Launch Pad

“About 90% of bike-related deaths were associated with people that were not wearing a helmet,” explains AnneeLondon founder Rachel Benyola.

Wearing a helmet, “reduces head and neck injury by at least 50 percent to 60 percent, which is huge in making the difference between life and death.” The only problem is, many people find helmets inconvenient or unstylish. AnneeLondon is out to change all that—and save lives in the process. The big innovation in the London, their flagship product, is that it folds up to 30% of its original size. In Karl’s words, when folded, it’s “the size of an iPad Mini, but about two inches thick,” a size that can easily fit in most bags. In addition, the London is safer, made out of military grade safety material, and lasts longer than ordinary helmets—6-8 years, instead of the usual 2-3. Finally, it looks cool.

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Karl Ulrich's Elevator Pitch of the Month for August is Ringly, founded by Christina Mercado.

Ringly is smart jewelry and accessories that connect to your phone and alert you, through vibration and light, when you're getting a notification--all while looking gorgeous.

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Naivete can persuade you to try for the seemingly impossible. If you follow this up with education and hard work--sometimes the impossible becomes a successful startup. That's how Ringly founder Christina Mercando d’Avignon made tiny wearable tech that fits in a cocktail ring.

Listen to hear how she immersed herself in the worlds of hardware and jewelry in order to make this happen--and raised a million dollar seed round in the process.

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That gym membership you signed up for but haven’t used in five years? You know they’re still charging your credit card every month, right? What if someone would not just point that out to you—but also take care of cancelling it as well? This is what Truebill does.

As founder Yahya Mokhtarzada puts it, True Bill is “an automated financial advocate that takes action on your behalf to save you money.” With Truebill, you can see everything that you’re paying for automatically, like subscriptions or bills, and you can cancel any of them with just one click.

Listen to Karl Ulrich and Yahya talk about the origin story of Truebill (14 months of a recurring charge for in-flight wifi that slipped under Yahya’s radar!), the Y Combinator experience, and why, if you have investors begging to offer you money, you should really take it. (Or as Karl puts it: “When the cookie jar is passed, take the cookies, because you never know when that cookie jar is coming around again.”)

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Calling customer service is a nightmare. But what if it didn’t have to be?

What if you could call up a major company—your credit card or your airline, for example—and they instantly knew who you were? If they had your tweets, your emails, and your most recent experiences with the company at their fingertips, and could just start off helping you out?

Gladly, founded by Michael Wolfe, is turning this into reality. Listen to Karl Ulrich and Michael talk about what makes Gladly an unique kind of startup, with a dream team of serial entrepreneurs and a huge quantity of funding, who are out to change customer service as we know it. This is not something two college dropouts in a garage even could do—and we avidly hope that Gladly succeeds.

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