[exhales]
[man 1] In the app development world
it's definitely very competitive.
[man 2] If you look at the landscape,
you have music, photo, video, communication.
[woman] You have some people who are hardcore coders,
and then you have some people who are hardcore artists.
[male narrator] From the arts, to education, to entertainment,
apps enhance our lives.
App developers transform great ideas from dreams into reality.
This is the search for the next great idea.
[Zane] You have four advisors down there.
It's about making sure they understand how passionate you are.
You have 60 seconds on the escalator
to get them to choose to be a part of your project.
You'll know because at the end of your escalator ride,
they'll either go green or red.
[narrator] If you get four reds, you go home.
But if you have at least one green,
you'll get to continue your pitch and tell the story of your app
in the hopes of partnering with one of the advisors.
If that happens, you'll spend the next six weeks honing your app
for a chance to earn a share of over ten million dollars
in venture capital investment
and featured placement on the App Store.
[pulsing techno theme]
[bell ringing]
[man] All right, everybody set?
-Here we go. -Here we go.
Right now we're in the developers lounge,
which really is a place for me to get stories and information
about the people developing apps and need some assistance.
Stories about the inspiration, the heart, the soul, and the emotion
that actually goes into the developing of these ideas that change our lives.
Andrew? Zane. Welcome to Planet of the Apps.
It's good to see you. Nice to meet you, Zane.
How are you? Good.
You've got a story, man.
I mean, you served in the Air Force, correct?
Military intelligence. That's right. That's it.
I'm Andrew Kemendo from Washington, D.C.
I was an active duty officer in the United States Air Force.
As every military member knows,
you're going to be moving around and frequently.
Being a family man with three kids,
I said, "Hey, maybe I can make something that will help my family
discover the furnishings that we needed in our new home."
One of the most important things for me
is to be a positive role model in my children's life.
This is a massive opportunity that helps to do that.
[man over PA] Okay, enter the doors in, 5...
[bell ringing] ... 4, 3, 2, 1, doors.
Everybody wants to make sure that their home design is beautiful
for your friends and family.
Unfortunately, none of us are designers.
So I set to solve that problem with Pair.
Pair connects you with the professional design community
that gives you the inspiration you need to design your space beautifully.
Simply drag-and-drop one of our 13,000 name brand products
into your home.
Walk around it like it's real.
This gives you the perfect understanding
of what you need in your space every time.
All in augmented reality. Thank you.
[tense, pulsing music]
Great. Let's check out the app.
[Jessica] Yeah, let's see it.
So let's just look briefly here through the application.
Let's just say we like the products that we see here.
So this way I can find the pieces that I need in real time.
But not only that. I want to try out
one of these pieces in my space.
So I've got here a table on the right side.
My hand's a little shaky.
What I can do is drag and drop that product right in there.
And then I can walk around it and interact with it.
But I can also do it with other pieces.
I can just drag this in there.
[Gwyneth] Oh, wow. [Jessica] There you go.
Markerless AR with no additional hardware.
-That is very cool. -[will.i.am] Wow, that's awesome.
By the way, let's change the color.
[Gwyneth] Look, look! There's a shadow on Jessica's name.
[Andrew] So I can take a snapshot of these.
[shutter clicks]
And I can post this and say,
"Hey, look. Does this work in my space?"
But then you could also use this for fashion. [Andrew] That's right.
-How do you scan people's bodies-- -As a platform.
And then you're like-- Basically you only get
the clothes that are gonna look right on your body,
and you won't get offered anything else.
I think this is a great idea.
Is anyone else doing this?
They can't because they don't have the technical expertise.
And I will tell you that the home design furnishing space,
with respect to augmented and virtual reality,
is severely lacking in technical competence.
Andrew, one more time. You're telling me and this panel
that well-funded start-ups,
that have tens of millions of dollars in funding,
don't have the ability to create AR implementation into their apps?
That's right.
[stammering] Please explain that.
Because it's hard to find the computer-vision
and machine-learning talent that you need in order to build this.
I totally disagree.
Well, the reality is, it's hard to find those folks. We've found them.
And we're actually getting into the situation where--
You are the exclusive lock up of AR talent?
No, of course not. Come on. I mean, please.
-But the reality is we've done it enough-- -How old is the app?
We actually released Pair in 2015.
How many monthly active users of this product?
Right around 14,000 monthly active user base.
[Jessica] How do you make money?
These retailers actually put product in here.
Any time you see it or you go to buy it,
then that's when we get a cut.
Have you raised money so far?
-We have raised money from-- -How much?
So we've raised to-date just over a million dollars.
And how much are you looking to raise now?
We're raising six million dollars
in order to expand significantly our market presence.
Not only do we look at this as a home furnishings start.
But we see this for any product that you want to try or buy. As a platform.
We're starting to take core pieces of our technology
and open them up to the developer community
so we can start being that SDK, that application, that framework
for augmented reality apps on mobile.
We're markerless AR.
Markerless AR is devastatingly difficult.
No, no. I understand what you're talking about.
By the way, you're doing a very nice job here.
