General Catalyst's COVID Rejection
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A story about Brett getting a harsh rejection from a prominent VC during COVID for his flying car company Archer.
"I got introduced to Joel, who runs General Catalyst, from one of my investors Mark Lohrey. He said 'this is the best guy, you gotta talk to him.' I got on a call with Joel and he stopped me right away saying 'this is the most disrespectful pitch I've ever seen. We have people dying because of COVID, the hospitals are filled up, and you're asking me for money for this flying car idea? What are you talking about? This is not possible.'
I told him 'I'm running out of money personally. I need somebody to fund this or the business is going to die. I know COVID's bad but this is what you do - you fund companies.' It was probably to this day the worst phone call I've ever taken."
Brett Adcock
Brett Adcock is a technology entrepreneur and founder/CEO of Figure. Figure is an AI Robotics company developing a general purpose humanoid.
In 2023, he founded Cover, an AI security company developing concealed weapon detection systems. Cover’s imaging technology scans students for concealed weapons in K-12 schools in the United States.