Happy Friday,

Anybody else blasting this song on repeat after yesterday’s event? 🎶

Damn, that was a pitch battle and a half 😮‍💨

And it’s all thanks to our amazing sponsors who have been in our corner since day one:

• Bubble: our title sponsor

• Chopshop: our video sponsor

• Kirin Kalia: our pitch coach

If you want to get in touch with any of them, send us a note and we’d be happy to make an intro.

Now, Some Quick Stats to Recap The Event:

• 💰 $5,110,000 of investor interest from the audience

• 🎟 864 RSVPs

• 🎤 4 killer pitches

• 💰 4 Amazing VCs

• 🎤 1 kick-ass MC, Haley Bryant

• 💭 And plenty of good banter in the comments section

Let’s just say, the Kernal group chat was firing on all cylinders last night. And the fact that we already have the next event planned is proof of that:

Welcome back to Napkin Notes: the only startup newsletter hosting monthly shark tank events for founders and VCs to battle it out on TV instead of long and boring email threads 😴

📰 Special Message from Bubble

Our friends at Bubble are bringing together thousands of developers and founders at BubbleCon Oct 1–2 in NYC. Join in person or virtually to learn more about how to build and launch applications without writing code.

If you’re wondering if you can trust them, just remember that everything you see on Kernal Dealroom is built on Bubble. So we’re kinda big fans of them.

Learn more about the hype around building on Bubble by registering for a free virtual ticket to BubbleCon here.

🗞 Menu for Today

• 🍿 Recap on our AI pitch event August 29th 

• 🎉 Meet the founders who pitched

• 💡 Skim their decks/investment terms

• 🗞 Quotes from speakers

• 👀 Memes of the week

🍿 Meet the 4 Startups That Raised $5M

🎈 Congrats to SymbAI for Best Pitch

• 🎉 SymbAI, founded by Ashia Livaudais, took the win for best pitch of the day including 10 intros and almost ~$2M of VC dollars pledged

• 📌 Squeeze, founded by Billy Gaudreau, drummed up $1.25M of investor interest and 6 intros

• 📌 Buildnow AI, founded by Aditya Bahl, raked in $507,000 of investor interest

•  📌 Wrkdn, Inc, founded by Dmitry Karpov, scooped up $1.4M of investor interest and 6 VC intros

🎙Some Post Event Quotes from Speakers:

• From Allison Pickens —"I've been to many pitch events. The pitches at Kernal's event really surprised me to the upside - what a talented group! I get particularly excited about AI companies when there are early signals that the customer contract values will be high. That's the best indicator that genAI is living up to its promise: it can replace workflow and massively transform a business. I saw this and more among the startups that were pitching."

• "Kernal assembled a remarkable group of panellists. We're grateful for the opportunity to pitch to their audience, which has already led to valuable connections." - William Gaudreau

• “Very cool judges with their unique perspectives on AI startups, and great energy from the fellow founders" - Dmitry Karpov

• “The quality of companies pitching keeps getting better and better with each event. I'm excited to have a follow-up investing-related call with one of the companies from this pitch event (SymbyAI).” - Vivek Sodera

Feeling the FOMO? Check out the deal page below.

🥁 RSVP to our Next Pitch Event Sept 26th

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👀 Swipes of the Week

Have an amazing weekend.

P.S. Liked the deep-dive? Forward the newsletter to a bestie.