6 College Students Pitch Us Their Startups | MFM Shark Tank

Power Hour and Startup Pitch Competition

• Power Hour is an underground society of handpicked college founders, similar to the CIA, with no meeting place, information, or way in or out, and members are individually informed about meeting locations (35s).
• The society was started by Bobby, who appeared on the podcast two years ago, and has since spread to universities, including the University of Illinois, with a deep partnership between the two communities (2m21s).
• The event features six college students, three from each school, pitching their startups in a college Shark Tank-style competition, with a winner and possibly other awards to be announced (2m43s).
• The competition aims to showcase the best startups from each school, with a lot of school pride on the line, and the audience includes tons of creators (2m47s).
• The event is hosted by Tommy Potter from Mish and Austin from the University of Illinois, with the goal of bringing together amazing founders, entrepreneurs, and content creators in the same room (1m27s).
• The first startup to be pitched is Meet Your Class, from the University of Michigan, and the pitches will alternate between the two schools (3m32s).
• The hosts have invested in one of the startups from a previous competition, which unfortunately failed, but they are looking forward to seeing if the current startups can succeed (3m16s).

Meet Your Class (Metor Class)

• Jonah, the COO of Metor Class, presented his startup, a platform for prospective college students to meet each other before coming to campus, which grew in popularity and scaled to over 400,000 account creations and $600,000 in revenue within two years (3m57s).
• The platform integrated with social media apps and built communities that extended beyond the platform, helping to address the issue of declining enrollment in universities (4m21s).
• A university called Christ College approached Metor Class to help with their enrollment struggles, specifically with "summer melt," where prospective students withdraw their commitment at the last minute (4m50s).
• Summer melt was a significant issue at Christ College, with one in three students withdrawing, resulting in a 33% vacancy rate (5m36s).
• Metor Class worked with Christ College to decrease summer melt, and students who used the platform experienced a 61% reduction in summer melt, expected to add $1.7 million to the college's top line (6m16s).
• The success of Metor Class has led to partnerships with eight other universities and admission to Tech Stars, allowing the company to bootstrap and build a larger team (6m45s).
• Metor Class is not currently raising money but plans to potentially open a seed round when the founders graduate in the spring (7m29s).

Side Hustle Idea Database and Startup Funding

• A side hustle idea database is available, featuring 100 ideas on how to start and grow a side hustle, and can be accessed through a link in the description below (8m23s).
• A startup has generated $600,000 in revenue, with the initial co-founders not paying themselves and instead reinvesting every penny back into the team (8m32s).
• The startup currently has around $300,000 in its business account, with $120,000 coming from Tech Stars and the rest from winning pitch competitions (9m7s).
• The startup's co-founders are Jonah and Blake, who are working on a business that helps college kids connect and also assists colleges in filling enrollment vacancies (9m19s).
• The startup's tools can help colleges decrease vacancies, and they plan to charge the colleges for their services, with the initial partners being heavily discounted at under $10,000 (10m0s).
• The market rate for a solution like this is higher, but the startup is trying to get more logos and case studies before scaling up (10m16s).

Startup's Competitive Advantage and Pricing Model

• The startup has competitors in the mid-funnel conversion space, but they stand out due to their integrations with social media, allowing them to get a large organic user base (10m43s).
• The startup's competitors often use third-party apps that universities force students to download, but the startup's approach is more organic and provides more valuable data (11m4s).
• The startup is retrofitting social media platforms to bring in data that universities would otherwise have to pay for, making them a more attractive option (11m26s).
• The startup's pricing model is still being discussed, but they are considering charging universities a percentage of saved students or a flat fee (11m38s).
• The startup is offering a mid-funnel conversion tool to colleges as a flat fee, with prices ranging from $20,000 for small schools to over $200,000, which is considered a commoditized rate that universities are comfortable paying (11m49s).
• The tool aims to solve one of the biggest problems in the enrollment funnel, with one in three students at Christ College initially melting, and the startup has successfully converted more of them (12m25s).