You've actually completely sold me on the tech advantage.
Would you be open at all
to really thinking about a B2B environment
and not just a consumer play?
Absolutely. We're already doing that.
-Seriously, because I need-- -I'm deadly serious.
The reason I say that is because--
Let me just get to the punchline with that.
-I'm going to switch to a "yes"... -Great.
...because that makes it far more interesting for me.
I like your vision, but you know this space is really, really crowded.
So...
-You're staying red. -Yeah, I'm gonna stay red.
What I love so much about this
is the idea that you can take something so aspirational,
like an interior designer,
and bring it to the masses.
So I'm going to stay in.
I think I would be a great partner for you
because A, I know how to scale a business.
I know how to pivot quickly.
I care about data, analytics, strategy.
All the things that hit home for you.
But I also know the consumer.
And I have that gut and that intuition, and so far
it's been right.
And now it's your time to make your decision.
Who do you want to partner with?
Well, I've heard a lot of great feedback from all of you.
But Jessica, I think you got the fire and the background that we need
to take Pair to the masses.
Awesome. So we'd love to have you onboard.
Yes.
Come on up.
-[Jessica] This is killer. -[Gwyneth] Good choice.
-[Andrew] Thank you. -Congratulations.
Thank you.
[Gwyneth] Pinterest needs him so bad.
All my friends in fashion, they're all trying to figure out how to...
Oh, it's coming. ...get more efficient.
-It's super coming. -Even if you bring it in their store...
It's coming. Yeah.
Dude, you crushed it.
Thanks. You absolutely crushed it.
Why Jessica ultimately?
Jessica brings to the table so much,
from understanding our consumer,
being able to hit the market just right,
and really being part of our core demographic.
Which is just perfect. Yeah.
On to the next, man. Congratulations. Thank you.
See you in the next stage. Appreciate it.
[man 1] Stepping out and tucking back, everybody. Thank you.
Let's do it, boys.
[man 2] Let's go, baby. [woman] Let me just have you...
-[man 1] Everybody set. -Showtime, boys. Come on.
I'm James Ricciardi. I'm Bradley Gifford.
I'm Peter Kazickas, and we're the co-founders of Twist.
There's a ton of dating apps out there,
but 99% of matches made on these apps never meet in the real world.
You know, I'm swiping. I'm doing all this,
but it's not really leading to much, especially nothing meaningful.
The meet up rate on these other apps average at 0.824%.
How can a $2.5 billion industry have a success rate of 0.824?
That's incredible.
So we thought, "We gotta change this."
[man on PA] Three seconds . Let's do it.
There are thousands of dating apps out there.
-But to be honest with you, they all suck. -[chuckles]
There's 60 million single millennials living in the United States,
spending over two billion dollars a year on online dating,
but online dating as it exists today doesn't work.
We give our users a list of events and venues going on around them,
where they can see what their options are,
and they can only unlock a guest list
after they choose where they want to go.
So if they do have a chance to meet with somebody,
all they have to do is show up to the place
and have a chance at having a real, meaningful connection.
Our society has reduced us down to swipes and likes.
Our goal at Twist is to get you out of that virtual world,
back into reality, where you can swipe less and meet more.
[tense, pulsing music]
All right, let's do it.
Here's your opportunity to turn reds to greens.
With that, I just want to see the app now.
Yeah, no problem.
It's a pretty straightforward design.
You can swipe through to see different events
that are happening within the area.
Whether they're concerts, they're venues,
they're music festivals.
If you want to invite anybody to join you,
you can press the plus sign to sync from your contacts.
But then once you join,
you're essentially at a dating app.
And from here you can scroll through the list of attendees,
but we start by just showing you the list.
So the event is the gateway drug to the dating?
-That's the filter. Exactly. -Understood.
So... [sighs]
I'd choose a place.
And it opens up,
and I scroll through,
and there are hundreds of potential folks, right?
-Mm-hmm. -But I'm only really into one, kind of.
But I'm free Tuesday night, so I'm gonna go.
Now, every one of the hundreds of other folks that I didn't like,
they now have access to my photo.
Now I go to this event,
and they're getting on me, right?
Well, we-- That's the--
Especially if you put your photo on there.
-But what if they're into you, you're not into them. -Right.
-The protection of that whole-- -[Gwyneth] Right.
Now you've created a situation where you're creating a confrontation.
Now it's like, "Oh wait, I really liked you."
"I didn't like you."
Ninety-seven guys are like, "There's this one hot girl."
[Peter] No. We have thought about that.
So we don't-- It's not unlimited swipes.
But even if there's three dudes that wanna holla,
and you're like, "I never want to talk to you."
I-- I mean...
We have considered making your profile visible or not visible.
But how are people going to even be interested in going to the event
unless they can visibly see who the hell they're gonna hook up with?
And to Jess' point, and she's right-- Just help me here.
I just want to make sure we're right, because we're bashing on it.
Once she's in there, right? There's Corey.
And if everybody decides Corey is the cutest girl,
what Jess is worried about is, "I'm going there just for you."
Now you go the event, and it's a sausage fest. Ain't nothing but dudes.
