- 6 minutes ago
Season 13 of Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch is cranking up the stakes again — and episode seven is an absolute must-watch. Founders have just 60 seconds in the elevator to win over powerhouse investors Kim Perell, Jonathan Hung and Laura Chau, and this episode delivers everything: emotional backstories, bold valuations and real-time drama as deals teeter on the edge.
Watch this new episode to see founders get grilled on valuation, market size and focus — and to pick up powerful, real-world pitching lessons you can use with any investor: Lead with clarity, always know your ask, defend your market and be ready to adapt in the room. The drama is real, the feedback is raw, and the insights are priceless — don't miss this episode of Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch.
Watch this new episode to see founders get grilled on valuation, market size and focus — and to pick up powerful, real-world pitching lessons you can use with any investor: Lead with clarity, always know your ask, defend your market and be ready to adapt in the room. The drama is real, the feedback is raw, and the insights are priceless — don't miss this episode of Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch.
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00:00one minute she almost hit it out of the park one chance to change your life only 50,000 excuse me
00:11unless you want to make an offer I'm gonna negotiate in this elevator your pitch means
00:15everything it would take a miracle for me to invest my money where brave entrepreneurs race
00:23the clock to win over three powerhouse investors but you could make 20 next year Jonathan the
00:29countdown starts now I don't see 20 this is entrepreneur elevator pitch presented by Amazon
00:39business tonight in the boardroom Kim Perel CEO of 100.co Jonathan Hung prominent venture capitalist
00:50and angel investor Laura Cho of Canaan Partners Venture Capital are you guys ready to make some
00:58money I'm ready to make some money taking your deals Jonathan it's game on I'm ready okay let's see
01:04first up an entrepreneur aiming to build a safer digital world with their user-friendly software
01:16hi I'm Kaylee Nietzsche I'm the founder and CEO of fuzzy fuzzy is an easy way to verify people are who
01:24they claim both online and in real life unfortunately I had a really terrible experience with online prod
01:30myself where I was completely scammed on a dating app I have a daughter her name is L and she's seven
01:38I'm a single mom so I want her to see that as a woman we can do hard things and that something bad
01:45happened to mommy and instead of you know crying under the covers I wanted to do something about it and I
01:50wanted to protect others hello Kaylee welcome to the elevator your pitch begins in three two one
02:06online scams are hitting everyone friends family even professional athletes investors it could happen
02:13to you because it happened to me so I stepped up to the plate and I'm changing the game with fuzzy the
02:19modern green flag technology for safer authentic connections both online and in real life the
02:25stats downright scary 75 billion dollars in financial losses to online scams one in four job applicants will
02:33be AI fakes by 2028 with fuzzy we have patent-pending technology to detect this online deception we have two
02:41product offerings one digital gut check a quick easy way to verify someone is who they claim secondly watchdog
02:49monitor and alert misuse around one's name image and likeness online the ask two hundred and fifty
02:56thousand dollars for five percent equity I'm Kaylee Nietzsche the real founder and I am here today to ask for
03:03you to join my team because this oh oh you know probably need two more seconds you almost hit it out of the
03:11park almost I am intrigued though the number of fake scam texts phone calls deep fakes that I see now
03:18today it's scary and it feels like there really could be a solution there oh for sure it's a huge problem the
03:24question is does she have the expertise but she didn't mention in terms of like is she able to build that type of
03:30technology well I've always wanted to find a BS meter which is great thank God I'm not dating
03:34anymore but we'll see I mean the tech I don't know do you think she actually built it herself or
03:40she's just using a wrapper that's what I wonder I'm not sure it'd be interesting to learn more
03:44all right well let's vote
03:46attention Kaylee
03:55your pitch has been
04:01approved
04:05I guess the pitch was a grand slam
04:10thank you before we start I'd love to show you what actually fuzzy does perfect sounds great game
04:22on let's go okay let's take a look at fuzzy with just a few simple inputs you can enter in someone's
04:29name and then the results render in seconds here I am Kaylee Nietzsche the authentic me this is me and
04:36my fuzzy badge is unique to just me with fuzzy watchdog we monitor online name image and likeness
04:42and alert of any misuse or impersonation around your online presence I'm going to take a step back
04:50because it is important to understand the genesis of why I'm here today personally I wanted to meet
04:55somebody so I got on the dating apps and was kind of thrust into the dating world that is the wild west
05:00of apps there's not a lot of rules or regulations for what people can say or claim to be and unfortunately
05:06I was a victim of a complete fraudster and dupester so what I wanted to do was find a way to how do we
05:13verify someone is who they say they are in an easy quick way but how many people are actually