Founders' Vision and Market Comparison

• The founders' vision for the next 10 years is to genuinely improve the student experience, make college worthwhile, and put power back in the students' hands, with the goal of becoming the go-to place for students to figure out where they will be most successful (13m12s).
• Students have negotiation power over tuition prices, and universities need students to stay in business, but this may not be applicable to large universities like the University of Michigan that are not tuition-dependent (13m42s).
• The startup's business model is compared to companies like Unibody, which raised $30 million during COVID-19 and generates tens of millions in revenue, indicating a potential market for the startup's services (14m34s).
• The startup's idea is likened to ApplyBoard, which helps international students get into small colleges and charges universities $2,000 to $3,000 per student, demonstrating the potential for a successful business model (14m56s).
• A startup idea is advised not to raise money from investors, but instead, bootstrap the business, which could potentially lead to a $20 million exit in four or five years (15m29s).
• The biggest risk for the startup is not a business risk, but rather the pressure to become a billion-dollar company after raising money from investors, when in reality, it might be a $50 million dollar company (15m46s).

MetaPo: Automated Translation Solution

• The next startup, MetaPo, is an automated translation solution for educators, founded by a college student who is currently on a gap semester (16m38s).
• The founder was inspired to start MetaPo after watching a Spanish TV show on Netflix with English dubbing, which had synchronization issues and poor voice acting (17m0s).
• The dubbing industry is a $60 billion market, but it is technically complex, expensive, and time-consuming, with costs ranging from $100 to $1,500 per minute (17m26s).
• MetaPo's solution allows users to input a video, select the input and output languages, and receive a lip-synced, voice-cloned, and text-translated video within minutes (18m1s).
• The startup has already gained traction, with $6,000 in monthly recurring revenue from clients such as the University of Illinois and Velcro Corporation (19m0s).
• MetaPo is also in talks with Coursera for a potential partnership and has a human-in-the-loop process for translating videos with industry-specific terminology (19m6s).
• A startup is planning a potential integration in quarter 1 of 2025 and has a paid pilot with Geese, which generated $1.35 million in revenue and saved the university 91% in actual cost and curating the course. (19m10s)
• The startup's team combines business and technology, with the founder, Shara Kala, taking a gap year to focus on the project, and a machine learning team of five engineers with 37 years of experience in computer vision. (19m30s)

MetaPo's Market and Traction

• The startup's demo showed a voice translation feature that makes the lips match, which is achieved by taking an original video or audio and synchronizing the lips based on the input in their backend system using an off-the-shelf library. (20m16s)
• The startup is providing a solution to standardize the viewing experience for end-users, particularly in education, where universities are already translating courses but not videos, resulting in users having to read subtitles in a different language. (21m26s)
• The dubbing market is estimated to be around $60-70 billion, including traditional dubbing in film, education, marketing, and translation in general, with the startup focusing on the education niche due to the central need for translation. (21m42s)
• The startup has translated content for creators like MrBeast and B Nightmare but found the education niche to be more promising, with applications for people who have life-changing opportunities but face language barriers. (22m0s)
• The startup's solution would be a new cost for universities, around $1 million, which they are not currently spending, as they are not translating videos but only tests and quizzes. (22m32s)
• Translating a video typically takes a significant amount of time and money, with a 10-minute video requiring around four hours of work and costing $3 million to edit, including curating new slides and contracting a new professor to speak in a different language (22m42s).
• The proposed solution would be an added cost for universities, which are not currently spending money on this type of translation, and would not necessarily generate additional revenue, at least initially (23m26s).
• However, universities are moving towards putting courses online and digital translation is already being done, so the proposed solution could provide a better experience for international students and serve as a marketing play for universities (23m42s).
• The company has a personal connection with a higher-up at Velcro and provides internal communications services, including translating the CEO's 90-minute internal Town Hall meetings from Italian to 10 different languages (24m12s).
• The company is shifting its focus from enterprise to the education niche, including universities, educational content creation, and corporate trainings, in an effort to speed up its sales cycle and gain traction (25m1s).

