The Pitch

I REALLY enjoyed the episode about Kavitta Ghai and Nectir’s accomplishments. What an amazing story! I would love if you did more founder profiles and success stories. Very inspiring!

I’ve been with The Pitch since the beginning, enjoying the sounds of the pitch room and the excellent follow-up interviews. The shift in recent years, however, has tempered my entertainment. The Pitch Fund has always felt ethically dicey, as even though “no offer to invest is being made,” Josh is even more “super-pumped” and “amped” and fanboys out, almost drooling over certain founders. There is much more positive coverage of these companies and less criticism, in part because the fund is investing in them. The pitches themselves have become almost exclusively AI-based, leading to some rather drab and repetitive episodes. Then you have the addition of Lisa as a co-host, which has been a misfire. She doesn’t have a voice for radio, and the husband/wife podcast intros and outros tend to be overly cutesy with canned laughter. Every show evolves and I applaud The Pitch for adapting to a new landscape, but the new direction has led to tiresome episodes that no longer draw me in.

This episode of The Pitch, “LIVE in NYC: 3 Startups, 3 Investors, 15 Minutes to Invest” (March 18, 2026), is exactly why the show stands apart in a crowded field of startup content. The live NYC format adds real stakes, real energy, and most importantly, real accountability. You can feel the tension in the room in a way that edited studio episodes can’t quite replicate. It’s not a performance; it’s actual decision-making under pressure. What makes this one special isn’t just the format, it’s the people. And Amaka, in particular, is a standout. She brings a level of clarity, composure, and conviction that immediately separates her from the pack. There’s no fluff, no over-rehearsed founder-speak, just a sharp, grounded understanding of the problem she’s solving and why it matters. You can hear the confidence, but it’s earned confidence, not posturing. That’s rare. More importantly, she handles the investor questions like someone who actually runs the business, not just pitches it. Direct answers. No dodging. No rambling. When she doesn’t know something, she doesn’t try to fake it, and that paradoxically builds more trust. That’s the kind of founder investors bet on. The episode as a whole also benefits from the tighter time constraint. Fifteen minutes forces everyone, founders and VCs, to cut through the noise. The result is sharper questions, more honest reactions, and a much clearer view into how real investment decisions get made. Josh and Lisa do a strong job of keeping the pacing tight without overproducing it. They let the moments breathe when they need to, especially when things get tense or uncertain. Bottom line, this is one of the best episodes of The Pitch I’ve heard. The live format works. The stakes feel real. And Amaka delivers a performance that’s not just impressive, it’s investable. If this is the direction live shows are heading, they should do more of them.

I love that we get to hear an almost 30 minute conversation between the investors and the entrepreneur. Interesting companies and valuable learnings for those of us who love the startup world. However, I’ve stopped listening since the new format was introduced. Waiting months to hear the conclusion isn’t exciting- it’s unfulfilling.

Great podcast, great content but really dislike the new format saving the outcomes until the finale. Part of the sparkle of the Pitch was hearing a pitch all the way through and the outcome in the same episode. As a non business person this format provided insight to what made a pitch good or made it fizzle. It was inspiring, even made me want to buy products pitched. Now, there is little chance I will remember months old pitches during the finale. Having listened since the first season very disappointed the show decided to change the magic.

Used to be an interesting show, the nativity of the host relative to the VC world created a nice juxtaposition. Now the team (and essentially the pitch fund) seem to be drinking their own koolaid and are basically come across as VC wannabes. The FranShares episode was the jump the shark moment whereby the host and VC’s seem to have no critical pushback to what was obviously a soft-ponzi. At this point it feels as though the Pitchfund haven’t met a business they don’t want to invest in- the emphasis clearly went from storytelling to prioritising investment opportunities. Yawn.