E35: The Pitch, Democratizing Startup Funding, and Non-Consensus Investing with Josh Muccio

Josh Muccio is the Founder of The Pitch and The Pitch Fund. The Pitch is a show that features startup founders pitching a panel of VCs and getting live-fire feedback. The Pitch Fund invests in Josh’s favorite startups that appear on The Pitch. We talked about the behind-the-scenes of how the show works, pitching, whether the market matters more than the founder, and the dangers of consensus investing.   We also dove into:   – Josh shares how selling an iPhone-repair startup and falling in love with Gimlet’s Startup podcast led him to create The Pitch to “democratize access” to startup investing and storytelling.    – Why The Pitch is “like Shark Tank for tech” but with real, check-writing VCs. Less ego, more thoughtful questions, and founders who actually get funded.    – Inside the funnel: ~1,000 companies apply each season; venture partner Peter Liu screens hundreds before Lisa Muccio and Josh decide who records—only after all three have met the founder to curb bias.    – The backstory of The Pitch Fund and Josh’s investing rubric: market > founder > product—he weights market roughly 60 % and warns that even great founders struggle in weak markets.    – Railing against “consensus chasing,” he argues that investing purely for quick mark-ups hurts returns and founders; instead, he hunts non-consensus deals—like a snack-chip startup he backed at a $4 million valuation.    Investing in Startups is hosted by Joe Magyer and produced by Seaplane Ventures.