05:19authenticating themselves and verifying themselves right now how many people do you have sure so we
05:23are on the app today as beta we only have about a hundred users because we have no paid media being
05:28pushed to downloading the app this really is pre-seed did you build the tech in-house is it proprietary I did
05:35not build the tech I had the idea and I have partnered with one of the investors that turned
05:40out to be my largest investor she had an agency and was actually the ones that built the original
05:46branding and code for fuzzy but how much have you raised today almost two million dollars oh okay but
05:53you've raised two million with only a hundred people I've raised two million with only a hundred
05:56people and we are doing our b2b pilot right now I think the b2b strategy is actually really
06:02interesting here I would love to understand more of the economics around it absolutely so we have
06:07three main revenue streams we have the b2b fuzzy watchdog which is an upfront cost of ten thousand
06:13dollars for the platform and then there's a five thousand dollar a month monitoring fee and then on
06:18the b2c side for fuzzy digital gut check it's $8.99 a month for essentially five searches why do both at the
06:26same time it's so hard to do one of them really good you're doing both at the same time we pivoted because
06:31I couldn't control the third-party data results that were rendering when you would search somebody
06:36so we had to pause and figure out if I'm creating a safety app a true app that is going to help people
06:43verify who they say they are whether you're a small business buying something on Facebook marketplace
06:49getting into an uber we do all of these things online but there's no universal way to have
06:55verification for somebody is who that they claim to be but then why not just focus on the b2c
07:00I'm kind of with Jonathan it's a lot to try to be both I disagree I think a lot of great businesses
07:06that start b2c realize they need to go b2b and it helps feed the b2c channel along the way I think it
07:12depends on how much capital you have when you look at next year's revenue what are you projecting
07:17I'm standing here today really confident that we can be delivering 20 million dollars of revenue next
07:23year how do I get there yeah the 70 million social media followers on average an influencer has one
07:31to five percent probability to convert on like a call to action to their followers so if you just
07:37take roughly one percent of this 70 million 700,000 people go and download fuzzy digital gut check
07:42let's anticipate that 30 percent of them actually start a subscription that gets us to 210,000 people
07:48at roughly nine dollars a month almost two million dollars a month in revenue times that by 12
07:54that's how we get to close to over 20 million dollars and when will you be ready to do that
07:58we are running the pilot right now we are onboarding our talent and fuzzy 2.0 digital gut check will be
08:04ready to go right before the holidays all right you know for me I think I like to see some revenue
08:12you know you spent over two million dollars and zero revenue for me that's that's a big red flag
08:20for me you can make 20 next year Jonathan I don't see it I don't see 20. I believe there's a big market
08:27here and I think it's growing exponentially the rate at which AI generated content is coming out
08:33there it's scary yeah and so I absolutely believe there's a market here the concern for me is that the
08:41business is really early so I'm not ready to make an investment with where you are today from a
08:47tracking standpoint but what I would be willing to do is invest 100k at your current valuation
08:54contingent upon seeing the b2b launch and seeing some of the conversion and expansion traction from that
09:01that's a very very fair offer obviously you need to make sure that I deliver upon what I
09:11say that I'm going to um Kim Jonathan is there anything you want to add that's a very fair
09:17offer I just need to see more revenue you can tell that you have learned along the way and you're
09:23learning faster which is amazing and that's what I look for and all entrepreneurs that invest in
09:27I'm with Jonathan that you're very early and it's yet to be proven
09:33so I'm going to pass
09:36I understand okay Laura um would you consider 150,000 at the same company valuation
09:45how about 125
09:50let's meet in the middle I like it you got a deal
10:02let's do it
10:03oh my gosh that was so exciting so incredible what an amazing experience everybody gets a little
10:14something oh wow thank you I love it my daughter will be the first person I call because she's
10:21super excited mommy's going to be on tv and now she'll be able to say my mommy won tv I think it was
10:26pretty much a grand slam she is an incredible entrepreneur with a ton of tenacity and passion
10:33and I think she'll find her way to a great successful exit you know she's early I think we
10:39all agree in that but she had such a drive and so much passion for what she's doing I mean it came
10:44through in her pitch I think she was a little bit nervous in the beginning but it's because she clearly
10:49cares about what she's building well congratulations Laura I'm hungry for another one let's see the next pitch
10:58entrepreneur elevator pitch is presented by amazon business for every organization at every stage of growth
11:05our next entrepreneur is on a mission to make safety smarter for new parents