Twenty dudes trying to holla at one girl. [will.i.am] At that one girl.
Look at poor Corey's face.
I think you need to consider more than you.
And bring in some women. Yeah.
And have their voice also sit at the table
-and talk to you about their realities. -About?
Because that's just immediately how I feel.
-Are you still red? -Still red.
-All right, Gary. You're still red? -I'm still out.
Because I have sisters, I'mma stay red.
Because I don't want my sister
and my cousin Mimi, who is hot, who looks like Beyoncé,
to have any more pressure than she already has
going to the club with a bunch of hawks and vultures swarming around her.
Great. Thank you.
I'm going to change to red,
but I admire the impetus behind what you are doing.
[Gary] Good luck. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
[Bradley] Thank you.
Oh, man.
That was a bunch of dudes making stuff up for dudes.
Yeah. They didn't consider the girl.
How are ya? How are ya?
How are you feeling? Just right now.
I feel a little bit down,
but I also feel more motivated than I have in my entire life.
It's important that we address some of these concerns
and come up with ways to make people feel safer.
This was supposed to be a step on, in one way.
But you might have to take a step around to get back there.
-Good luck, guys. -Thank you.
[narrator] Like the gentlemen from Twist,
dozens of developers failed to impress the advisors.
I founded Walk with the mission to make the world walkable.
Walk towards Starbucks, make a right at Chase bank.
Unfortunately the 60 second escalator pitch is all we have to go on.
[narrator] For these tech entrepreneurs,
the pitch is their chance to take their business to the next level.
Silo uses a tap on the wrist reminding you to take breaks
and nudging you when it's time to get back to work.
-[Gwyneth] Aww. -Ooh.
[narrator] But, sometimes,
no matter how prepared you are, it's just not your day.
Skootch is a word game where you form words
on a 5 by 5 grid,
competing against a timer.
Okay. Thank you.
Language barriers are
the most common communication barriers
which cause misunderstandings and misinterpretations between people.
-Oof. -I do think it's not clearly defined yet,
what the business actually is.
-Thank you so much. -Thank you.
I'm sorry.
You use your smart phone's camera
to see our science fiction characters
fight each other on physical objects in your world.
-Oh, God. It's so hard. -[groans]
[man on PA] Okay, guys, we're starting pitches. Starting pitches.
Okay.
[narrator] Watching other developers fail can be tough.
But you can't let that dampen your enthusiasm.
So it's gonna open and we're gonna--
It's gonna be enough space that we both can open together.
[woman] Yeah, we're gonna kill it.
I'm Jake. I'm Lexie.
[together] And we're the founders of Companion.
[Lexie] Jake and I have been friends since high school,
but we started working on Companion sophomore year of college.
An assault happened on campus,
and Lexie was there within ten minutes.
She said, "That could have been me,
if I would have stayed at the library an extra five minutes."
Then I started thinking about my sister.
She lives in New York City.
And there hasn't been a night
where she doesn't call me when she's walking home late from work.
[Lexie] Since we're only 22,
Jake and I have never done anything like this before.
But we really do believe that if we execute this right,
our app can save lives.
[Zane] Which one of the four advisors do you really want,
ultimately if it came down to it?
I think Gary. Yeah, I think Gary.
They're all so amazing. We'd be happy with any of them.
You can't go wrong. But Gary definitely is someone we'd love to get advice from.
[bell rings] Good luck, guys.
[man on PA] Here we go.
Let's do it. Let's do it.
...2, 1, action .
While students at the University of Michigan,
we both noticed a big problem.
Safety is a huge issue.
We'd been made aware of robberies and assaults on campus,
but there was no way for us to be proactive about this.
That's why we decided to build Companion.
The Companion app allows users to invite anyone in their contact book
to virtually ensure their safety.
If they ever feel unsafe or nervous,
they can automatically reach out to their circles,
who will then be empowered to step in and help.
So we'd love for you to join us on our mission to improve lives
by democratizing safety for everybody.
[tense, pulsing music]
-[Jessica] Wow. -[Lexie] Thank you.
-You have four greens. -[Lexie] Wow.
[Jessica] All right, guys. Tell us about your app.
I'm going to walk you guys through a user case of me being the user.
As you can see, I'm on the left.
So all I do is, I input my home address.
My next step would be to add companions from my contact book.
And on my end, as a companion,
I get the request to be your companion.
And I'm obviously going to swipe on that and hit "yes."
And I'm going to be taken to the watcher screen within the app.
It's a very simple screen. It has a start and end location
and where she's located currently.
I can see when she's about to arrive.
And if anything happens during the trip,
we'll be able to reach out to her with just one tap.
[Lexie] So during my trip, if anything goes wrong,
like if I fall or begin running, drop my phone,
a number of safety triggers like that,
my phone will immediately pick up on that
and ask me if I'm okay.
So I have 15 seconds to respond.
And if I don't respond...
this happens and I go into alert mode.
-[alarm beeping] -Sorry.
-My phone projects loud noises... -[alarm stops]
...to hopefully deter anybody around me
who could potentially harm me.
