The show is Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch, and it challenges contestants to pitch their company to our board of investors during a 60-second ride to the boardroom. If the investors like what they hear, the elevator doors open, and the negotiations begin. If they don't like what they hear, the elevator goes back to the ground floor, and the entrepreneurs leave empty-handed.
Negotiations can be tricky, with investors typically digging into the weeds of every tiny facet of a business, from sales traction to overhead costs to team member qualifications. But this week, our board asked some unexpected questions that rattled contestants down to their core:
- You gave a great pitch, but does that mean you have a great product?
- What is to stop a big corporation from swooping in, iterating on your concept and pushing you out of business?
This intense episode has big questions — and bigger investments. Watch and learn from the entrepreneurs who can stay on their feet and convince investors to push their worries aside and take a gamble on the next big thing!
Negotiations can be tricky, with investors typically digging into the weeds of every tiny facet of a business, from sales traction to overhead costs to team member qualifications. But this week, our board asked some unexpected questions that rattled contestants down to their core:
- You gave a great pitch, but does that mean you have a great product?
- What is to stop a big corporation from swooping in, iterating on your concept and pushing you out of business?
This intense episode has big questions — and bigger investments. Watch and learn from the entrepreneurs who can stay on their feet and convince investors to push their worries aside and take a gamble on the next big thing!
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Hello, investors. Welcome to the elevator. Going up. I'm Mark Randolph, co-founder and
00:11first CEO of Netflix. I'm Kim Perel, CEO of 100.co and serial entrepreneur. I'm Dhani
00:17Jones, former NFL player, serial entrepreneur. And today I'm seeking entrepreneurs who will
00:22elevate our daily lives. This is Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch presented by Amazon Business.
00:37Our first entrepreneur of the day is revolutionizing plant care with a groundbreaking invention.
00:56Going up. Hello, Abesh. Welcome to the elevator. Your pitch begins in 3, 2, 1.
01:10Hi, my name is Abesh and I'm the founder of Flora. I'm here seeking $500,000 in exchange
01:16for a $7 million valuation for my company. If you're anything like me, you're unfortunately
01:22a serial plant killer, but you're not alone. 70% of the U.S. in terms of households suffer
01:28from horticultural hopelessness. And it leads to a tune of over $23 billion lost yearly
01:34in the U.S. in plants, landscapes, and gardens. I was wondering why isn't there something
01:40out there that tells me exactly what my plants need to thrive. And that's why I invented
01:46the Florapod. The Florapod is a magical patented smart plant monitor that tells you exactly
01:52what plant vitals your plants are feeling for moisture, light, temperature, humidity,
01:56and more to keep your plants thriving. It can be used indoors or outdoors for your vegetable
02:02and garden beds. And the Flora app can be used without the hardware and boasts a community
02:08of more than 300. Oh. 60 seconds is up. The good news, he got the ask in number one. Just
02:16in time. No, in the first five seconds, he like made the ask. I'm here for 500K. I actually
02:22never seen that. Although, you know, the pitch did have some issues to it. It was the type
02:27of pitch where in my head I was going, oh my God, that's a great idea. He's speaking
02:31to a very real need. But, you know, as always, should I evaluate the pitch or should I evaluate
02:37the product? Yeah, and a lot of people that are out there now, you know, whether you have
02:42pets or whether you have plants, you're in tight spaces and you want to make sure that
02:45everything lives and lives well. Well, do you guys think we should take it to a vote? Yeah, I think so.
02:49Attention, Arbesh. Your pitch has been approved. Let's go. Welcome to the boardroom. Plant King,
03:13arise. Thank you all for having me. There's some big leaf energy in this room. I'm feeling it.
03:19I'm loving it. I'm so grateful for this opportunity. Thank you, guys. We're interested in learning
03:23more. You got cut off at the end of your pitch. So I did. Oh, man. So we have some sub questions
03:29and we are plant challenged, or at least I'm very plant challenged. So I definitely could
03:34relate to the problem you're trying to solve. But how much revenue have you generated today?
03:38Lifetime revenue. We've been in business in terms of monetization for about three years.
03:42We just crossed about 600K thus far. Just give me some quick lightning round stuff.
03:48How is it sold? The way I like to describe it is two pieces. You've got the hardware,
03:53where we're selling direct to consumer, and then you've got the software component,
03:56where we have an app that is a freemium model subscription business. You could go and download
04:01Flora right now, start identifying, diagnosing plants. For that side of the business, we've
04:06actually reached 150K in annual recurring revenue just from subscriptions and people using the app
04:11alone. You currently have 150,000 in annual recurring revenue just from the app? Yes.
