 75% of the world
13:27population wants to learn a new language the current tools are failing us the
13:31number one language app on the market today has over 500 million users in one
13:34percent achieve any level of fluency in their target language that's a problem we
13:39solve a gap created by myself and a team of other neuroscientists from UCLA and
13:43Stanford where you come up with the most compelling impact way to learn a
13:47language our students interact a dynamic environment designed to accelerate their
13:50language learning capabilities and we work across all platforms to make
13:53accessibility and non-issue we're raising $500,000 to build up the full
13:57suite of VR experiences to bolster our revenue from 46k monthly recurring to over
14:02a million by next year so I started with a statement in French here's what I said
14:06I'm Malcolm Lee and I hope you help us bring the gift of gab to the world thank
14:11y'all for listening
14:14oh right on time yeah and energy he did I loved it and I didn't know what he was
14:20saying it was a good hook he mentioned their traction and the revenue what he
14:24is hoping to get to it was very limited information on the product I heard VR but
14:30that was it and how is it different from Duolingo yeah I mean also you have new
14:34hardware now or you could just have it translated right away but do we really
14:39need to learn another language I was a little unsure on where things were going and
14:44he said he's doing 46,000 a month and he's going to a million a month that's a
14:49pretty big jump that's pretty big jump yeah let's see let's vote let's vote
14:53attention Malcolm your pitch has been
15:09approved
15:14welcome Malcolm thank you all welcome thank you for having me tell us about your background what made you
15:23want to do this have you have questions in mind for so long they became a part of who you are
15:26how you think about the world what keeps me up at night is how you speed up learning for folks how
15:31do you help them exceed their ancestors wildest dreams with what they can teach themselves and
15:34after some negative experiences I went out to Paris France when I was pursuing my neuroscience PhD and
15:39um had a whole group of folks burst out laughing at me when I hopped up the plane at Charles
15:43de Gaulle Airport and at that point I was really focused on the problem of helping people to speed up their
15:47language learning education so they didn't get laughed at like yours truly wait they were laughing at you
15:51because you didn't speak the language oh they burst out laughing halfway through my monologue I was just
15:55terrible I was using apps like Duolingo and Rosetta Stone that didn't allow me to really practice without
16:00the pressure of the real world environment and they didn't teach me how to recall anything so the
16:04second someone said something a little bit quickly I got tongue-tied and didn't know what to say so how
16:09are you solving that because we have neuroscience backgrounds we can connect with your apple health
16:14we can connect with EEGs and we can see how you're feeling in real time our products can not only see what
16:19you're struggling but we can adapt lessons accordingly based on your strengths and weaknesses
16:24and interests learning a new language we also can put you in a VR headset it's able to hone in on your
16:29strengths and weaknesses while immersing is it only VR or is there an app component too 40 of our customers
16:35are using strictly the VR and those are the ones getting the most robust learning outcomes the other 60
16:41is using a web application that we've built and you said it connects to apple health you understand how
16:45I'm feeling why does that play into what you've built why is that important because they can
16:50understand your stress levels and then we can turn that into a sparkling cocktail of useful information
16:54for not just your linguistic acumen but also for how you're feeling and how many users do you have right
16:59now 5,507 well speak my language what money are you making what's the revenue model we're bringing in
17:0649 000 and monthly recurring right now and that's coming from schools the sales cycles are long but as of
17:13October 23rd we will be launching our b2c products in the metaquest store so a million dollars for the
17:19year a million dollars for a year and four million in 2027. can you see a demo absolutely so we've got
17:26a natural language processing tool if you're within five percent of the correct pronunciation it turns green
17:30you go into our escape room and you have conversations with anywhere between four and seven different
17:35avatars our pocket parent tutor there's like a native speaker in your pocket walking you through
17:40cultural nuances and we know how to celebrate with you we also give you content that's kind
17:44of like duolingo when it's gamified so we're not losing that flavor but we just want to make it more
17:49immersive so that it's more impactful for our users while keeping your data in places where it's useful to
17:53you so are all of those scenarios pre-programmed or preset or is it generating on the fly we're
17:59generating new information for users on the fly now one of the best machine learning engineers from
18:03meta to join my team he's able to look at where users are focusing their time and attention
18:08and give them content that stretches them by 20 percent and then keeps the rest of their 80 percent
18:12based on content that they haven't quite learned yet i'm just trying to bridge where you are today
18:17with how to get to the million bucks 250 of those customers are going to be the b2c guys
18:22but our waiting list for that is robust we've got 15 000 on their waiting list oh 15 000 and they
18:27will pay how much a month 9.99 pretty impressive so i guess the question is what do you need to get