And my companions will be notified to check in on me.
And what about once you get home? Then what happens?
So it will automatically end.
She'll be notified that we ended the trip,
and I'm notified that she got there safe.
Now most people that I know who have been robbed or mugged
or in compromising situations--
It's always happening once they're in their door.
So we actually built in a feature recently because of that reason.
You can turn on a toggle
that will give you the power to say, "I am safe."
So the app won't end the trip automatically.
So what about when Facebook turns on this as a feature, right?
Yeah, and I love when people ask that question,
because I think that makes sense in a lot of other industries.
But I don't think that makes sense in this industry.
You see companies trying to mimic other people's ideas all the time.
Like Facebook Slingshot.
They poured millions and millions of dollars
to try to develop a copy of Snapchat.
And it failed, even though it had Facebook's name on it.
Yeah, but Lexie, we're living right now
in the middle of Instagram copying every single Snapchat feature,
and it's working.
So I think the reason for that is that
we're building a brand that's synonymous with trust.
How many users do you have?
We have 1.3 million users.
Already? Right now. Already, yeah.
And how long has it been out? [Lexie stammers]
A year. Exactly a year and one month.
How much are you trying to raise?
[Lexie] We do really want to raise
our Series A of three million dollars.
What about money?
Sure. [Gary] How are you gonna make a business?
Because you could have started a non-profit. You didn't.
So where's the business model here?
So we have two revenue streams that we're looking into.
One is an enterprise solution providing the data to, at first, universities.
We have 20 universities lined up to be a part of this service.
University of Michigan being the first.
Do you have enough data to make it worthwhile to UM?
We do. And we're constantly looking at that.
We haven't released the data because we're not ready to show it to people yet.
But we're collecting it in big cities.
Mostly New York, LA, Chicago, London are our biggest cities.
And especially college campuses.
And we see these universities as a stepping stone.
You can sell this to government and larger organizations
that can really benefit from this kind of information.
But the university is such a great bubble to really hone this before we go big.
That gets me really excited.
All right, guys. Are you in or are you out?
What I love is that, we live in, and are going through,
a period of time where technology has isolated so many of us.
Our kids are on YouTube. And it's sort of old-fashioned, you know--
It's like saying to your friend's mom, "I'm gonna walk home this way," and--
[Jessica] Exactly. It's really sweet.
But I don't know how my skillset can help you.
I would use it.
I love it, but I'm gonna be out.
[will.i.am] Coming from a very bad neighborhood,
I get the problem you're trying to solve.
I don't think you solved it. So I'm moving to red.
I'm out. Sorry.
Thank you for coming up with a real solution and a real tool.
Yes, as mothers, we are so grateful. [Jessica] It's so important.
-Thank you, guys. -We really appreciate it.
[Jessica] But I'm not sure if I'll be able to offer
the degree of expertise that you will need.
So I'm gonna pass.
[Gary] I think I know how to build brand. I think Vayner Media,
750 people that know both math and quant marketing
and branding and video. So listen.
Literally every single major company in the world
is going to have their version of this.
But I...
[buzzes lips, exhales]
I just think I really, genuinely, am the right partner for you.
So... Would you like to work with me?
[together] Gary, we would love to work with you.
Yay! Yay!
[Jake] Awesome.
-This is great. -[Jake] Thanks, man.
Thanks, man. Really, really, really believe it.
Such a pleasure. Thank you. I really appreciate it.
Great meeting you guys. Thank you. Bye.
[Jake whoops]
That was sick. We did it.
Oh, my God.
Awesome.
[Gary] They have such a nice friendship.
They really do. It's really sweet.
All right, well done. Congratulations. Thanks, man.
Thank you. It was so fun.
Great result in the end.
What is it about Gary that you were so keen to work with on Companion?
-Gary is in the start-up ecosystem. -Yeah.
[Jake] And we really want to get that experience he has...
-Yeah. -...and be able to learn from it.
That's what was really important to us.
[Zane] I think it's fantastic you made it this far.
I can't wait to see what comes from incubation with Gary V.
Get ready, though, 'cause he's a monster. You know that, right?
We need that though. We need somebody to push us.
All right. Good. We're ready.
[bell rings]
[man on PA] Riser, you're clear.
[Gwyneth] We're done!
[narrator] With six weeks until
their final pitch with the venture capitalists,
the developers move on to an accelerated incubation phase.
Their goal? To make their businesses bulletproof
before they ask for funding.
[Gary] This is my favorite part of the process.
This transition.
Now we get to see the warts.
Now I really get to see if they've got the chops,
what the problems are, what the opportunities are.
This is really where the rubber hits the road.
[narrator] Gary arrives to Vayner Media
for his first meeting with Lexie and Jake from Companion.
But the morning's news is not good.
Just now, Google has launched Trusted Contacts.
Which is-- I mean, I'm just reading it.
I can't see how this isn't exactly Companion.
We're both so excited to be here,
just because we know how passionate Gary is about building things.
We know how detail-oriented he is.
It's gonna be so good for us
to have the opportunity to sit down one-on-one with him
and really hash out everything.
