News On the Pitch Front

Product News

💫 #1 Angel Investor in NYC updates his thesis on investing in AI startups. Take a look 👀

Bandto, a Networking Co-Pilot that uses AI to introduce relevant professionals in real-time, is teaming up with PnR to test the Co-Pilot with the community.

📰 Pitch and Run gets featured in the LA Times as a standout run club!

John Gannon got featured in a Wall Street Journal piece on VC compensation. His V5 (also shoutout to Arianne Perry) will be hosting the inaugural V5 Summit at SVB’s Experience Center in SF May 22-23 www.v5summit.com - 20% off with code “PNR20”

Elizabeth Swaney is in Snark Tank NYC 34 (tech pitch roast comedy show) at St. Mark’s Comedy Club this Thursday (March 7): https://lu.ma/snarktank34

Buildstock (cofounder Wilson Kriegel) announced $1.6M in pre-seed funding https://finance.yahoo.com/news/buildstock-secures-1-6m-pre-154900892.html

Dennis Crowley working on a new project BeeBot - featured on Big Technology Podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLuJ55xDHkA

• How did you learn about/get involved with Pitch and Run?

• In late 2022 and early 2023 I started going to 5-7 tech meetups each week to build my network. A friend of mine recommended Pitch & Walk, which I tried. It was a little low-key for me, but the end location of Pitch & Walk coincided with the starting point of Pitch & Run. I was a little concerned that the runners in Pitch & Run would be “real” runners, whereas I am just someone who runs sometimes. In 2001, 2010, and 2020 I had stretches of 6-9 months where I was running consistently, but I always fell off because I was running alone. I’ve never had a running group before. I was pleasantly surprised by the support in P&R, especially that I wasn’t judged harshly for me being an awful runner. 80+ runs in, I am only slightly less awful.

• You’ve become one of the most regular PNR runners - was that right from the bat or how quickly did you carve it out in your schedule?

• I’ve found that my greatest successes in life have come from being consistent. I thought when I started P&R that I would just do my five runs, get in the chat and then stop running. LOL. But then I realized that there were a number of benefits for me personally: 1. Running helps me manage my ADHD better than my former workout program. 2. The camaraderie from running with founders & investors in tech who are experiencing similar trials and travails can’t be beat. 3. For years I have done cardio on the exercise bike while playing Xbox multiple days per week, followed by a short HIIT weight workout. This left me less fit overall, and more bulky. Mixing running back in with my HIIT weight workouts means that I can spend less total time exercising, while being more fit overall. 4. Realizing over and over again that the NYC tech ecosystem is very small and nearly everyone in it is connected to P&R in one way or another. 5. The social pressure of knowing that there will be people running Mondays & Fridays and that I should be running with them keeps me motivated - even when it’s 20 degrees outside.

• Tell us about your NYC ties/life/connections.

• I was born upstate in Syracuse, but my grandma was from Brooklyn. I went to high school out west, but came back as soon as I could. I spent a lot of my formative years growing up in Brooklyn, and have spent most of my life in NYC. I did part of my college at SVA, and raised two daughters here that now go to the high school I wanted to go to as a kid: LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.

• What are some favorite memories from Pitch and Run or favorite things you’ve gained from PnR?

• Having members of P&R show up by surprise in due diligence zoom calls from VCs. Running beside a member of the VC that was investing in us for a few months before realizing that she was the person people kept telling me I should meet - and I already knew her. Having a few P&R members show up at each tech event in NYC means I always have a wingman / wingwoman and never have to weather the storm alone.

  

• What’s something people might not expect to get from PNR?

• Real friendship. I worked in tech in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s and never had real friends in the industry. I was too focused and didn’t party. Then I pivoted to managing and constructing buildings. The real estate world in NYC is a zero-sum game where everyone is hyper-competitive. Someone is always winning and someone is always losing for money to be made. I had very few friends in that industry either.
  Coming back to tech after being away for twenty years was a breath of fresh air. Everyone is helping everyone else, even when we aren’t in the same vertical. Even when there is no clear benefit for doing so. I love that. We are all paying it forward at all times. We are the rising tide lifting all boats together.

  

• What do you do for work? Tell us about your company/role?

• I’m the founder / CEO of a stealth construction tech startup that is using robotics and mass production efficiencies to solve the housing crisis. The easiest way to describe what we do is to compare us to IKEA. IKEA sells a flat-packed laser-cut bedroom cabinet that is delivered to your house where you have to fumble with the instructions and figure out how to put it together. We are flat-packing a whole building, which is then delivered to a construction site and assembled with robots according to a digital grid based on a BIM model.

• What’s something that might surprise people about you?

• I had a significant orthopedic intervention surgery 12 years ago, and everyone thought I would never run again. Yet here I am 80+ runs in.

• Are you training for any races?

• I’m doing the NYCRUNS Half Marathon in April. My first race ever. I plan to do terribly, but to finish it. LOL.

• What’s on deck for you in 2024?

• Close our seed round, hit our benchmarks, build a four story building in Newark using our tech. Gear up for a series A by the end of the year. Take my daughters to Tokyo for an amazing birthday celebration.

Other News

🚨 Pitch and Run takes on Atlanta and South Carolina in Denis’ southern tour 🤠 

🚨 Newsletter co-founder Kat O’Brien stops by for a visit

🚨 PnR Austin kicks off with a bang and Matt Plourde’s first marathon!

🚨 Pitch and Ski/Apres in Park City with Alexa Murray, Alex Kennedy, Slim, Niko, Anne Marie, Nihal

🚨 Special edition of PnR LA for the Upfront VC summit with Nihal in the house!

🚨 FlowSociety $15 off with TC15

🚨 Sid’s gym PnR exclusive code PITCHIT for your first class! Join us every Wednesday morning 9am 🌝

🚨A bunch of people training for London Marathon, including Kevin Weatherman (raising money for Hearing Dogs for Deaf People https://www.justgiving.com/page/kevinrunsnyc) Niko Krupyshev (raising money for Nerve Tumors UK https://bit.ly/432rlqs), Wilson Kriegel (raising money for NSPCC for kids)

🚨NYC Marathon drawing is open for applications until March 21st

🚨Order your Pitch and Run gear: https://teamlocker.squadlocker.com/#/lockers/pitch-and-run

🚨Meredith Brunette is biking the Cycle for Survival this Saturday raising money for rare cancer research https://bit.ly/3IohjXm

🚨 Next PrimeTime VC is this Thursday https://lu.ma/uermwdqr 

[MAR 9] SXSW ATX @ 8am

🍎🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️NYC Racers

[Mar 17] NYC United Half

[April 28] NYCRuns BK Half

[May 18] NYRR BK Half

🍀Birth

• Mar 3 Terence

• Mar 7 Patrick

• Mar 26 Shahn

• Mar 28 Kevin

🗞️ FOLLOW US EVERYWHERE

The ultimate directory (if you haven’t joined yet, here’s your chance!)

Austin

• Twitter https://twitter.com/Pitchandrunatx

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NYC

• Twitter https://twitter.com/PitchandrunNYC

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• Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/company/pitchandrun/

Chicago POC: Austin Byrd

• Twitter https://twitter.com/PitchandrunChi

Denver POC: Eric Shu

Los Angeles POC: Niki Agrawal

• Twitter https://twitter.com/PitchandrunLA

• Insta https://www.instagram.com/pitchandrunla/

San Francisco POC: Viviana Hurtado

• Twitter https://twitter.com/PitchandrunSF

• Insta https://www.instagram.com/pitchandrunsf/

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