18:34them off the waiting list and start paying well you're going b2c there are learners that want to
18:38be in a new relationship or they want to travel abroad for a while or they want to impress a business
18:44consultant or someone who they might want to do business with so we've got to hone in on the
18:48primary reasons why people want to learn these lessons and dynamically adjust the lessons to them
18:52i guess one of my concerns is that ai which is obviously the hot topic anywhere how do you compare
18:58and how do you compete we're working with ai and even our 3d characters have a generative ai component
19:05so that we can save thousands of dollars a month and building out new characters and content for
19:09users let's talk about your ask half a million for how much of the company and what are you gonna do
19:14with it 10 of the company oh and that is just to help us build out the full suite of vr experiences so
19:21we can dominate not only the independent schools market but the b2c market so it's not completely done
19:26yet the product march 2026 it'll be completely finished i believe that there's a lot of innovation
19:35that needs to happen within education and learning and i like that you have a scientific background
19:40and understand education really well there's so much happening within ai right now that's driving
19:46education driving content driving learning and i'm not really seeing the ways in which you're rapidly
19:52adjusting and keeping up with that and so for that reason i'm going to pass i understand understand
19:58i'm very impressed with you you're very passionate about what you're creating here i'd love to switch
20:03from dual and go to something else so once that product is ready then i would be more open to
20:10investing but for right now without any traction it's much harder to make that investment so unfortunately
20:16i'm going to pass thank you malcolm i love what you're doing i wish i had more of this growing up and
20:23i have a daughter now and she needs this kind of stuff but i just feel you're not there yet in terms
20:28of being investable the team is there i think the product the business has to be worked on a little bit
20:33more further and have a complete project ready to sell you would have to wait till next year and i want
20:38to make money now it's gonna have to be a no for me understood we don't have a deal for you today
20:44but we love your passion we love that you continue to pivot that you're pushing hard
20:49and hopefully we'll see you next year absolutely thank you all for listening keep going good luck
20:56bye guys it was a lot of fun i love sharing my business with folks i really think we have the
21:01opportunity to change a lot of lives with what we're doing they said some really cool things about
21:05us so yeah we'll just keep moving from there i wanted to get to the yes but i just it wasn't ready yet
21:11i can i don't even think i could learn a language right now he's on to something but i think the
21:15technical aspects aren't there there's a lot of competition but he's smart he's trying to find
21:21product market fit he has not found it yet right now he's still searching and
21:25going through the forest looking for it are you ready to see the next one i'm ready
21:29our next entrepreneur is bringing waste disposal out of the stone age with their biodegradable
21:40innovation my name is jack lakata from bernardsville new jersey and my business is bag ups the trash bag
21:48dispensing system one day on my free day i had actually work in the office and at the end of the
21:53day i had to change the trash and as a nuclear missile launch officer i looked for efficiency in
21:58everything i did it was just inefficient so i invented bag ups last year we gave over 19 873
22:05hours of work that didn't exist to homeless and disabled so the change we're trying to bring into
22:10the world is making a difference for that population and the other part is to try and end or make a dent
22:15in the plastic problem hello jack welcome to the elevator going up your pitch begins in three
22:28three two one as a captain in the air force and a nuclear missile launch officer i looked for
22:35efficiency in everything i did including changing the trash it just took too much time to solve that
22:41problem i invented bag ups which automatically realigns your can when you take out the full one
22:48think of a tissue box for your garbage can you'll never look for another garbage bag again
22:52we're 100 percent made in the usa by veterans and people with disabilities featuring biodegradable
23:00plastic we have four utility patents and we sell replacement rolls we're seeking 600 000 for 10
23:07equity to scale and launch a new plastic made from stone that significantly reduces co2 h2o and plastic
23:16usage bag ups is a quadruple win for the employees for the environment to the end users and for the
23:23investors that want to turn trash into cash so who wants to do some trash talking today
23:32nice very good pitch yeah i love him i loved his pitch except he didn't talk about the traction i don't
23:39know if he's actually selling any trash bags it sounds like a good idea oh my gosh i love the idea of a
23:44kleenex for a trash can i go through so much trash oh yeah i take out all those dirty diapers let me
23:50tell you a lot of trash yeah i was intrigued by the new technology that he was creating or something
23:55around kind of a new plastic made of rocks yeah i don't know the rock part is this a material science
24:01play or is this a branding play why don't we vote let's vote
24:04attention jack your pitch has been
24:24approved
24:28jack welcome to the board room great pitch jack thank you thank you jack
24:33jack we loved your energy but we had some questions on the traction the product so