I'm curious with what bull-- [bleeps] they're gonna come up with
on why this is not an issue.
Because this is a straight up atomic bomb to their business.
You guys saw this, right?
-Yeah, I did. -Should I be as scared as I am?
Um, It's not their bread and butter.
I mean, Google's working on it,
and I think that just validates our mission.
I've been in 50 rooms when
"This validates our mission"... [both] Mm-hmm.
...is the last thing somebody says before they're dead.
I think that what's going to differentiate us is that our brand is--
Let me tell you something.
Let me tell you the last thing you should talk about
when Google copies your product.
Brand.
-We're gonna lose. -[Jake] Right.
We're gonna lose.
[Lexie] Yeah, we were freaked out. We knew you were going to bring it up.
Of course I'm gonna bring it up! You know what's funny? I'm here to help you.
Like to me-- I just wanted to be on the show
and I just do whatever now, and make some funny quotes to them.
And, like, everything's cute. It's horse-- [bleeps]
Like, the reason I think you hit a grand slam of having me
is I'm gonna-- I'm here.
I need you guys to know that this is a bigger deal than you think.
-[Lexie] Okay. -I'm sad that this great accomplishment
now means kind of not that much.
-[Jake] Right. -What you still have is a base.
But what you have to do is really now think.
To kind of give you a clearer picture, this summer we tested out a new product,
where we realized that a lot of people were using our app every night,
but their companions were passively watching them.
So their mom might have been washing the dishes.
Their friend might have been taking a nap.
We gave about 2,000 of our most active users access to Companion Plus.
And what it was, was that, when they started the trip,
they also had the opportunity to add someone from Team Companion
to make sure they were safe on their way home.
This is something that people do want.
I think that this feature goes way beyond Google.
Are you guys willing to make that your product?
Yeah, for as much as you pay for Netflix,
you can have this kind of on-demand security for you.
We were thrown a curveball
with Google coming out with a very similar product to Companion.
Which made us take a step back
and look at our vision as a whole to see how we can refine it.
And if Jake and I don't deliver on what we need to accomplish,
it's a pretty scary thought about what could happen.
[sighs] If that's the case,
you have to get over a huge emotional hurdle,
which is literally everything you've been doing up to now
becomes ten percent of the equation.
Let's just get to the punchline. You're starting over.
All right. At the airport headed to Boston.
Meet with some of our clients.
Left the house about three hours ago.
Backed up on traffic, but that's all right.
Get in about 9:00 p.m. tonight to the hotel.
Quick rest, and then, uh,
meetings, meetings, and back home.
Just... That's the life.
[narrator] Having been on the road enlisting additional partners for Pair,
Andrew arrives to Honest Company to meet with Jessica.
How's your family?
Me being gone a lot makes it hard.
'Cause then we gotta find family or sitters or--
[Jessica] Right. So there's-- there's a lot.
How's that going? There's a lot going on.
-It's going okay. -[both laugh]
It's challenging. It's tough, right?
What's your income? Where's that coming from?
-It comes from the company. -It's this.
Yeah, that's it. Right.
And so, you know, there's...
Times off and on, I don't take salary,
and we just have to eat beans and rice with all the kids,
and they just have to grin and bear it.
So things get tough around home.
Especially when you're on the road so much.
I rarely get to see my kids.
This is a large bet. That's the risk you got to take.
It's definitely going to be worth it in the long run.
In the furnishings industry specifically,
or really in the product kind of branding industry,
a lot of them don't have apps.
So what we're thinking about doing is taking our new design
-and basically let-- -Letting them skin it.
Yeah, letting them, like, white label it.
That way it utilizes our tech.
Oh, that's interesting.
Wait one second.
Midori.
You know how we do mockups of our products on shelves?
Mm-hmm. He has this app where you can do like a physical, 3D mockup.
And you can see how your branding works and swap it out
and just do it virtually versus having to rely on...
And outsourcing it. And outsourcing it.
I see a lightbulb go off over Jessica's head
about how Honest Company could use our larger scale technology internally.
They had a need for visualization.
They're buying other products
when they could be saving money and time with our technology.
[Andrew] I can change that chair in there
and it actually gets rid of the old one.
I know that our technology can fit multiple applications.
It's all about having that lightbulb go off.
And that's how I'm going to pitch to the investor.
It's really all about understanding
the scope and totality of what we're doing.
After embracing the pivot to their premium model, Companion Plus,
Jake and Lexie return to Vayner Media, where Gary discovers a new obstacle.
[Gary] Let's get to nuts and bolts,
what we're doing here from the VC standpoint.
How much money do you guys have?
[Lexie] We literally have $15,000 in the bank.
And our burn is-- We have our--
$7,000 a month is our burn.
-So you have two months to live. -Right.
-[Gary] So what happens? -That's what's hard here.
Straight up, you're just going to be out of business in three months.
-Right. -And that's not fun.
[Jake] It's not.
I mean, you have to figure out how to get $100,000 immediately.
You have to. Immediately.
Mm-hmm.
[sighs] So we have...