Concerns and Strategies for MetaPo

• The company believes that partnering with universities can help build trust with educational content creators and establish a strong reputation in the market (25m32s).
• However, there are concerns that the product may be in search of a market and may face challenges in terms of adoption and revenue generation (25m46s).
• The sales cycle for universities is already slow, and the product's cost may make it harder to sell, as universities may not have the budget for it or see a clear return on investment (ROI) attached to it (25m54s).
• A potential strategy could be to target existing dubbing services with existing books of business, acquire them, and replace human labor with AI to reduce costs and increase efficiency (26m26s).
• This approach is similar to a private equity play or rollup, where companies are acquired, and costs are slashed by using technology to make things more efficient (26m50s).
• The company is exploring this strategy by partnering with a translation agency to understand their sales cycles and client acquisition processes (27m10s).
• The company is also targeting learning management systems, such as Coursera, to integrate their translation technology, which could lead to significant growth in the number of minutes dubbed (27m32s).
• The company had a meeting with Coursera to discuss a potential integration for translation in a couple of courses, which could lead to a significant increase in dubbed minutes (27m37s).

MetaPo's Technology and Market Positioning

• The technology used to dub videos is impressive, but it's not a scientific breakthrough, and other companies could potentially offer similar solutions (28m10s).
• The success of the business will depend on who builds the best business around the technology, including the right market, go-to-market strategy, and pricing model (28m32s).
• The company's founder declined an offer from TechStars in June and is taking a gap year to focus on the business, which was a difficult decision for their parents to accept (28m46s).
• A college student is part of a top 1% pre-accelerator program and is taking a semester off school to focus on their startup, with the goal of showing the program's organizers some key performance indicators (KPIs) to justify their time off (29m2s).
• The student's story is compared to that of Johnny Dallas, who started working with a company in eighth grade and eventually dropped out of high school to work full-time, with the company convincing his mother that he was "going pro" rather than dropping out (29m25s).

Milu: Personalized Skincare

• Nathan, co-founder of Milu, is creating personalized skincare products based on an individual's unique microbiome, which is the trillions of microbes living on the skin (30m20s).
• Nathan's interest in microbiology began at age eight after a life-threatening encounter with a flesh-eating bacteria, and he has since been driven to understand how the skin microbiome affects human health (30m26s).
• The skin microbiome is compared to a complex city with different microbes performing unique jobs, and its well-being is essential for healthy and beautiful skin (30m45s).
• Many common skincare products contain preservatives and harsh chemicals that can harm the skin microbiome, leading to skin problems such as acne and dryness (31m10s).
• Milu's approach is different, using a comprehensive solution that combines microbiome science, AI, and personalization to create skincare products that work with an individual's unique microbiome (31m51s).
• The company's "Milu Biome Sense" system involves a microbiome collection kit, a short survey, and AI-powered analysis to create personalized skin insights reports (31m56s).
• Milu offers personalized skincare products, including a serum and cleanser, with custom formulations designed to adapt to the user's skin needs over time through retests and reformulations, ensuring microbiome balance for lasting skin health, all for $59.95, which includes the test kit, analysis, and custom products, with a $16.95 monthly subscription for refills and retails as needed (32m30s).
• The company uses plantable boxes and recyclable packaging, reflecting its commitment to sustainability, and is pioneering a science-driven personalized approach to skincare, currently inviting new members to join its beta program (32m46s).