24:38can you introduce it to us so let me show you how it works you're going to take this box
24:43drop it right down into your garbage can like you see there okay and then it's in the bottom of your
24:49garbage can when you change the bag you don't have to hunt for another bag it's right there you tear it
24:55off and now your garbage can automatically line we have 15 bags in here which is about a month's supply
25:01when you get to the very last bag the box pops out you don't put your hand in the can snap it off and
25:06then you refill it with our refill rolls it's so easy but so great are you selling a lot of these trash
25:15bags so we have a subscription model so we have 4 000 subscribers 32 000 customers and we've done over
25:212.5 million in sales so far can you say that again 2.5 million dollars worth so far this year we'll
25:29probably do about 600 000. and what did you do last year last year was about 541. what happened well we
25:35lost the state of california which is our biggest customer to date so the state of california does not
25:41recognize the astm standard that the rest of the world does for biodegradation wow is any other state
25:48going to have the same challenges uh well i don't know but we have another way around this so what we
25:57just developed is a new plastic that's made from stone that's what the stones are about so 33 percent
26:05of this bag is not plastic it's actually actually calcium carbonate and tell the difference between this
26:12and any regular plastic and will california let you sell this yes see now we don't have this issue
26:19with california i liked the eco-friendly aspect of this is this a proprietary formulation i have a
26:25contract with the people that make the raw materials but i'm the only one with the recipe so far that's
26:31formulated into plastic so far but is that proprietary to you do you have exclusivity on it i don't have
26:37exclusivity what's stopping sc johnson from doing this right now well there's really nothing stopping
26:42them but why not license them your idea i'd be more than happy to license them our idea but we haven't
26:49gotten to them and they haven't gotten to us so tell us about what you want to do with the 600 000. so
26:54we want to repackage to our website for biostone launch back again into california okay and we want
27:01to branch into the commercial market but do you need six hundred thousand dollars right now because it seems
27:06to me you can repackage quite easily get back into california make some additional capital and
27:12there's not a lot of cost in order to you know create a website well i don't want to have to go
27:16out for another race that's really why i want to do this once jack what's next year's revenue i'm
27:21projecting we'll do five million dollars next year next year yeah when we bring in the biostone and
27:25the commercial a big jump yeah look i'm a manufacturer i make a great product no one else makes i'm not a
27:32marketer kim we're three feet from gold okay okay with a little bit of your marketing expertise and
27:39dollars we're there
27:44i'll be honest i was a little skeptical coming in when you say five million next year it's a little
27:50bit hard for me to believe going from 600k today i like the system i would be a customer
27:57but i'm going to have to pass okay thank you
28:03all right i'll make you an offer okay can't give you the whole amount but i'll give you a hundred
28:08thousand for this if you could prove to me that your projections are somewhat even if you double and
28:16triple okay i'm happy i like you and i think you are probably three feet from gold but you need help
28:24help we do need help yeah so i i too would invest 100k at the current deal terms wow there's two equal
28:35offers this comes down to who you want to work with and you can't have both why not no
28:40so kim would you be able to offer us some of your ai and marketing expertise of course i would offer
28:53my marketing expertise i would invest because i would think i could move the needle for you
29:00well first and foremost it's not just about this check jack because you think a hundred thousand is
29:05going to get you the finish line absolutely not so what you get from me is not just hey
29:11entrepreneur media as your partner not just me as your partner but also the endless amounts of
29:17people i know i mean i know any amount of people this is ridiculous oh well let's see let's see
29:30okay kim
29:33you got a deal wow oh i'm so excited i can't wait to take this home yeah yes right yeah who changes the
29:40trash in your house well sometimes i do but i'm not gonna do it anymore no right thank you and thank
29:45you very hey jack it's okay thank you very much congratulations thank you thank you very much can
29:50i give you guys some backups to take off yeah of course of course i'm gonna give you that that's a 30
29:56gallon size wow make one for baby thank you not yet here you go kim thank you i've got a big dog
30:03actually so i'm gonna need these all right we'll see you all soon thank you excited jack you rock
30:09so happy that i got two offers and i'm glad that i'm working with kim now thank you jonathan i love
30:17jack come on oh you're just sad because you didn't get the deal wow he just came for you i don't even
30:22know was he quoting something trash is cash apparently trash is cash
30:28it was another top tier day of deals in the boardroom as jack from bag ups secured a high
30:39flying deal with kim and mike from mimosa royale was awarded a ten thousand dollar prize courtesy of
30:47amazon business tune in next week as entrepreneur elevator pitch continues i'll leave you two more
30:55seconds guys it would take a miracle for me to give him my money and to apply for the next season
31:01go to entrepreneur.com elevator pitch
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