Minimis

Post-pitch story

Joseph Guo and Paul Skevington came to Season 15 (Episode 179, "Minimis: Declaring War on Garmin") with Flow AR: augmented-reality sunglasses for runners and cyclists that pack a smartwatch, bike computer and phone into one device — heart-rate tracking, eSIM, ANT+, GPS and a full-color display. They were raising $2 million. The panel passed. Per a third-party episode summary, all four investors said no, largely because the prototype on stage was a bulky "Frankenstein" rig rather than the sleek design needed to sell the vision. Neither founder's page on The Pitch carries a "Funded" tag. But Minimis is far from a paper startup. The founders bootstrapped a separate product, the Minimis Phone, to more than $600,000 in revenue and over 15,000 customers to fund the hardware dream. Around the taping, the company announced backing from Entrepreneur Ventures — the VC arm of Entrepreneur Media — plus a group of angel investors that includes a former Microsoft HoloLens head of product and a two-time world champion track cyclist. Minimis also opened a Wefunder community round at a $13 million valuation cap. Flow AR is pre-order only for now, with shipping estimated for March 2027. This was actually the company's second appearance on the show, after Season 14.