[stammers] It's not a lost cause. I need to just think for a second.
[Jake] Okay.
I got a task for you. [Lexie] Okay.
I need you to go do the homework on every security system
holding company family in America.
I need you to go look on Google-- Yeah.
The 15-20 families that own the biggest percentage
or privately-held security companies.
And I need you to cold email them.
-Cold emails? -Cold emails.
Obviously, it would be amazing if the VCs saw value in what we were building
and wanted to partner with us in any way.
But if they say no-- Either we raise money or the company dies.
We have to do it whether I like it or not.
You need money. [Lexie] Right.
And you need it tomorrow.
And everything you do from right now to the pitch--
Like, I swear on my children's life,
if you come to me and don't prove to me,
through documentation of emails and phone calls,
that you've spent every minute on it, I won't take the meeting.
Okay.
I just tapped here on this one.
And it opened all those.
[narrator] Andrew returns to Honest with an exciting new idea:
that at its heart, the core of his business is not the app itself,
but the technology behind it.
Jessica enlists Katherine Power,
Co-founder and CEO of the global media and consumer brand company Clique Media,
to help clarify his mission statement.
Does anyone else have the capability to put multiple items
in a space that is the true size of the item?
We have one competitor that has the same ability to do multiple pieces.
Just so you know, from a technical perspective, it's called SLAM.
It's Simultaneously Localizing And Mapping.
So what's it's doing is telling you where you are visually.
It's also mapping the space.
Is it a B2B or is it a B2C?
The way we look at it is B2B2C.
Is there an exit scenario based on the consumer-facing product?
Uh-- Not really.
So we use that as our stepping stone.
The goal is to have this very large mapping capability
that's on every camera on the planet.
And so we get that by bootstrapping these maps.
So whenever you use Pair in your home,
you're building a map of your space.
You're giving information to understand it so we can give you better recommendations.
So all these things, right?
And as you build that out, then access to that map
becomes really important for any other camera on the planet.
Because what it does, is it gives you geolocation.
So mapping is the end game for you. That's right.
It's almost like bringing Google Maps inside the environments.
-That's right. -When he really honed in on what actually excites him,
it opened up this whole world of possibilities
of where his business can go.
We would have double down on the tech that we're building to make it--
-Right, because that is the thing... -To make it implementable.
...that no one else has. But if you see an opportunity
to make something lifechanging with technology,
-that's what you should go after. -Mm-hmm.
[Andrew] Going into this venture capital pitch,
we are a technology solution as opposed to a consumer front,
and I'm confident that they'll understand what we're doing
and see that we're a leader in that.
I'm going to compile a list of just Midwest home security companies.
[Lexie] Jake and I are really feeling the pressure.
Knowing that we're going get in front of four venture partners.
We're trying to stay as optimistic as possible.
We can help them disrupt the space if they want to be our partner.
We want to show AR first,
and then walk them through the kind of build-your-room type of thing.
[man on speaker] Great. Yeah.
I know that I've got the right team
and I've got the right technology.
The question now is, can we convince everybody else that we do as well?
[Jessica] Asking anybody for money sucks.
So they have to be very clear about who they are, what they're doing,
and make that VC feel like they're going to miss out
if they don't jump on this opportunity.
[narrator] After six weeks of accelerated incubation,
Pair and Companion head to one of the world's premier venture capital firms,
Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Lightspeed was the first investor in Snapchat
and currently has over 4 billion dollars under management.
My plan for the pitch is to really sell them on the vision--
[stammers] of our technology, really,
away from being kind of consumer focused.
I think the most important thing is talking about what your mission is,
and as much as you can kind of lean in on how you are so different
than anyone else that they might compare you to.
-Mm-hmm. -If you really are different from your competitors,
make sure that they know that. Absolutely.
-The promise of AR. -Excellent.
[tense, pulsing music]
I would like to present Andrew from Pair.
-Thank you, Jessica. -Yeah.
I am Andrew Kemendo, CEO and founder of Pair,
and we're asking for 4 million dollars.
Okay.
You might notice that over the past five years
there's been almost 5 billion dollars pushed into augmented reality.
-[Jeremy] We have noticed that. -[Andrew] That's right. You know all about them.
And it's all the biggest companies in the world trying to do it,
but it's not quite ready yet.
There's a big critical piece missing
that a lot of people have not really been working on,
and that is what's called localization.
What that means is, if I wanted to put a box or some object
right here in front of me today in AR,
and then I give you all your own devices to see in AR,
you would not today be able to see my box.
That's a critical piece missing.
It's absolutely critically necessary for AR to work everywhere.
What we're really talking about is creating maps.
We're creating large scale, effectively crowd-sourced,
geolocalized maps of 3D content and the environments around them.
We're building those maps that you need for AR everywhere.
It's going to be a critical piece of infrastructure.
You're taking photos with a phone.
Effectively. You're creating a 3D mesh,
importing that in AR at a localized point in space.
-That's right. -You're not the only company doing SLAM.
Absolutely not.
SLAM is Simultaneous Localization and Mapping.
I did not understand the words that came out of your mouth.