04:17That's amazing. Yeah. Thank you. He's a barracuda. He goes after it. He goes after
04:21that market. I love that. I want to know a little bit more about where you started off and why you
04:26love plants so much. Funny story is my mom has the greenest thumbs you will ever find. The story
04:31started when she gave me her prize rosebush plant that she had for years and years and years. I
04:35ended up taking that plant with my dear fiance, Anna, and we ended up killing it in eight short
04:40days. Eight days. You killed the plant. You went from a beautiful plant to a dead plant. Yeah,
04:44that FaceTime call with my mom was not pretty. Yeah, she was shocked just like you are. It was
04:49an emotional disappointment, right? There's a pain in losing something that's living,
04:53and I wanted to solve it for myself. I love all the hullabaloo, the whole founder story stuff,
04:59but I want to understand the product. The way to describe it is underneath that little
05:04white dome is a light sensor, a moisture sensor, a humidity sensor. You got that right. All
05:11transmitted to your cell phone. Exactly. Can we see the product? Absolutely. Yeah. Can we open it
05:17up? Yeah. So someone like Kim, in other words, can be in LA and checking on the health of her plants
05:23in Miami. That's literally what I'm doing right now. How do I know? So I have a money tree. It's
05:27my most valuable possession in my house. You have one too? I got a money tree. You have a money tree?
05:32I have a figurative money tree. To your point, Kim, the way it works, so you stick it into the
05:37plant, right? And in under a minute, we have you paired through our own custom pairing process to
05:42your phone. We use Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. So just like you said, Mark, I'm here in Florida. My
05:48plant's in Nashville. I'm literally getting live alerts on, hey, your tomatoes are actually a
05:52little bit thirsty because I know they're going through a dry spell right now. And so I get that
05:56live alert because it's hooked up to my Wi-Fi back at home. Plant by plant. So obviously you're going
06:01to tell me my money tree needs to be watered less than my orchid, which I can't keep alive either.
06:06You have one of these per plant? Per pot. That's right. You stick it in your money tree. Do you
06:10then go to the app and say it's stuck in a money tree? So we actually identify it for you. I
06:15actually built a custom computer vision model where we collected hundreds of thousands of images from
06:21people using our app when they were adding their plants. And so we trained our model to essentially
06:25identify the most common plants and houseplants that people are getting. So our free app lets you
06:30identify plants, diagnose plants. But the kicker, and Mark, I think you're going to like this,
06:35we have a social media-like feed of people asking questions, supporting one another,
06:39you know, sending each other thoughts and prayers on their dead plants where we literally have a
06:43plant graveyard for you. And that has led to an insane average engagement time per daily active
06:49user of 35 minutes. That's higher than that currently of Twitter. How much do they cost
06:54you to make them? The cost to land per floripod is about $16 is what we're targeting at the moment.
06:59Currently, on average, they sell for about 55 bucks a pop at retail. So we have margins,
07:05but the beauty of what we built, it's not just the hardware. It's not just the app. What I'm
07:10really trying to create here, guys, is sort of a one-stop shop for PlantParent. The way we build
07:15that up is through the subscription and the add-on. So we've actually started private labeling our own
07:20water misters, our own fertilizer. We've actually started selling plants directly to consumers
07:25through the partnerships that we built with other partners in the ecosystem.
07:28My vision is this is sort of just a foot in the door, right? The way that we scale all of that
07:35up, and we're seeing this happen right now. It seems to me that the hardware piece, to your
07:40point, sort of starts to beget the rest of the entire plant industry. Exactly. Is that also a
07:46potential distraction of the overall business? The way we've been able to balance it out is
07:51have the focus be on the technology, on the app, and the ecosystem. And because of the 150K in
07:56annual recurring revenue, we've been able to reinvest that into the hardware, into the supply
08:01chain. So with the investment that one of us can potentially make, what would you direct that money
08:06towards? So about 40% is going to go towards getting to economies of scale to get that $16
08:11cost per land for the floropods. Another 200K is going to go towards growth marketing. And then,
08:17last but not least, building out a full-time team. What is the landscape of other competitive
08:23apps for plant care? All the other apps have a really strong focus on plant identification.
08:29There's one other that does a good job in terms of the community element, but none of those guys
08:33have hardware differentiation, and none of those guys have built out the content proprietary
08:38database that we have. I like the fact that you have the software piece and the hardware piece.
08:43That social platform is incredible, but the distraction of working on the hardware,
08:48I think, might be too much of a challenge for your business. So for that reason,
08:53I'm going to have to pass. That's fair. I appreciate that. I like what you're doing.