Milu's Market and Feedback

• The idea of a skin microbiome was initially unfamiliar, with some people associating the term "microbiome" with gut health, but the concept of a skin microbiome is a real and important aspect of skincare (33m26s).
• The company has no revenue yet, as it is currently in development and conducting beta testing (33m53s).
• The pitch was well-received, with praise for the deck and the storytelling, which was created by the founder and his co-founder, Ron, with input from other students in the community (34m6s).
• To improve customer acquisition, it was suggested that the company use content to its advantage, particularly on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, where storytelling and science-based information can resonate with people looking for personalized skincare solutions (35m8s).
• The company plans to use a different go-to-market strategy, avoiding the common pitfall of sinking initial revenue into advertising, and instead focusing on content-driven growth (35m49s).
• The goal is to please 50 people in beta testing by working closely with a smaller group to ensure the product and algorithm are working as intended before going mass market (35m53s).
• Short-form content is considered as it is known to resonate with the target market, which is the younger audience (36m6s).
• There are no direct competitors doing exactly what the company is doing, but there are skincare companies that do microbiome testing and personalized skincare companies (36m12s).
• Parallel Health is the biggest skin microbiome company, offering a $200/month protocol that includes sequencing on the skin microbiome, which is a high-end product (36m23s).
• Proven Skincare is another successful company that does personalized skincare based on a quiz, and the company's approach is a combination of microbiome testing and a quiz (36m38s).

Addressing Potential Criticisms of Milu

• The company acknowledges that health-related topics can be controversial, and there may be people who love or hate the idea of microbiome testing for skincare (36m56s).
• Critics may say that microbiome testing is not necessary and that using a few basic skincare products can achieve similar results (37m11s).
• The biggest liability is that the skin microbiome field is relatively new, and the company is testing a hypothesis that tailored skincare is better than traditional methods (37m23s).
• People may object to the idea of harnessing the power of germs on the skin, as it goes against the societal idea that all bacteria are bad (37m40s).
• Critics may also argue that the benefits of microbiome testing are minimal and that other factors, such as good sleep, drinking water, and eating clean, have a greater impact on overall health (38m16s).
• The company needs to convince potential investors that people care about hyper-personalization and that it is the future of skincare (38m52s).
• A successful pitch should make investors believe that the outcome is inevitable and that the company will be the one to take advantage of it, with two main cases to be made: the trend is going in a certain direction and the company will be the one to capitalize on it (39m0s).
• The trend in hair care and beauty products has shifted towards personalization, with companies that have adopted this approach having successful exits, and the same trend is expected to happen in skincare (39m22s).
• A pitch should show that the company's approach is the next logical step in the industry, making it feel inevitable, and that the company will be the one to capitalize on it (39m41s).

Pitching Milu and the Future of Skincare

• The feedback given to the pitcher is that their pitch was missing a science-based, hyper-personalized approach that is expected to be the next wave of successful skincare companies (40m11s).
• The question is raised whether the company's product will have a visually different result compared to off-the-shelf products, and if so, whether that will be enough to make the marketing work (40m48s).
• If the product's effectiveness is not visually apparent, then the success of the company will depend on its ability to market and brand the product effectively, as is often the case in the supplements and vitamins industry (41m12s).
• The example of L'Oreal is given, which is successful not because its products are scientifically better, but because the company is better at marketing (41m41s).
• The company recognizes the trend towards clean and sustainable beauty and wants to capitalize on it (41m53s).
• A product was created that is a box that can be planted in the ground and grows flowers, with before and after pictures being a key aspect of the product's marketing, and beta testing results are currently looking promising (42m2s).

Brothers Nuts: Healthy Snacking

• Austin Majors is the co-founder of Brothers Nuts, a company that aims to revolutionize healthy snacking with organic sprout nut and seed snacks (42m45s).
• The idea for Brothers Nuts came from Austin's family, who found that many snacks were not healthy and tasted bad, and was inspired by Austin's father's diagnosis with stage four brain cancer and his subsequent seven-year survival due to changes in diet and lifestyle (43m8s).
• Brothers Nuts' products are sprouted, making them crunchy and flavorful, and the company has done over $1 million in sales over the last seven years, with products available in 200 retail locations (43m47s).
• The company plans to reach $10 million in sales over the next four years by expanding distribution, getting new grocery store accounts, and innovating through new products, such as a clean chocolate almond and a high protein variant of their most popular flavors (44m2s).
• Brothers Nuts aims to become a national brand and is on track to achieve this goal, with the nut market selling $10 billion this year and the company checking all the boxes for being seed oil-free, sprouted, and gut-friendly (45m0s).
• The company is on the cutting edge of a mainstream trend that started in 2010, with products labeled as sprouted growing 34% in velocity and sales, and they are experiencing success and growth (45m17s).
• The reason for their success is attributed to contributing to the founder's father's legacy, and the goal is to grow this legacy and create a new one, with the mission of changing what people snack on to lead to longer, healthier lives (45m32s).