-[Alex] I apologize. -It's hard to understand.
Okay, but this is what we do for a living, is we try to understand new technology.
Totally. And it could be that we don't understand.
Or it could be that you're not explaining it very well.
What is different about what you're doing
than what everyone else is doing?
We've figured out the pattern that you need
in order to create 3D maps from these images on a consumer device.
-Let's just take a step back. -Sure.
I'd love to just understand the whole consumer experience of the app.
-Absolutely. -So maybe you could give us
a demonstration of exactly what the app does.
-Sure. Well-- -From the very first screen.
So we've got the largest 3D catalogue on the market for AR.
Over 15,000 products: Wayfair, Herman Miller, Vitra, and six others.
We just signed deals with Restoration Hardware,
and we're actually doing a deal with Honest Company
to create an enterprise solution for them
so they can save money on their mockups.
Hm.
You would see a feed of inspiration images
just like you would on Instagram or Pinterest and any of these others.
If you find one that you like, you can then choose that object,
and then you can drag-and-drop those objects in 3D
into your space and walk around them.
What excited me about Andrew and this app is,
something like furniture, you don't buy it a bunch,
so those purchases are-- They're intense.
You want to see what it's like in your environment.
And the hassle of getting something delivered and then removed
and I just thought the ease of these companies using his product
and putting it in their shopping experience would just be awesome.
This is the early, early stages
and I was really attracted to you not being a me-too company,
but actually owning your IP,
and doing something different in this space.
Wait. So, hang on. The first half of this presentation was about the mapping.
That's right.
How is that relevant to this?
Because this is how we acquire the data
that allows us to do the mapping.
So the question is, are we investing in an e-commerce mobile app
that has a great shopping experience,
or are we investing in an SDK company
that's working with companies to build someone else's app?
What's the company, Andrew?
It's the latter.
That's the big play. That's the billion dollar play.
So not the app on the screen. That's correct.
That is a big play in and of itself. And that can win--
-Pick one, man. -The billion dollar play is the SDK
and building the ecosystem for AR development.
-Who owns the maps? -We own the maps.
What's the revenue model for an SDK company?
Who cares? He owns the maps.
-[Alex] But the maps are-- -He's going to crowdsource a model of the world.
That's right. These other people are going to be
out there creating these maps
in every single house, or whatever it is, or on the street in the world.
You think of it as a crowdsourced Google 360 but with an actual map.
But it's not Waze where I'm doing it in the real world.
I'm doing it in my living room?
At the end of the day we want to be on every camera on the planet.
Okay.
This is not what I thought it was going to be.
You allow other developers to put AR functionality into their apps,
you get to crowdsource a 3D model of the entire world, and you own it?
That feels like a valuable asset.
I actually agree with you.
I just think that conversation and that thought is being articulated
by some product manager inside of bigger companies.
And they have all the access to the low-level sensor data on the phones.
And they have all the app developers already
'cause they distribute the apps themselves.
So they can just build this directly into the operating system.
I mean, this really is a bridge-enabling technology
for a ton of new applications
that a ton of new developers are going to build on.
The only question is just, what's his advantage of doing that?
Over the bigger companies that already control the OS
and already control the data?
[Alex] Andrew, I think your highly technical team
has built something impressive.
But this stuff's really complicated,
and you gotta get better at explaining it.
That said, we're not yet clear
what the business model is or how to scale this.
So at this time, we're not going to invest.
-Great. Thanks. -[Alex] Thanks so much.
[Jessica] Thank you, guys.
[Andrew] It could have been the case,
that had we just stuck with our e-commerce platform
it would have been a different outcome.
But that's the decision I made
and the team backed up.
We took a risk on it,
and it didn't get the outcome from the venture side
that we had anticipated.
[pulsing techno music]
First and foremost, I totally have your back.
Like, if anything that I think you're dropping,
I'm not letting you get beat up. I'm gonna beat the [bleeps] outta them.
So that's straight up. [Lexie] Okay.
But you'll get shredded here if we don't own our story
and they are real strong.
You think I push back?
I was your mentor. Right.
You've got the steak. We don't need to worry about the sizzle.
Let's go pitch.
[Jake] All right.
[tense, pulsing music]
-Welcome, guys! -[Lexie] Thank you.
-[Jake] Hey, how's it going? -[Gary] Hey, guys.
This is Jake and Lexie from Companion.
And I hope you're as excited as I am.
-Let's do it. -[Jake] Yeah. So let's get to it.
So we founded Companion at U of M when we were students
and we found a real need for safety on campus.
We developed Companion and released at U of M
and got a lot of great feedback.
Once we really had a great following there,
we released it nationally.
And we got a lot of amazing press
that grew our user base up to 1.3 million users,
700,000 downloads and 600,000 people who enjoyed our Web experience,
which allows users to watch people that have the app on the Web
if they don't have the app themselves.
And right now we're looking to raise
around 3 million dollars,
and that's going to give us 18 months of runway.
So product management and development? Yes.
To improve retention. Yup.
What have been the big changes in your app
since Gary has started advising you?
