A new feature from Seattle startup Yoodli uses artificial intelligence to help startup founders prepare to pitch their businesses to venture capitalists and other investors — including the ability to fine-tune the automated feedback to the specific temperament of the VC they’ll be speaking with.
The startup-oriented feature is an expansion of the company’s AI-powered communication coach. Yoodli lets people practice their speeches and presentation in front of a computer or device, showing them analytics on filler words, body language, pacing, eye contact, and other aspects of their talks.
- In addition to Yoodli’s general feedback on speaking style, the VC speech coach responds with questions that are likely to be asked by an investor.
- It lets users apply a persona to the AI — such as friendly, technical, or skeptical — to simulate the types of questions they’re likely to get in response.
The idea is to give founders a way to practice in private and get non-judgmental feedback, while also alleviating the burden on their mentors, allowing entrepreneurs to work out the basic bugs in their pitches before sharing their Yoodli presentations for human feedback and insights.
Yoodli co-founder Varun Puri said he knows the challenges first-hand. “Preparing for VC pitches is nerve-wracking,” he explained. “I went through the process myself — having to practice in front of a mirror, deal with the pressure in the moment, and make sure I still sounded composed despite not knowing answers.”
Under its recently introduced pricing model, Yoodli lets users practice five speeches for free, with subscriptions starting at $8/month after that.
Yoodli was founded in 2021 at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2) incubator in Seattle by Puri, a former project manager with X Development, the R&D organization of Google parent Alphabet; and entrepreneur Esha Joshi.
As a product of its own VC pitches, Yoodli has raised more than $7 million from Madrona Venture Group, Cercano Capital, AI2, and others. The company announced a partnership with Toastmasters International last year.
Here’s a video of Puri discussing Yoodli in a recent TEDx talk.
