Three Founders. Fifteen Minutes. One Room. Brooklyn, New York.

For the first time since COVID, The Pitch went live.

No retakes. No editing room. Real founders, real investors, real stakes — and a crowd watching every second of it unfold.

The format was different this time. Instead of the usual 45-minute pitch, Josh gave each founder just 15 minutes. The question: can you build enough connection in 15 minutes to get a VC to a yes?

Spoiler: yes. But it took three very different pitches to find out.

#182 LIVE in NYC: 3 Startups, 3 Investors, 15 Minutes to Invest

Pitch One: Uche AI

Amaka Uchegbu didn't come to ask for permission. She came to change the business model for inclusion.

When she was 13, Amaka reached for a chemical straightener after failing to find products that worked for her Afro hair. She watched clumps fall into the sink. That moment, and the millions of overlooked consumers like her, became the company.

Uche AI is a B2B consumer intelligence platform. Shoppers scan a product barcode and instantly find out if it works for them. That data feeds a searchable dataset that brands can query to de-risk product decisions. Because right now, $14 billion is wasted across CPG every year by brands guessing what to launch.

The traction is real: 450,000 data points captured, $2.2 million in warm B2B pipeline and entirely cashflow positive. She's raising $1 million.

The investors dug in hard on the business model, the sales cycle, the stickiness. Amaka had answers for all of it. 

Pitch Two: GreenIRR

Celine King spent years watching companies make critical business decisions based on estimates and self-reported data. So she built the tool she wished existed.

GreenIRR is a carbon accounting and visibility platform for Fortune 500 supply chains. It pulls real-time data directly from vehicle telematics and fuel cards, the only two primary data sources in freight, to give trucking companies automated emissions reporting and efficiency recommendations. No hardware required. Onboarding in under 14 days.

The business has a $36 million pipeline, a partnership with Geotab (North America's largest telematics provider with 200 resellers), and a sharp answer to every investor question about regulation, buyers, and stickiness. She’s raising $1.5 million.

What keeps Celine up at night? Not having that one big reference account yet. She's close.

Pitch Three: Wiggle Room

Jaime-Jin Lewis might be the most prepared founder we've ever put in front of investors.

She ran New York City's pandemic childcare hotline. She personally called over 6,000 providers. She laid 20 enrollment packets on her living room floor to map every redundant data point. Her mother ran a childcare program for 30 years and educated over 450 kids.

Jaime-Jin is building Shopify for the $150 billion childcare industry. 80% of childcare in America happens in small programs run by one woman wearing every hat. Wiggle Room builds for exactly her, mobile-first, in daycares. And she has zero churn across 50 paying customers.

Wiggle Room is raising $1 million.

The Moment of Truth

Each VC had the opportunity to call one founder back onstage to answer a final question before making their decision. Did Amaka, Celine, or Jaime-Jin get an investment in under 15 minutes?

You’ll have to listen to find out…

#182 LIVE in NYC: 3 Startups, 3 Investors, 15 Minutes to Invest

Did you know you can join us on set at the next filming of The Pitch?

We're headed to the sunshine state, Tampa, Florida. 🌴 

• Three days on set. 

• A founder mixer. 

• A VIP dinner with VCs, angels, and Pitch Fund Founders. 

• Early access to deal flow. 

And our lowest ticket price yet — no excuse to sit this one out.

See you in the sunshine state. 🌴

Founders: Want to pitch on the show? Apply here.