So essentially we've been around for about a year and a half,
and what we see is the people are really loving using their friends and family,
but there is an issue with people who passively watch.
So you can add your mom, or your dad, or your best friend,
but they might be watching a movie or doing some homework.
So what they really have been craving is someone who is a dedicated companion.
So we really are branching out
into a more premium feature called Companion Plus.
And it's a friend that you can always depend on.
So right now with our user base, we are transitioning our product
into an on-demand mobile-first security solution.
So we are giving friendly real-time operators to monitor your trip,
and they can monitor the critical information while you're watching.
And we can route that to responders
faster than you could with traditional 911 methods.
So it's ADT in my pocket?
-[Jake] Yes. -[Lexie] Exactly.
So, free version, family gets to watch me.
Yep. Paid version, professionals watch me.
Correct. You can still add your regular companions to that as well.
I think it's important to know that Google
has recently come out with a share-my-location feature.
So can you let us know how you think they're doing
and whether you believe they're a threat?
That feature is very similar to Companion,
but we're giving this premium service.
We're allowing professionals to monitor you,
and that's why we're going into the home security space.
We're trying to put that feeling of security right in your pocket.
[Gary] I think one thing we spent a lot of time on,
and I'm really proud of these guys,
is to always be scared of Google and Apple and everybody else
as we navigate the growth of this business.
That's fair, Gary.
So, once we talked to Gary and kinda bounced ideas off of him,
we decided to go ahead
and email hundreds of people in the home security industry.
Here are few of the biggest incumbents below.
What we really realized is that to continue being successful in this,
they're going to have to innovate to appeal to the emerging generations.
So we're in talks with many different home security companies right now,
in kind of integrating their software
and their monitoring and safety capabilities with our app.
Um, the biggest one that we're speaking to right now,
and that we've actually met with the CEO and executives there, is Alarm.com.
Is this growing organically through viral,
or are you paying for users?
We haven't spent any money on marketing whatsoever.
It's definitely organic. What we find is usually on the first trip,
we recommend that you use at least three.
So that's kind of our way to get that viral loop going again.
And then we'll see that, actually, one out of those three people
will then convert into an app user versus--
-So invite conversion rates at about 33? -Yup.
-[Jeremy] That's pretty good. -That's not bad.
What's the burn rate right now?
The burn rate right now is $8,000 a month, believe it or not.
-Is it just the two of you? -[Lexie] Yeah.
[Jake] Just the two of us, and we have student interns that we've worked with,
and we've been contracting out our development.
-Hustling. -You've done a lot, just the two of you.
-[Lexie] We're trying. -Sure have.
The beauty of an app like this, it has natural, organic virality.
You're literally sending a message to 3-5 of your best, closest friends
and asking them to watch your back.
The free app may grow organically,
but we have no idea how the paid side is going to do yet.
You guys think that this is selling a real service that has inherent value,
or is it selling the fear of the unknown?
There are so many products that we pay for that are fundamentally based on fear.
Health insurance. Earthquake insurance.
All these products are based on fear.
You guys started with an app on a college campus
that was fundamentally based in fear.
And you gave these users a chance to feel more safe on the ride home.
Daily growth has been great through PR,
but DAU and new user growth per day is only about 1,000.
Also, one of the biggest companies in the world, Google,
has only just a few weeks ago launched Share My Location.
We don't yet know how that's going to do,
especially with the exact same user base as you guys.
I disagree with you there, Nicky.
The way that Google released it,
it's about letting Gary know that I'm running late for lunch,
and he can see how late I am,
or it's trying to keep track of my kids.
But it doesn't have this very specific keep-me-safe use case
that just drives a hole right through the market.
I admire the way that you've stuck with this
since you started it in college.
The fact that your cohorts have gotten better and bigger every six months
without any marketing spend, it truly is viral,
and so with enough patience, you should see the growth.
The challenge is, to really accelerate that,
you're going to need to do some sort of marketing spend.
And you guys don't know anything about that.
[Alex] We think there's still a lot to learn here.
But we think this is a big space,
and we think the traction you've shown
means that your team has figured out
how to grow and iterate without even a dollar spent.
We'd like to invest one million dollars on your last valuation
and help you really scale this company.
Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
Oh, my gosh.
[Lexie] I'm so happy.
Do you guys accept our offer?
[Lexie] A thousand times, yes.
[Nicole] Congratulations.
Oh, my God. Thank you so much.
Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.
[Jake] I don't even know how to describe how I'm feeling right now.
The fact that they have said, "Yes, we want to work with you
and really be a partner in this--"
I mean, it's more than Lexie and I could have ever have asked for.
I think there's three options:
Either I'm in a simulation, a hologram or a parallel universe.
And I'm still weighing my options right now,
but everything we've been working for and hoping for just came true,
so I just am so happy.
-[Lexie] What just happened? -[Jake laughing]
[Gary] Your life just changed. That's what happened.
[Jake] Oh, my God.
[narrator] You've heard Lexie and Jake's story.
Now's your chance to get the Companion app.
You can also download Pair
and all the apps featured in this episode
on the App Store now.
[pulsing tech theme]