Flock

Post-pitch story

Flock AI arrived on the show with a provocative pitch for the fashion industry: AI-generated models that let brands produce photography without traditional photo shoots. Founder Manvitha Mallela argued that e-commerce imagery was ripe for disruption — expensive, slow, and exclusionary — and that generative AI could make it faster, cheaper, and more inclusive all at once. The pitch landed. Mallela walked away with a $125,000 investment from multiple VCs on the panel, one of the on-air deals of the season. Since then, the company has continued operating in the fast-moving AI fashion space, where competition has intensified as generative image tools have matured. One note for listeners doing their own research: Flock AI shares a name with Flock Safety, the surveillance company that was actually the very first pitch ever featured on the podcast back in Season 1. The two are entirely unrelated — Flock Safety has since become a unicorn, raising $275 million at a $7.5 billion valuation in March 2025 — but the name collision means search results can get confusing. For Flock AI, the story is still being written, but the on-air deal gave Mallela both capital and a roster of investor advisors to build with.