08:58I like you. I think you're a great entrepreneur with a lot of passion about plants. Thank you.
09:04I also think it's early. I don't think you've actually figured out which path you're going
09:09to take from a revenue perspective. Like, maybe it's the community, maybe it's the hardware. I'm
09:13not sure. But I would be interested in investing $100K at the last round, which is $5 million,
09:18because that was basically six months ago. Okay. That's fair.
09:25Mark, are you interested? I also like what you're doing. And,
09:28Donnie, in some ways, you're correct that it's a defocusing aspect of hardware. It's awful.
09:34But in the other way, it's a very, very big differentiator. So I, too,
09:39want to participate. What I'd love to do is I'll put in $100,000, and we'll do it at the
09:45seven. But why don't you assume that it's the equivalent of $125,000 investment,
09:50even though it's a lot. It's 25K in value shares.
09:54Yes. So you got $100,000 at the former valuation, $125,000 at the current valuation.
10:01Think about it for a second.
10:13I would love to go with you, Mark. I think the $125K offer is more than fair. It keeps us in
10:18the same valuation as we're raising. Kim, I would love to stay connected. I love your background.
10:23But, Mark, I think you'd be the right guy for the job with your knowledge of
10:27membership-based subscriptions. Mark doesn't have a money tree,
10:30but now he does. And now he's got a good money tree. So this is yours for the taking.
10:33This is your money tree. Good job, Mark. Congratulations.
10:38Thank you so much. Thank you, guys.
10:42It's honestly all a blur right now. It's excitement, nervousness. And to have Mark
10:46come on board, he's going to be amazing and just, I feel like, a fun partner to work with.
10:52Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch is presented by Amazon Business
10:56for every organization at every stage of growth.
11:04Our next entrepreneur of the day is on a mission to bring women everywhere
11:09stylish on-trend accessories with her stationary brand.
11:21Going up.
11:30Hello, Kaylin. Welcome to The Elevator. Your pitch begins in three, two, one.
11:40Hi, I'm Kaylin Chandler. I am the CEO and founder of Eppie's Paper Stationery and Whatnot.
11:47I bootstrapped this business because there was not a lifestyle accessories company that
11:52spoke to women who look like me. We're online, and we sell our products on end caps at Walmart,
11:59in HomeGoods, and at hundreds of boutiques around the country.
12:04To increase profitability, we've added additional product categories,
12:08which has led to opportunities to create elevated swag for companies like Goldman Sachs and JP
12:14Morgan. And now we're entering the $4.6 billion collegiate athletic apparel market. I bleed
12:21maize and blue, but I'm married into the Sooner Nation. Women account for 42% of the collegiate
12:28fan base, yet only 7.6% of apparel sales. I am looking for a $100,000 investment
12:36to create stylish swag for collegiate women.
12:40Whoa, I was rooting for her to pull that out, and I think she finally did. You look like you're
12:46not quite impressed. I'm so confused. They're in Walmart? Are we going after collegiate women?
12:51I'm so confused. All I heard was Michigan. That's all I need to hear. That's enough for you? That's
12:58enough for me. We have to make decisions here. But when I hear my university, and look, so much of
13:03investing is relationship-based. Do you go to your school? Maize and blue. I went to my school.
13:08Maize and blue. I went to the University of Michigan. How did you miss that? I talk about
13:13it all the time. You know what's really interesting is three investors can hear the exact same pitch,
13:18and we all take it in differently based on our own personal experiences. On the other hand,
13:24it could be a case of what we investors call happy ears. You hear the thing you want to hear,
13:29and boom, you're there. I'm not sure what I'm going to do here. Shall we vote? Let's do it.
13:39Attention, Kaylin. Your pitch has been denied.
13:55So is it that easy for you? You just need to throw out the old alma mater and the checkbook
14:00comes out? Look, as I was saying, I saw a Michigan graduate. It doesn't matter whether
14:05they're doing a little bit of business or a lot of business. Investing is all relationship-based.
14:11If you went to the University of Michigan, I'm always going to welcome you in my boardroom.
14:15Relationships matter. I didn't hear enough to really give me the sense of what you did.
14:21What were the numbers? You were just swayed by the blue.
14:25I'm frustrated because the pitch wasn't as smooth as I wanted it to be. The time is ticking. The
14:31clock is ticking. Get your words out. Not my comfort zone right now, but it will become mine.
14:37I have no doubt. Next up, an entrepreneur who hopes to make Wi-Fi accessible anywhere, anytime.
