Creator Spotlight: How two college students are successfully connecting Investors with the hottest new startups

About the creators

Sam and Brett are 21 and 22-year-old college students who founded a newsletter called bulletpitch. The idea came about in their college dining hall when they came to realize that they both shared a passion for startups. They started their newsletter at the beginning of 2022 with the idea that there’s a gap in the business media of early-stage startup coverage.

They sought to highlight startups disrupting entire industries who may not get the press a unicorn would receive. They have the goal of bringing a Gen Z voice to the startup world, making it easy for an investor, student, founder, or anyone curious about the future of the business to learn about startups shaping the next generation.

About bulletpitch

Describe your newsletter using a slogan

BP and SS: Discover startups shaping the next generation

What sparked the idea for bulletpitch?

BP and SS: We came to this realization that companies like TechCrunch have articles about starts ups but there seemed to be a gap in the market about how start-ups are reported on. So companies like TechCrunch would typically only report on these companies when something significant happens. Like a founder raised more money, or it's a repeat founder of a new company, etc. So we began building a thesis on where we can build something that is unique and provides value in a market we felt wasn't being reported on.

Thesis 1: What about the startups doing really cool things but maybe they're not doing something super newsworthy right now and they're just building the company with their heads down?

Thesis 2: Who will read this? People in venture capital specifically investors are trying to find these cool new startups. They essentially have to talk to as many founders as possible and do a ton of homework on the companies. So the overarching idea was if we built this newsletter where we reported on these startups that ideally VCs, angel investors, and anyone interested in startups can look at and extract quick value and be able to quickly identify if that startup is even interesting to them.

Thesis 3: We're Gen Z, and there's a push to keep all things concise and short. Can we do this in a "TLDR way"? That's where we got the idea for bullet points. Can we cover what a start-up does in a 30-second read, keeping it super concise and detailed? And so we tried and it's been a wonderful 9 months so far.

Do you guys consider yourselves to be a middleman between investors and startups?

BP and SS: Totally, when we first sent out our first bulletpitch we sent it to a few of our friends and just told them to let us know what they thought and we got some great feedback. But as we've begun to ramp up, it's becoming super clear that we're 100% a connector.

What are your goals for the newsletter?

BP and SS: Our goal is to continue to grow an engaged audience and expand into alternative forms of content. Additionally just being able to connect more startups with investors and be a good resource for other students.

Where do you find the startups you guys write about?

BP and SS: Something that's unique about us is that we're actually rarely using the internet to find new startups. We realized early on that founders are typically friends with other founders and are typically more than happy to make introductions.

What are your two favorite posts?

BP and SS: Tablz, a new way to reserve a table at a restaurant, and Routine, a comprehensive productivity platform to connect tasks, notes, contacts, and calendars. Editors Note: They also did a write-up on beehiiv that we absolutely love which can be found here!

What makes bulletpitch unique?

BP and SS: I think what we do a great job with is writing in a way that is super digestible for even a 5-year-old, along with being a medium that is so concise for the readers. We break it down based on: 1. What the company does and what problem they're solving? 2. What the company is in 1 sentence3. Followed by a fun analogy to keep the readers engaged and offer a better understanding. I think we've gotten really good at relatability and making the venture and start-up space feel accessible. We also provide a monthly update on the startup to show their progress…

Learn more about bulletpitch.