Brothers Nuts' Retail Presence and Sales

• The company is in multiple retail chains, including Fresh Thyme Market with 70 stores across the Midwest, Mom's Organic Market on the East Coast, and The Fresh Market, and they are expanding to new stores like Whole Foods and Sprouts (46m35s).
• The company's revenue has exceeded $1 million in sales since its inception over seven years, with $400,000 in sales this year, $200,000 last year, and a projected $2 million in sales next year (47m23s).
• The company is in a total of 200 retail stores across the country, including bigger players and smaller one-off stores, health food stores, and golf courses (47m46s).
• The retailers need to see the velocity of sales on the shelf at their stores to consider expanding the company's products to more stores, and the company's unique product has few competitors (47m57s).
• The company's product is incredibly unique, offering organic sprouted nut options with few competitors, and they need to demonstrate a gap on the shelf to expand their products (48m29s).
• The business in question sells nuts that contain no seed oils, and the founders claim to have had success with major retailers, going from 3 to 30 to 70 stores without having to approach them. (48m36s)
• However, there are concerns about the business's social media presence, with only 50 followers on TikTok, which is seen as a disadvantage for a young company with limited experience and resources. (49m12s)
• The importance of social media is emphasized, as it is seen as a key way for the company to tell its story and generate excitement among consumers, which can then be used to persuade retailers to stock the product. (49m32s)
• The current state of the nut shelf in stores is described as "stale," with the same old brands dominating the market, and the company's unique selling point of being seed oil-free and trendy is seen as an opportunity to stand out. (49m51s)
• The company's founders, two brothers, own the business 50-50, with their mother serving as the chief flavor officer, responsible for ensuring the quality of the nuts. (50m46s)
• The story behind the company is seen as a major strength, and the founders are encouraged to leverage this to build a strong social media presence and attract customers. (51m5s)
• A comparison is made to another successful nut brand that has built a large following on social media, with the suggestion that the company could learn from this example and build a similar online presence. (51m15s)

Investor's Feedback on Brothers Nuts

• The investor has invested in several seed oil or seed oil-free companies, but it's unclear if they will become mainstream, and the current startup has tailwinds to help it succeed (51m48s).
• The investor thinks the startup's numbers are on the small side for an e-commerce company, with $1 million in revenue across seven years, and needs to show that the nut category is huge, with companies like Blue Diamond making $1.8 billion in revenue per year (52m10s).
• The investor suggests that the startup should highlight its fresh packaging, challenger brand status, and better story, as well as its social media presence, to differentiate itself from established brands (52m56s).
• The investor notes that the sprouted products category is growing 34% year-over-year, and the startup should emphasize its position as a sprouted nut brand (53m27s).
• The investor believes that the startup has the potential to be huge, but is not currently using its strengths, and needs to take feedback and change its approach to achieve success (53m46s).