14:50CleverFi is a new solution that allows anyone to connect to Wi-Fi automatically without having to
14:56ask for the password ever again. I was one of the first Airbnb in New York, and I realized that
15:00people struggle with technology. There's never anyone that can help you to support you. Oh,
15:05I can't connect, or the internet went away, and I realized that there is a way to automate all of that.
15:14Going up.
15:18Hello, Mario. Welcome to the elevator. Your pitch begins in three, two, one.
15:27Hello. What's the Wi-Fi password? How many times have you asked this question before?
15:33My name is Mario Soave. I am the founder of CleverFi, and we created a new solution that
15:38allows anyone to connect to Wi-Fi automatically and securely without having to ask for the
15:44password ever again. Our secret sauce is that you don't need an app to connect. You see,
15:49as an IT director, I've installed Wi-Fi for New York Fashion Week, and I had all kinds of problems,
15:56including cybercrime. And in my Airbnb, when the guests arrived and there was some issue with the
16:02Wi-Fi, they were not that savvy to solve it promptly, and so they had a better experience,
16:07and they left me a bad review. Fast forward, now CleverFi has launched, is generating some
16:12revenue in the hospitality, but we're also testing cafe, restaurant, and even businesses.
16:18With a patent granted in the U.S. and 11 other regions of the world, we're seeking for $200,000
16:23for 4% of our company. Thank you and ciao.
16:29An interesting pitch, an interesting industry, with so many different connected devices that
16:33are out there, it's got me thinking about this product and really how it fits into all these
16:38different companies. I certainly appreciate the depth of the problem, but you know, don't you
16:43have the Apple device where you basically share your password? I can just put my phone next to
16:47your phone and it just like shares automatically. I mean, is he saying he can do that for any device?
16:53I liked his charm. I just felt like the charm was a, I have some revenue.
16:58He got to it at the very end. Some revenue.
17:01Some revenue. Some revenue.
17:03Guys, I'd like some revenue too, but how much is some?
17:05A vote is necessary. Let's do it.
17:07Attention Mario, your pitch has been approved.
17:27Mario, welcome. Come on into the boardroom. That was a great pitch.
17:31Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.
17:33Something that's a little bit competitive to what Apple has. So we're curious, starting right there,
17:40how do you defend yourself against a company like Apple? That's a big behemoth that's doing
17:44kind of what you're exactly doing. Apple basically did a new technology
17:47that allows you to share a password between devices, and that only works with Apple devices.
17:53As you can see, when you travel with your family or your kids, they not only have Apple devices,
17:59and so this works with every device that you see here on the display.
18:03I'll be happy to show you a demo because I think it's the best to explain,
18:06is to actually show it, because there is a completely non-obvious approach
18:10to connecting to Wi-Fi. So I'll be happy to hand over to you like a couple of phones
18:14and show you how it works. So there are all these different types of phones?
18:17Yes, yes. It works for any different phone. For today, I brought some iPhone.
18:21You can unlock the phone. I'm going to get back here. So now what I'm going to do,
18:25I'm going to activate CleverFi. Let me start with you, Kim. And so I'm going to activate Kim.
18:32Let's simulate that Kim has made a reservation to a hotel, and Kim just went through the front
18:37desk and did a check-in, right? So usually when you do a check-in, they assign you a room,
18:41and there is a reservation that ties, you know, how much time you're going to be in that room,
18:45you know, like room 302 from Monday through Wednesday. So at that moment, CleverFi turns on
18:51in your room so that you can get to the room and all your device connects automatically. So
18:56basically, you register the first time with your mobile number. Once you register, then it connects
19:00automatically. It's kind of like having your home Wi-Fi that takes and travels with you.
19:04Right now, you sent us a text that says host Mario13. You have Wi-Fi name, your Wi-Fi password.
19:10Do we take this and put it into the Wi-Fi? Yes. I'm just looking. Something happened,
19:14but I'm not sure exactly what you mean. What's going to happen is that the phone
19:17will connect to Wi-Fi automatically, which it did for you, right? It did automatically.
19:21And did for you, right? Ah. You didn't need to go into the network and...
19:25Nothing. What I wanted to do with this is basically bring the same experience that
19:30we have at home. You know, I look at my daughter, like she was six years old. She arrived at
19:34grandma's house and she's already connected. She doesn't even think about connecting.
19:38Your pitch was great, but the part that you lost me at was you said, and there's some revenue.
19:45It means that we got revenue as a test. We test like hospitality, coffee shop, restaurant,
19:51and we're looking to find the best... But how much revenue?
