Liz Gannes

Recent Posts by Liz Gannes

Video: The Greatest Pre-Launch Start-Up Pitch Ever?

It’s start-up demo season in Silicon Valley (not that pitching start-ups ever goes out of season in California). And here is a video of the Silicon Valley start-up pitch in its most ultimate form. I have watched this at least four times tonight.

Update: Here’s the story of the people who put on the prank.

Let’s not give away too much of the big idea, but every good pitch needs…Stories of personal relevance! Mumbo-jumbo about a big market! A plan to spend and make money! Boasts of differentiated technology! A check-in app!

“Share the Air” lacks none of these.

How real is this? Well, presenter Rachel Sequoia apparently did participate in an investor pitch session at the one (and only?) meeting of the Venture Capital Fundraising Club of Silicon Valley in February.

But seriously, an app to tag on Google Maps the places where I’ve breathed would be pretty badass.

(Via a random Tumblr thread I came across.)


comments so far. Add yours.

  • http://profiles.google.com/cwditter Corey Ditter

    That video was stupid….this is the Wall Street Journal? You can do better…

  • http://networkeffect.allthingsd.com Liz Gannes

    Nope, it’s All Things D. We like to add a dash of silly.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Shennandoah-Diaz/1471417154 Shennandoah Diaz

    Although most big ideas sound crazy at the onset (e.g. digital music, social media, the internet, bottled water, snuggies) I think this one needs a little more time to percolate. Of course, homeopathy is the same concept but with water, so not too far off base. There maybe a market for it. A very small one. Somewhere. Like a travel-phobic commune . . . or Charlie Sheen.

  • http://en-pi.facebook.com/people/Jerry-Paffendorf/620415163 Jerry Paffendorf

    haha i firmly categorize this idea as “crazy enough to work”. it’s like wine you don’t drink, with a sense of humor, a global network, an art context, and, like, good vibes and stuff. and look at those margins.

    maybe of interest, a 30 second video of conceptual artist marcel duchamp talking about his similar piece, “paris air”, made back in 1919: http://www.sfmoma.org/multimedia/videos/142

    the way he straddled art and life and commerce, i always knew duchamp would come back around as an inspiration for entrepreneurs. :-)

    anyway, i signed up for their mailing list at http://sharetheair108.com . if it’s real or if it’s a joke, i want to see where this one goes.

  • http://markjaquith.com/ Mark Jaquith

    She’s an actress. And as an actress, she’s really, really good. Most people linking to this think it’s real. That’s satire done right!

  • http://technbiz.blogspot.com paramendra

    Yep. Agreed. The coolest presentation.

  • http://twitter.com/pedregosajoe Pedregosa Joe

    Love the shake up to the VC community about this – more fun to watch than the pitch.
    As for “an app to tag on Google Maps the places where I’ve breathed would be pretty badass.” – that’s what I use foursquare to do:)

  • http://twitter.com/meredithob meredithob

    dude, this was the best thing i’ve ever seen on AllThingsD (even surpassing, gasp!, my own clients’ coverage). straight to twitter with this one.

Latest Video

View all videos »

Search »

He’s an a–hole. That guy has $2 billion that he made from figuring out ways to steal royalties from artists, and that’s the bottom line. You can’t really trust anybody like that.

— Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney on why he’s not a fan of Sean Parker