Tour: AI-Powered Salesperson for Apartments

• The next startup, Tour, is an AI-powered salesperson for property managers, which aims to increase the number of in-person tours taken by apartment prospects, as only 4% of prospects who visit an apartment website take a tour, and tours are the highest converting part of the apartment sales process (54m14s).
• Installs Tour Tour helps apartments scale their digital salesperson, allowing them to recreate their best in-person tour and replicate it on their website, making it available to prospects 24/7 (55m4s).
• The process involves the property manager pasting a link to the apartment website, which is then scraped to generate video scripts that help the salesperson record the tour, combining it with a knowledge base into a smart virtual leasing agent (55m28s).
• Once the tour is ready, the company pastes a piece of code on the website, making the salesperson available 24/7, and allowing them to interact with prospects through digital micro-interactions, offer tours, and ask qualifying questions (55m41s).
• Replicating the in-person tour can drive nearly 3x engagement and create more qualified leads for the apartment, as seen in the company's work with some of the largest property managers in the nation (56m18s).
• The company has delivered over a million tours, driven over $30 million worth of leases, and reached over a million dollars in revenue, with the recorded videos being repurposed for follow-up with leads and automatic ad campaigns (56m31s).
• The company aims to revolutionize the $2.5 trillion apartment leasing industry, which still relies on static photos, manual scheduling, and follow-ups, by providing a more compelling visual and video-first experience (57m27s).
• The founders are a passionate and driven team who have designed and delivered experiences for top companies, including Growth at Ramp and Google Shopping, and have raised around $350-400k in funding (58m1s).

Challenges and Advantages of Virtual Apartment Tours

• Matterport, a company that creates 3D virtual tours, has been tested by Airbnb and found to decrease conversion rates, possibly due to apartments looking unappealing in 3D or the need for in-person salesmanship (58m26s).
• Some apartments may not need to be filled immediately, and owners might not see the value in spending money on virtual tours when vacancy rates are low (59m2s).
• Certain apartments may not want to showcase their properties online due to their condition, preferring to sell them in person (59m15s).
• Matterport is a public company that generates $540 million in revenue per year, but the speaker's company differs in that it provides an active experience that partners with apartments to guide potential renters through the sales funnel (59m44s).
• The speaker's company aims to hit a larger market than Matterport by providing a more comprehensive experience, including follow-up emails and targeted advertising (1h0m4s).
• The nature of apartments is changing, with more amenities and a focus on experience, making virtual tours a potentially important part of the rental process (1h0m28s).
• The speaker's company has delivered over a million tours, many of which are international or out-of-state, and sees virtual leasing as a key advantage for apartments (1h0m50s).
• The company also aims to augment the sales force by providing support and reducing churn rates among frontline sales teams (1h1m16s).
• The startup aims to provide a more comprehensive experience for customers by augmenting websites with virtual tours and segmenting leads to help property managers allocate resources more effectively, with the goal of communicating the physical establishment to customers and saving money by better allocating resources (1h1m42s).

Tour's Technology and Revenue Model

• The virtual tours are not AI-generated, but rather actual videos filmed by a video Pro Network or using scripts that can be easily started from a phone, with the iPhone 16 being capable of producing high-quality footage rivaling Sony cameras (1h2m15s).
• The startup takes the knowledge base and median supply throughout the whole sales process, and the video is accompanied by an AI wrapper that includes chat, Q&A, scheduling appointments, and following up with targeted ads (1h2m40s).
• The startup currently has $450,000 in annual recurring revenue (ARR) from 130 property managers, with most paying around $300 per month, and has achieved this through a land and expand motion, demonstrating results and expanding within property managers (1h2m50s).
• To scale from 100 properties to 1,000 or 10,000 in the next year, the startup plans to automatically generate tours to demonstrate value to apartments before in-person visits, using website scraping, image processing, and information pulling to create a prototype tour (1h3m40s).
• The startup will use these auto-generated tours as a sample and cold email property managers to showcase their value, and will run A/B tests on apartment websites to measure the difference in revenue with and without their installation (1h4m20s).
• A startup is discussed, which helps properties generate more value by delivering four times the number of tours, three times engagement, and more qualified leads, resulting in higher conversion rates of leases, with an additional $300,000 to $500,000 in leases (1h4m36s).
• The startup achieves this by doing three important things: delivering more tours, increasing engagement, and capturing more qualified leads (1h4m46s).