11:18my name is Kevin Lavelle and I'm the co-founder and CEO of Harbor both of my kids know that I'm
11:23an entrepreneur I started my first company Mizzen and Main in 2012 before they were born
11:28so they were coming up in that journey and then starting Harbor they've been a little bit older
11:34eight and six so they get to see more of it and it's really exciting for them because they can see
11:38this if you have an idea you can make something happen I'm proud to be able to set that example
11:44my wife and I actually built Mizzen and Main together and now she's a full-time mom and
11:49having her support and building this means the world hello Kevin welcome to the elevator
12:00your pitch begins in three two one I'm repeat co-founder and CEO Kevin Lavelle I started Harbor
12:10because the leading baby monitor failed our family leaving my son unmonitored overnight parents and kids
12:15deserve better Harbor is the only 10-inch monitor that works with and without internet combining
12:20the reliability of a fail-safe device and all the benefits of wi-fi like remote access record and
12:25rewind we've done more than a million dollars in sales in our first few months landed baby list and
12:30we'll be in 500 target doors early next year proud to say that we've landed celebrity ambassadors
12:36Demi and Tim Tebow and have filed a patent Harbor is so much more than a better baby monitor because in
12:41Texas we think big our remote patient monitoring backed by AI platform creates long-term recurring
12:47revenue opportunities as we help parents and caregivers with overnight support this is not my
12:52first rodeo I built Mizzen and Main from the idea of a performance fabric dress shirt to hundreds of
12:57millions of dollars in revenue I'm asking for a $100,000 investment in a safe to join us as we
13:03transform parenting we transform the way well calm collected lost it on the end wasn't sure where
13:12we're going what was the valuation I don't think he said it was something about a hundred thousand
13:16on a safe but not the actual valuation right that's what it was you know I love an uncapped valuation
13:23I will say he's a repeat entrepreneur and he built a really large business prior to this so
13:27I'm curious to see what he's doing now I mean I love a repeat entrepreneur the question is it's a
13:32totally different category so also this is hardware hardware is hard hardware is tough
13:37should we take it to a vote let's do it attention kevin
13:51your pitch has been
13:53approved let's go kim you voted down yes how come when someone pitches me and they don't
14:04tell me the valuation I'm out but even for a founder who's clearly started and scaled business
14:11I love a second time founder but it would take a miracle for me to invest my money
14:17welcome kevin thank you so much yes indeed thank you all so much for having me up here
14:24well we're excited to have you I will tell you we had a couple skeptics
14:28actually it was a single skeptic it was myself okay all right and I'll tell you the one reason
14:32please because I want to understand what was the valuation on your safe
14:36yes so completely understand the valuation on our safe is a 30 million dollar cap with a 20 discount
14:42that's because our seed round closed earlier this year at a 25 million dollar post and we've made a
14:46lot of great progress since then we're interested in hearing why harbor so different so really
14:51the difference comes down to until harbor parents had to choose between a wi-fi camera with an app on
14:55your phone which is not a baby monitor because it can't alert you or an old school dumb device that
15:00doesn't allow you any of the new technology that makes parenting be easier we've started offering
15:05remote night nanny helping parents sleep train their children as a game changer can I get a remote
15:10night nanny yes Jonathan you've got a baby yes indeed so harbor really is so much more than just
15:16a baby monitor how much does it cost so harbor is 499 for a camera and a monitor and very importantly
15:24relative to all the other baby monitor companies out there we charge no subscription so when you buy
15:29some of these other companies products it's not only the cost but you're signing up for one to three
15:33hundred dollars per year per camera but as an investor I have predictability of revenue
15:46you do um ultimately though I think people are getting tired of subscriptions we interviewed a lot
15:50of customers before we launched and after we launched and we found that the subscription and
15:55the membership was the single biggest point of friction that we had where are you gonna end in
16:00revenue this year and next year it's so hard in year two of a brand new consumer product um to
16:05figure out what our revenue is but we're thinking it'll end up being somewhere in that five to seven
16:08range just based on what we've done so far okay Jonathan you're a dad you have a young child are you
16:14gonna swap that's the question would you swap there's no subscription think of how much money you're
16:18gonna save okay last year we started a program called the great baby monitor swap because we knew that
16:24some parents already had one of these devices we said we'll give you a hundred dollar credit off your
16:28purchase if you send us your old device back we then partner with a recycle upcycle program to sell
16:34secondhand baby gear so it doesn't go into a landfill and we've had hundreds of families switch into
16:39harbor using that program swap swap swap swap swap swap can we come down a little bit because it
16:50doesn't matter it's a safe why don't we come down just a little bit tell me what you're thinking
