Multiplayer Journaling & an AI CFO for Restaurants, ft. Ihar of Geek Ventures

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The Feedback Loop

Sherveen Mashayekhi

80 episodes

5 months ago

Every week, 10 startup founders get up on stage in front of a live audience in NYC and give the 1 minute version of their pitch to two venture investors. Then, they receive 5 minutes worth of feedback about their storytelling, pitch, and concept. It's not about an investment being made on the spot, but instead transforming the way a founder talks about their startup -- because the thing that can hold even the best of founders back? Their storytelling. Hosted by Sherveen Mashayekhi and Free Agency.

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Technology

Business,

Society & Culture

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Multiplayer Journaling & an AI CFO for Restaurants, ft. Ihar of Geek Ventures

The Feedback Loop

29 minutes 54 seconds

6 months ago

Multiplayer Journaling & an AI CFO for Restaurants, ft. Ihar of Geek Ventures

In Episode 069 of The Feedback Loop, we meet two bold founders pitching live: one harnessing real‑time wearable data to optimize your daily schedule, the other building a finance platform to help restaurant owners avoid costly losses.

First Pitch: Lifestack – AI‑Powered Productivity

Founder Nao Yukawa wants to revolutionize daily calendars by syncing them with your Oura Ring, Apple Watch, Whoop, and more. Imagine factoring in your heart rate, sleep quality, and circadian rhythm so you tackle deep work at your peak and schedule “recovery breaks” before burnout strikes. But with so many calendar startups in Silicon Valley’s “tarpit,” can Lifestack stand out – or will it sink like so many scheduling tools before it?

Second Pitch: Munch Insights – Restaurant Finance Reboot

Founder Daohao (“Dao”) Li faced the harsh reality of running a million‑dollar restaurant that still lost $40k. Now, he’s on a mission to give busy operators an intuitive dashboard for tracking cash flow, inventory, and revenue ops. Will restaurant owners – already drowning in apps – embrace one more platform? And is Dao’s bigger vision compelling enough for VCs and tech investors to see a path to venture‑scale success?

We Explore:

Health‑Informed Productivity: Can real‑time biometrics truly upgrade your schedule, or are we in an era of diminishing returns on wearables data?
Scheduling’s “Tarpit” Problem: Why do so many calendar startups struggle to stand out, and how can Nao convince investors there’s real opportunity here?
Restaurant Margins & Missed Metrics: Learn how Dao’s experience of “hidden losses” opened his eyes to the chaos many operators face – and the uphill battle of convincing them to adopt new tools.
Paths to Scale: From enterprise partnerships to potential financing add‑ons, the investors weigh how each founder can pitch a bigger vision that’s still grounded in real‑world needs.

Want to Pitch Your Startup Live?

Apply now at afterfeedback.com and join our growing community of founders and investors.

Follow Sherveen

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherveenm

X (Twitter): https://www.x.com/sherveen

More on our guest investor for the episode:

Ihar Mahaniok is Managing Partner at Geek Ventures, which he founded in 2021 to support immigrant entrepreneurs building at the pre-seed and seed stage. He’s made more than 200+ investments over the past decade, and has invested early in companies like Instacart, People.ai, Chainalysis, PandaDoc, and Airbyte, to name a few.

Follow Ihar

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahaniok

X (Twitter): https://x.com/mahaniok

Daohao Li, founder of Munch Insights: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daohao-li-969bbb181

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