Selling Tour to the Apartment Industry

• Sam is convinced by the startup's proposition but has concerns about selling to old-school companies in the industry, such as apartment buildings and colleges, which can be difficult to work with (1h5m17s).
• The industry is slow to adapt to new technologies, but the startup believes that having an AI agent to help book appointments and sell properties will become the next mandatory feature for websites, just like having a website, photos, and videos became essential in the past (1h6m22s).
• The startup's goal is to make their product feel inevitable, and they believe that their AI agent will become a necessary tool for apartment buildings to remain competitive (1h6m18s).
• The startup has already achieved some success, with over a million tours and revenue growth, and has also created nicely merchandised matching zip-ups (1h7m43s).

Pet: AI-Powered Email Management

• A startup, Pet, was initially working on a no-code engine to help businesses automate daily tasks with AI, but shifted focus to email management after realizing its most valuable automations for clients were email-related (1h8m45s).
• The startup's clients, including large enterprises, were struggling with managing their cluttered inboxes, with one business owner reporting employees spent more time on emails than their actual job (1h9m18s).
• According to McKinsey, the average employee processes over 600 emails per week, wasting 13 hours and thousands of business dollars, despite email being an essential part of life (1h9m31s).
• Despite the burden of email, 86% of business professionals still prefer using email, making it a problem that needs to be solved rather than eliminated (1h9m51s).
• Pet is building a virtual executive assistant that can learn from users, respond to emails on their behalf, and prioritize important emails (1h10m1s).
• The startup's mobile app is launching on the App Store next week and has already secured six figures in annual revenue from a big four customer and is starting a pilot with the largest children's enrichment franchise in the world (1h10m30s).
• Pet has also worked with five global financial institutions, completed a seven-figure raise, and won first place in one of the Midwest's largest startup pitch competitions (1h10m43s).
• The founders, AD and Mark, collectively bring over a decade of experience in AI and building companies, with AD having built and scaled numerous online security businesses to millions of users during his teenage years (1h10m56s).

Pet's Pivot and Funding

• The startup has a generative AI engine that was started in February, and they initially used the technology to develop email automations for businesses, raising money on that concept, but have since pivoted to an email client interface that works better with Enterprise customers (1h12m1s).
• The startup has a six-figure Enterprise contract and has raised $1 million, but the product they initially raised money for is not the same as the current product (1h11m42s).
• The team's website does not clearly tell the story of their pivot, but a folder on the website labeled "New! Our Email Client" provides some information about the change (1h12m38s).
• The team has decades of experience, but this claim is met with skepticism, and it is suggested that this type of claim can come across as overselling and is not a believable metric (1h12m47s).
• The founder is 20 years old, and it is suggested that instead of claiming decades of experience, they could tell a more believable and exciting story about their individual experience and skills, such as starting to code at a young age and building notable projects (1h13m24s).

Pet's Enterprise Sales and Product Development

• The startup has done a great job of selling into difficult-to-sell Enterprise customers, and the question is raised about how they were able to secure an Enterprise contract (1h14m27s).
• The founder of a startup worked as a consultant at a university organization, which led to a connection with a high-level business executive at a big four enterprise through their mentor, the director of the consulting organization (1h14m44s).
• The executive was looking for a solution to certain problems within the enterprise, and the founder's personal project happened to solve those exact problems, leading to the creation of a company (1h15m10s).
• The initial product was a generative AI workflow engine that could automate complex day-to-day tasks by plugging AI into legacy systems, such as processing and analyzing pitch decks for venture capitalists (1h15m26s).
• The product was similar to Lindy, but the founder found that their product was being used mainly for email automations, and the barrier to entry for non-technical users was high (1h16m10s).
• To address this issue, the founder decided to change the interface to a virtual assistant or secretary, making it easier for non-technical users to use the product (1h16m32s).

