Dhaval Patel

Post-pitch story

Dhaval Patel called his September 2023 episode a "Hardware Hail Mary," and for good reason: hardware startups burn cash, and Lotus was building a smart ring that controls your home's lights and devices with a tap. The Hail Mary connected. Patel later wrote that the show "literally changed our trajectory," and Lotus went on to raise $1.4 million in an oversubscribed round. The bigger milestone came in October 2025, when the Lotus Ring was named one of TIME's Best Inventions of 2025, a rare national spotlight for a small hardware team. The Pitch's own investment fund celebrated the news publicly. Lotus is still selling its ring and building out its accessibility-focused smart-home platform. Of all the Season 10 companies, Lotus may have the most direct line from the episode to what happened next, and it's one of the show's best hardware stories.