19:5510,000 for the first year. So for this year, we're about to launch like a new solution,
20:01and we're projecting like 50,000. We're at the early days.
20:04I want to introduce you to Kim. It's too early, Perel. You basically have a cool technology you've
20:09spent three years developing, and now finally you're working full time on it. You're trying
20:13to figure out the right customer. So let's say that I'm a hotel. I have 800 rooms.
20:18Is there like a hotel price? Is there a chain price? Is that the objective here?
20:22Yes. So exactly. We charge per location and depending on the use case.
20:26The friction point is you need to get the person's cell phone number.
20:32Yes. Like it's tied to the phone number. Not you. I mean the hotel does.
20:35Yes. Or the coffee shop, or the prevention center.
20:39Correct. Which they usually have when people register. You know, through the registration,
20:43get their email, their phone number. Tell us about the patent.
20:46So yeah, I have a patent granted in the U.S. for method, software, and hardware.
20:50Now we obviously want to stay with software, and then I expanded in 11 other regions of the world.
20:55This is basically a corporate sales model, an enterprise sales model almost.
21:00You're not going to go coffee shop to coffee shop, and Airbnb to Airbnb.
21:03No. We do like chain, or like bigger, like you say.
21:06I mean, listen, you're just starting out, which is amazing, and I think everyone starts somewhere,
21:10so you've got to get into market, get market feedback, understand the pricing model,
21:15and then pivot if necessary. But as Mark said, it's unfortunately too early for me.
21:21So I'm going to pass.
21:22Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
21:25I think to myself, this is the type of company that is nascent for a little bit of time. You
21:30start to build some track record, and then all of a sudden a big company comes along
21:35and acquires you. Because of your current state, and because I don't know exactly which
21:40company would be the one that acquires you, I'm going to have to pass.
21:44Okay. Thank you.
21:46I'm fighting with myself, because there's certain investments where you're kind of getting this
21:51feeling that something big is going to happen. I travel a lot, and I do know the pain of
21:56logging in to hotels and passwords, and it's a big problem to solve.
22:02Problem is, it's a complicated ecosystem.
22:06Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to kick myself for not investing. I'm going to pass.
22:11I'm really sorry to hear that.
22:12I am too. So please, please go and make me regret this and prove me wrong,
22:17because I think it's a really cool technology the world needs.
22:21Prove us wrong. That's the great ability of any entrepreneur. When they come into a boardroom,
22:27and they may not get what they want, you still have an ability to do something great.
22:33Thank you so much, Mario.
22:34Good luck.
22:38It's been a blessing to be here, and it was a great experience. I know the world
22:43needs my solution, and it's just a matter of time until this is going to explode everywhere.
22:50The future of CleverFi is that not only is it going to make friction...
22:53Attention, Mario. Your presence has been requested back in the boardroom.
23:03Mario.
23:04Welcome back.
23:05I didn't think I'd see you back so soon.
23:06Yeah, me neither.
23:07This was such an interesting idea that, I mean,
23:10all of us were kind of talking as you were on your way down about how there was something here.
23:16It just wasn't quite at the point where I think we could pull the trigger to make
23:19a significant investment. But we think it's an idea that we want to support.
23:23So, on behalf of Amazon Business, we'd like to give you $10,000,
23:30which we hope you will use to grow your business.
23:33Thank you so much. I am blessed of this grant.
23:37Thank you so much.
23:37You're very welcome.
23:38It's an idea which, if you can pull it off, is going to help a lot of people.
23:42So, thank you for supporting CleverFi.
23:43Bring it in. Bring it in. Bring it in. Come on.
23:45Thank you. Thank you so much.
23:47Group hug. Group hug. Group hug. I like the group hugs.
23:49Thank you, Mario.
23:50How to look. Come on.
23:51I am so excited. I got a cash prize from Amazon Business.
23:55You never know what's going to happen in Entrepreneur Elevator Peach.
24:02Out of all the entrepreneurs who stepped into the elevator today,
24:06only two made it into the boardroom and just one
24:10was able to secure a high-flying deal with our investors.
24:14However, Mario from CleverFi was able to secure a $10,000 cash prize
24:21courtesy of Amazon Business.
24:23In the high-stakes world of business, if you want to achieve your dreams,
24:28you must rise to the occasion to get to the top.
24:33Let's go.
24:35Tune in next week as Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch continues.
24:41That is a big miss.
24:42I like his confidence.
24:43I'm just going to slide the check under the elevator door.
24:45And to apply for the next season, go to entrepreneur.com slash elevator pitch.