16:54i'm gonna give you 50 000 you know at only 50 000 well he's only asking for 100 i don't hear you
17:00guys giving any money out unless you want to make an offer i'm gonna negotiate okay hit me
17:09okay kevin here's what i'll do i'll give you 50 000 at 27 and a half million
17:17thank you so much for your generous offer i appreciate it and you're gonna swap well
17:23of course i gotta save some money kevin you are an incredible entrepreneur i love a serial
17:29entrepreneur you've learned so many lessons along the way and it shows hardware is difficult for me
17:35it's expensive and for me i think that extra 100k i worry about how far that goes for you and kind of
17:40driving a difference in your business that said i think the opportunity around the night nanny piece
17:47is really exciting yeah however because of the hardware piece i'm gonna have to pass
17:55understood entirely i love second time entrepreneur i was hesitant when you came out because honestly if
18:03you were to tell me there's unlimited cap on your safe i would have been out but i also know that
18:10hardware is hard and this is going to take some effort
18:16i mean i'd be willing to put the 100k in but at the last valuation okay
18:26it's so great to have choices
18:30and i feel very fortunate
18:31uh i have to say kim with your branding expertise and the full 100 would love to have
18:41you on board i think we could do some really great things and i got four kids absolutely
18:45absolutely thank you kim look forward to working together
18:48you too i got something for everybody guys we went from zero i'm out to now i'm in
18:54yeah i mean i am absolutely thrilled kim is a rock star she's a brand builder she knows how to take
19:00things to the next level couldn't be any happier
19:02hey this is scott linquist my product and company is flip the dip and i was on season seven of elevated
19:11pitch here's my product right here so the fries chicken fingers nuggets go here economy goes here
19:19so you can flip and dip i got a deal from a gentleman named sean neff i'll make a couple phone calls
19:25i know a couple team owners right we'll see if they want it in their stadium and if those end up
19:31hitting give me 10 of your company since then the flip the dip is in td garden uh we're in for all
19:37the boston bruins and all the boston celtics games i mean all the events there i've got good conversations
19:44going on with capital one arena barclays arena as well as fenway park things have definitely uh
19:50skyrocketed since i was on the show our next entrepreneur is opening doors for people of all
20:02abilities with their accessible technology so my name is pierre paul and i am the co-founder and ceo
20:09of we hear you i was born in brazil but i grew up in guyana small third world country on the top of
20:15south america when my family immigrated to the united states i learned how poorly the world treats
20:23people who are different and i grew a passion for helping people in any way that i could so when i
20:28realized that doors were inaccessible and i had the capability to build something i couldn't stop
20:33hello pierre welcome to the elevator your pitch begins in three two one my name is pierre paul
20:50and i'm the co-founder and ceo of we hear you and we open doors there are over 42 billion doors around
20:57the world and less than five percent of them are automatic or accessible this drastically impacts
21:03individuals with disabilities and our aging population so we invented the hero door opener
21:09this portable patent pending product has the power to make virtually any door automatic in less than 15
21:16minutes since launching the hero nine months ago we have done over forty thousand dollars in revenue
21:21over two hundred thousand dollars in purchase orders and we were fortunate to be named forbes's top 100
21:28most accessible companies in the world we are here today asking for 150 000 for three percent of our
21:35company to help us scale our manufacturing and help me pay my phenomenal team whether it is smart home
21:41technology or the hospitality sector we are opening doors to your success
21:47i kind of love him he was very smooth yeah right i was a little confused though it was a bit of a hot
21:56podge the company's called we hear you but it's about doors i'm a little confused too with you but i just
22:01loved his pitch me too it's called elevator pitch and he nailed the pitch so he was really compelling i
22:07liked his energy i don't know that i understand how big this market is he named there are a lot of doors
22:13there are a lot of homes or a lot of buildings sure but how much of a burning issue is this for
22:19people it is another hardware company and so it is hard to sell it means he's selling to businesses or
22:25to the individual consumer we'd have to find out let's vote let's vote okay
22:36attention pierre
22:37welcome to the boardroom pierre thank you so much i want you to know you did a great pitch nearly
22:56perfect in my opinion and laura needs a little bit more convincing okay that's all right so you
23:00want to be clear yes but first your name is we hear you but you're selling automatic doors yes
23:07yes so twofold here when people ask us why we do what we do the answer is simple it's because we
23:13hear you we hear the struggles of those around us and that's why we innovate but first our first
23:19company that we created was a sign language translation company i'm now in the process of
23:24selling that to a deaf-owned team but we really identified with the name we hear you and so we
