The most profitable thing we run makes zero dollars: why our online pitch event for startups is free
The most profitable thing we run makes zero dollars.
It's called Spark Tank. A live show, Shark Tank style: six or seven founders pitch to six or seven VCs, in front of an audience, every week. We charge founders nothing. We take no equity.
On May 7 I was catching Amir up on everything we run, and I told him about a founder who'd cornered me that day: "Why did you guys do all this? You do it for free. Like, you got to tell me, like, how do you guys actually make money?"
Fair question. The straight answer is worth writing down, because it's the most useful idea in B2B growth I know.
The format
Each founder gets a short pitch, a few minutes, then live questions from the investors. The investors give real feedback on air. Founders leave with reactions from people who see hundreds of decks, and sometimes with a follow-up meeting. Investors leave with deal flow they didn't have to dig for.
We focus on the sectors we know: AI, robotics, Bitcoin. That keeps the panel relevant to the founders and the founders relevant to the panel. A random mix of sectors would make everyone's time worse.
That's the whole product on the surface. A useful hour for both sides of the table, for free.
Both sides of the table are the ICP
Look at who's in the room. On one side, founders who are raising money. On the other, investors who deploy it. Those are exactly the two groups we sell to.
Founders who are raising need help with their deck, their investor list and their outreach. That's RaasRocket. Investors and their portfolio companies need pipeline. That's GTM Ventures, which I run with Charles, built on systemized outreach where the first touch is an invitation to a show.
So the show isn't a side project next to the business. It's the front door to the business, with a reason for both buyers to walk through it that has nothing to do with buying.
The pre-interview is the real product
Every founder who wants to pitch on the show talks to us first. That pre-interview is where everything happens.
In twenty or thirty minutes, I hear how much they're raising, what's working, what isn't, how many investor conversations they're having a week, and whether they have a system. Nobody is selling anything. They're preparing for a show, so they're open in a way they'd never be on a sales call.
From those conversations, some founders want their deck critiqued and rebuilt. Some want help running the whole raise. Some become relationships where an advisor role makes sense down the road. Most just pitch and go on their way, and that's fine too, because the show still needs them.
That's what I mean when I say the pre-interview creates the sales funnel. The founder came for the stage. The business conversation happened on its own.
The investors on the panel remember you too
There's a second return nobody asks about. Every week, six or seven investors spend an hour watching how we run a room, pick founders and give feedback. That's an hour of them getting to know us with nothing at stake.
On a May 4 call about our own plans, we counted it up: somewhere between ten and fifteen investors had already been pitched informally on what we're building, and the signal had come from people who'd seen us run the show. No deck sent. No formal raise. Just relationships that started on the panel. When you host the room, the people in it get to know you before you ever ask them for anything.
What it replaced
Before shows, the default playbook to meet founders and investors was to go where they gather. Sponsor a conference booth. Buy a ticket and work the hallway. Run ads to founders who are "raising soon."
I've been to a lot of conferences since I got into Bitcoin in 2011. They're great for relationships you already have. They're expensive and random for relationships you want. You stand at a booth and hope the right person walks by.
A show flips that. You pick exactly who you want in the room, invite them, and give them a reason to say yes. You're not hoping to bump into the right investor. You booked them.
And the calendar math is wild. When I told Amir about this on May 7, my calendar was full of CEO meetings for the next month. I offered him a seat in the rotation, a couple of hours a day of founder and CEO conversations, because pattern recognition across that many companies is how you spot what to build next. You don't get that volume of real conversations from a booth.
Why free beats paid
We could charge founders to pitch. Plenty of pitch events do. It would make the show a small business.
It would also kill the thing that makes it valuable. The moment founders pay, the show is a product they're evaluating instead of an opportunity they're grateful for. The investors start wondering whether the founders were picked for quality or for paying. Trust goes on both sides.
Free keeps the incentives clean. We pick founders we think are strong, investors show up because the founders are strong, and everyone's relationship with us starts with us giving something away. That's the whole idea behind using a show for growth: give first, and the business conversation follows.
If you sell to a specific group of people and you're still paying to stand in the same room as them, flip it. Host the room. Start your own show.
Frequently asked questions
Are online pitch events worth it for founders?
They're worth it when the panel is real investors in your sector and you get live feedback. Treat them as practice and relationship building, not as a likely check on the day.
Do investors actually invest from pitch shows?
Sometimes, but the bigger value is the follow-up meeting and a relationship that starts before you're desperate. Investors join because curated deal flow saves them time.
How do free pitch events make money?
Ours makes money indirectly. Every founder does a pre-interview first, and some of those conversations turn into work on their deck or their raise. The show is the front door, not the product.