Pet's Competitive Landscape and Future

• A potential challenge for the business is that it is entering a highly competitive space, with companies like Google, Superhuman, and Microsoft already working on adding AI to their email services (1h17m11s).
• The concern is that it may be difficult for the startup to get users to switch from established email clients like Outlook and Gmail, and that the competition may be too intense for the startup to capture a significant opportunity (1h17m40s).
• The startup has raised a little more than $1 million in funding and the team members are currently on a gap semester from school, with one member having only one class left to complete (1h17m55s).
• The startup is working on an email client that is designed to cater to specific niches and requirements of certain businesses, which cannot be met by standard email clients like Gmail and Outlook (1h18m35s).
• The startup is starting a pilot with the largest children's enrichment franchise, which is willing to switch from Gmail to the startup's email client due to its unique features (1h18m51s).
• The email client is not meant to replace Gmail, but rather integrate with it, allowing users to log in with their Gmail account and use the startup's interface instead of Gmail's (1h19m45s).
• The startup's goal is to provide a more tailored experience for businesses, which is not possible with standard email clients that have to cater to a large audience (1h19m5s).
• The startup's idea is considered huge and potentially multi-billion dollar winning, but also highly competitive (1h20m16s).

Awarding the Best Pitches

• The discussion concludes with a proposal to award the best pitch, favorite school, and audience choice awards (1h20m46s).
• The discussion involves choosing the best startup pitches from college students, with options including AI apartment tours, a dubbing company called Metapo, Brothers Nuts, and an AI email client called Pathet. (1h21m15s)
• Sam chooses the University of Illinois as the top school, citing the impressive pitches from Metapo and Brothers Nuts, with the latter already generating $400,000 in revenue. (1h21m31s)
• Another person disagrees, choosing the University of Michigan due to the traction of its startups, particularly Tour, which has $500,000 in annual recurring revenue and has served a million users. (1h22m11s)
• The two individuals have a tie in their votes, leading to a discussion on their favorite business to invest in. (1h22m48s)
• Sam chooses Brothers Nuts as the business he wishes he owned, believing it could become a family business worth hundreds of millions, but notes that he wouldn't invest in it. (1h22m55s)
• The other person also chooses Brothers Nuts, believing it's close to becoming a legitimate business that could be seen on grocery store shelves, and expresses willingness to invest in it. (1h23m25s)
• Both individuals acknowledge that most of the companies had an AI element, but it's challenging to stand out in a competitive market. (1h23m56s)

Audience Choice and Concluding Remarks

• The discussion concludes with the crowd's choice, where the audience reaction will dictate the winner of the audience choice award. (1h24m35s)
• Six college students from Michigan and UI presented their startups, with the loudest presentation being from Milu, a skin microbiome company from Michigan (1h25m30s).
• The students were praised for being ahead of the curve and already part of the 1% of the 1% by being active entrepreneurs (1h26m42s).
• The feedback provided was intended to be helpful, even if it came across as tough, as a sign of respect for the students' efforts (1h26m52s).
• One of the speakers shared their own experience of being inspired to become an entrepreneur after attending a similar class in college (1h27m6s).
• The speaker encouraged the students and others listening to consider entrepreneurship as a lifestyle, emphasizing that it may be a Tipping Point moment for them (1h27m37s).
• The current phase of life for the students was highlighted as the best time to pursue entrepreneurial ventures, with a 4-year window of relatively low responsibilities (1h27m45s).
• The organizers of the event, Austin and Tommy, were given a shout-out for their efforts in bringing together the students and creating a contagious energy (1h27m52s).
• The event was announced to be taken Nationwide, with the possibility of future events and a pizza party sponsored by MFM (1h28m19s).
• The organizers offered to provide financial support to the students to host more events and encourage others to get excited about entrepreneurship (1h28m34s).
• The event is an informal gathering of students who are passionate about building things and doing cool projects, rather than an official entrepreneurship club of the school (1h28m44s).
• The participants appreciate the underground and off-the-books nature of the gathering, which allows them to pursue unconventional career paths and focus on creating innovative projects (1h28m43s).
• The event organizers express gratitude to the participants and encourage listeners to support them by visiting their websites and checking out their products (1h29m2s).
• The event comes to a close, with the organizers wishing everyone a wonderful Wednesday (1h28m57s).