23:29changed the logo and kept it even though we are now opening doors for this market accessibility via
23:36automated doors yes tell me about the need and how large it is the automatic door space is exploding
23:42but let's even look at it from smart home technology right has been blowing up in the news recently it's
23:47about 20 billion dollars right now or hospitality the hospitality sector is an area which we're really
23:54looking to imagine a world where you walk into a hotel you tap your key card and then the door
23:59automatically opens and that's about a 200 billion dollar market so there's a huge space for the work that
24:04we're doing especially when you factor in how many doors there are everywhere and are you selling to
24:09consumers are you selling to businesses so we're primarily b2b but we opened up b2c with our website
24:15where e-commerce happens and so just to help showcase the way that the hero works it doesn't
24:20just work with the conventional wall button but it also works with a bluetooth app that you can use voice
24:27activation for and it helps an individual who has a disability or a parent with a stroller be able to open a
24:33door when they need to i mean it doesn't seem easy to install 15 minute install compared to an hour two
24:41hours and traditional automatic doors can cost anywhere from ten thousand dollars to thirty thousand
24:47dollars but the hero door opener at a 15 minute install and at a price point of 17.50 so we position
24:53ourselves very beautifully in terms of the automatic door space how big is this market i mean how much
24:59revenue do you think you can do that's how many doors need this yeah so let's say we look at the
25:03assisted living market alone there are about 102 million beds in the united states so our serviceable
25:10obtainable market is probably going to be around 42 million if we just look to that specific market we
25:16think we're positioned very beautifully and have you sold into any of these assisted living or the
25:21hospitality yes so we've sold into assisted living in st louis and we have a deal with one of the top
25:27three hotel brands right now and we're not in conversations to figure out how we scale across
25:32some of their locations in the midwest no i think it's a nice to have i don't know if it's a need
25:39that's the only thing i'm looking at it from i mean what do you think kim i mean you're such an
25:44impressive individual it's hard not to want to bet on you i i'm torn too i think i end up in the camp
25:53that this is a nice to have okay i've invested in the accessibility space i believe in the category
26:01yes but for this business i'm worried about the overall market size
26:08so for that reason i'm going to pass
26:12okay yeah i see it i just don't think it's like a d to c b to c business
26:19i think if you get the b to b contracts then let's talk yeah i want to see that first okay
26:30i'm really impressed with you and i have no doubt that you will make this hugely successful
26:37but given the same reasons from laura and jonathan unfortunately i'm going to pass
26:41yes okay unfortunately you do not have a deal today my friend even though i think unanimously we
26:51believe that you have what it takes to be an incredible entrepreneur yes wow thank you all so
26:56much yeah thank you thank you i feel pretty good i gave the pitch the best pitch that i had in me
27:03amazing conversation with the investors they gave some amazing feedback that i'm going to take to heart
27:08so i'm still feeling pretty good it's pretty impressive actually i mean as a founder 10 out
27:15of 10. 10 out of 10. he was awesome he knew the space his dedication to it was amazing i believe in
27:21him so maybe there's something we can do i know what you're thinking you know i think i gave the best
27:26presentation that i could have and their reactions were kind of where i expected them to be with a
27:30little bit of skepticism attention pierre your presence has been requested back in the boardroom
27:38welcome back to the boardroom yes thank you well we were discussing it and we were so impressed
27:48with your pitch was a 10 out of 10 your passion and your vision and on behalf of amazon business we
27:57want to gift you ten thousand dollars to propel and grow your business thank you all so much that is
28:05going to make a huge difference thank you congratulations yeah congratulations congratulations
28:10you deserve it thank you so much pleasure i was already feeling good but knowing that the investors
28:16saw something and felt something and that amazon business was willing to back it up it just lets me
28:21know that we're on the right direction amazon business let's open some doors you know we have some
28:27great companies some great pitches some great deals i got a great deal i'm feeling so good what about you
28:33guys oh i know i'm gonna give you one for the holidays one day one day a confession for him yes yes
28:39you're i mean you know then every night you'll think of me as you're looking at your camera okay thank you
28:45what a day what a day
28:49none of our entrepreneurs went home empty-handed today as kaylee from fuzzy and kevin from harbor
28:57both secured high-flying deals with our investors and pierre from we hear you was awarded a ten thousand
29:04dollar prize courtesy of amazon business tune in next week as entrepreneur elevator pitch continues
29:15you guys are conspiring against me we're not and to apply for the next season go to entrepreneur.com
29:23elevator pitch
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