'Rachel Sequoia' And 'Share The Air' Were A Prank, But The Pitch Event Wasn't


It’s always feels sort of good to be able to de-bunk a prank on April Fools. Now most of us got that Rachel Sequoia’s insane startup pitch for ‘Share The Air’ was fake, but the event it took place at, the SEO-optimized Venture Capital Fundraising Club of Silicon Valley was real in the sense that 5-6 real start-ups pitched there, hoping to practice in front of an audience of 80 people before they pitched VCs.

The whole thing was orchestrated by Trademarkia founder Raj Abhyanker and Spiral Moon’s Dan Carlson for two purposes, a) To give young startups a place to practice their pitches b) To add some levity to the mix with Rachel Sequoia/’Share The Air’ parody of Silicon Valley.

Actress Rachel Cherones was paid a $100 for the unorthodox gig and was given two hours to come up with the character after being given slides created by Carlson. She too was surprised by how much pickup the YouTube video, initially uploaded as a personal record of the presentation, received. Said Cherones, “Most of the people that came up to me afterward said, “I don’t care about blessing the air, but I think they’re legitmately a market for what you’re doing.” Heh.

The fake Rachel Sequoia account now has over 2,000 followers on Twitter, the video has over 200,000 views on YouTube and people have approached SpiralMoon, who is now working on a feature length film, with  acquisition offers. The second meeting of the Venture Fundraising Club of Silicon Valley will take place on April 28th.

See you there!