Tim Draper’s “Meet the Drapers” is partnering with TikTok for its seventh season, allowing entrepreneurs to pitch their startups through the short-form video app in an upcoming episode
Then, anyone can vote on their best submissions on a landing page in the app. Finally, there will be a live-streamed pitch review on TikTok.
At the end, the four finalists will be chosen. They will then fight on an episode of the show in front of judges to win Tim Draper’s $1 million investment.
The deal helped TikTok show support for small businesses when its platform was banned in the U.S., which was becoming less popular. It also allows TikTok to promote its educational content.
In the meantime, “Meet the Drapers” will get more attention thanks to the popular video app.
People are more familiar with pitch-off competitions thanks to shows like “Shark Tank.” “Meet the Drapers,” on the other hand, looks at tech business more directly.
“We’re not looking for someone who made a gum scraper or a new bikini line.” “That’s not really what we want,” the controversial and funny investor tells TechCrunch. He also says, “We’re funding something that will rock the world in ten years.”
Because of the platform and its users, the episode being made in collaboration with TikTok is expected to focus on consumer technology.
“Meet the Drapers” has never worked with TikTok before. The show used to be streamed on many sites, such as its website and YouTube, where each episode gets an average of 500,000 views.
The show has episodes filmed in Silicon Valley, Brazil, India, Saudi Arabia, the UAE (Dubai), Denmark, and Taiwan, among other places.
These episodes are aimed at people worldwide and are often timed to coincide with Draper’s travels and speaking events in those areas.
Draper also thinks that anyone can become an entrepreneur, which is why he likes that the pitch-off show has viewers from all over the world.
“In a way, we think of this show as spreading the idea of being an entrepreneur like a virus,” says Draper.
Most of the pitches are about things Draper likes investing in, like space and transportation, AI, bitcoin, the digitization of medicine, and more.
The show’s seventh season has already been shot and is almost ready to come out, so the partnership with TikTok is part of season 8. No one has been named a guest judge on the TikTok show yet.
Small businesses that want to be considered will make 30- to 60-second TikTok movies that show how they became entrepreneurs.
You can send in your application until September 7th. The first round’s top finalists will participate in a live-streamed event on September 25th through 27th, and the winner will be revealed on September 30th.
Draper usually sets aside more money than the million-dollar prize to give to people who compete in the show.
This means that even the runners-up will get less money on their investment. The website for the show says that the winner in second place gets $500,000, and the winner in third place gets $250,000.
Aper says, “We never talk about this, but every year, we give about two to three million.”
Last year, for example, the runner-up got a $500k investment, and other winners got $250,000 investments. A few people who have taken part in the past have also gotten investments of $50,000.
Boxabl, a tiny-home startup that has been one of the show’s big stars, has had difficulty making money and is being investigated by the SEC.
CancerFree Biotech, the drone company BONV, the team collaboration software Balloon, the health food business It’s Skinny, and the at-home health testing service Vivoo are some of the other winners.
In the end, the owners also have to say how much they think their business is worth.
Based on what Draper knows, the show has made between 35 and 40 bets so far.
Draper has invested in several companies, including Baidu, Hotmail, Skype, Tesla, SpaceX, AngelList, SolarCity, Ring, Twitter, DocuSign, Coinbase, Robinhood, Twitch, Cruise, and more. He has also backed Theranos, which was a more controversial choice.