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- Why Adam Renklint Raised $137M... and Gave it Back
Why Adam Renklint Raised $137M... and Gave it Back
And how Pitch changed course after raising an $85 million Series B
Michael Houck
November 21, 2024
Hey y’all — imagine raising $137M only to realize the business wasn’t a venture-scale opportunity after all.
You’ve built up a big team of ambitious people, not to mention that you have seven other co-founders, and all of a sudden you have to change course.
For many founders, the weight of that situation would break them and the company would fall apart.
But not Adam Renklint, co-founder and CEO of Pitch.com.
We sat down to chat about what it was like to steer the ship through that and keep the team motivated, investors bought in, and users excited about the product.
This is one of those stories that you normally only get to hear about and learn from if you go through it yourself, or if you’re an investor in a company going through it.
Listen below:
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In our chat we discuss:
Company Founding & Leadership Insights
(00:45) — Starting Pitch with 8 Co-founders
(16:06) — The Pitch founding story
(04:26) — Product-led CEO: pros and cons
(07:19) — Transitioning from CTO to CEO
(31:39) — Keeping the team motivated during chaos
(38:23) — Balancing mourning after layoffs with future focus
Company & Product Strategy
(10:25) — Product usability as a differentiator
(13:21) — Shipping quickly within a framework
(20:21) — Changing the aspirations of Pitch
(26:08) — Discussing aspirational change with investors
(28:16) — Identifying early investors
Pitching Best Practices
(42:07) — Common pitch deck mistakes
(46:36) — The pitch for well-designed decks
Rapid Fire
(48:57) — Recommended investors?
(49:30) — One change you’d make in startups?
(49:56) — Advice for first-time founders?
Where you can find Adam and Pitch:
LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/adam-renklint
Startup → pitch.com
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