Capital Calling

Vital Audio: Can Your Voice Become a Health Monitor?

Your voice can reveal more than words. But can a few seconds of speech become the next vital sign? In this episode of Capital Calling, Nyamitse-Calvin Mahinda, Founder and CEO of Vital Audio, pitches a healthtech company turning ordinary voice recordings into clinical insights. Vital Audio is building AI-powered voice biomarker software that can extract signals like heart rate, heart rate variability, rhythm, respiratory metrics, and other physiological indicators from short voice samples, without requiring wearables, apps, or new hardware. Its platform, Sonometrik, is designed to turn any phone into a low-friction tool for remote patient monitoring and patient screening. The company’s thesis is simple but powerful: if patients already communicate with providers by phone, then the voice itself can become a new layer of health data. Vital Audio is focused on helping healthcare systems, cardiologists, pulmonologists, and care teams monitor patients more efficiently, especially in remote, underserved, or post-hospital settings where traditional monitoring can be expensive, fragmented, or difficult to maintain. The company is positioning voice as a scalable interface for cardiac and respiratory care, with the potential to reduce avoidable hospital visits and improve access to continuous clinical insights. Nyamitse-Calvin’s story gives the company its emotional core. His healthcare journey began more than a decade ago as a first responder before moving into clinical research, healthcare operations, and in-home care delivery. Trained as a bioengineer with a focus on interactive medical robotics and digital signal processing, he founded Vital Audio after seeing firsthand how gaps in follow-up care, access, and monitoring can change lives. The company has since moved through the NYU entrepreneurial ecosystem, Techstars Los Angeles, and clinical partnerships, while building toward a future where the patient’s phone becomes a medical device and the patient’s voice becomes the biometric sample. Across the table, investors René Bastón of Covenant Venture Capital, Sabriya Stukes, PhD of SOSV, and Doug Hayes of Junto Health & Hubble engage with the pitch as it unfolds. They assess whether voice biomarkers can be clinically trusted, how Vital Audio can navigate healthcare adoption and regulation, whether its AI models are defensible, and whether voice-based monitoring can scale into a venture-backed infrastructure layer for remote care. Capital Calling provides a behind-the-scenes look at a real pitch from both sides of the table. Each episode begins with a live founder pitch and product demo, followed by direct investor questioning. After the pitch, investors enter into a private debrief conversation where they debate the opportunity openly: without the founder present. The founder, on the other hand, enters the On-Call Room to discuss the pitch one-on-one from their perspective. Then, the investors give their verdicts, where feedback is delivered candidly and decisions are made. Produced by Coeus Collective in partnership with the NYU Stern Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship, Capital Calling offers founders, operators, students, and investors an unfiltered look at how early-stage investment decisions actually happen, and what separates compelling ideas from fundable companies. Founders pitch live. Investors decide.

WeFit Labs: Why You Can’t Stay Consistent

Fitness apps are everywhere. But can a platform built around community, competition, and real-world accountability convince investors it belongs at the center of how people stay healthy? In this episode of Capital Calling, Ethan Noblesala, Founder of WeFit Labs, pitches a social fitness platform designed to make movement more engaging, consistent, and communal. WeFit turns everyday activity into a game which combines wearable tracking, challenges, and leaderboards to help users stay accountable, compete with friends, and build lasting habits. The company is built on a simple but powerful insight: most people don’t fail fitness because of knowledge. They fail because of consistency. WeFit is betting that gamification, social pressure, and community-driven experiences can transform fitness from an individual task into a shared, habit-forming system. The platform blends digital tracking with real-world events, from pickleball to group runs, aiming to make movement both social and rewarding. Ethan’s journey is deeply personal. After a period of burnout and declining health, he rebuilt his life through small, consistent habits and community-driven fitness. That experience became the foundation for WeFit, a product designed to reward consistency over intensity and make health something people pursue together, not alone. Across the table, investors Jennifer Wolf (Former Managing Partner at Initialized Capital), Jeremy Kagan of Textbook Ventures, and Neel Murthy of Rippling engage with the pitch as it unfolds. They examine user behavior in fitness apps, retention and engagement dynamics, the role of community as a moat, and whether a gamified social platform can scale into a venture-backed consumer product. Capital Calling provides a behind-the-scenes look at a real pitch from both sides of the table. Each episode begins with a live founder pitch and product demo, followed by direct investor questioning. After the pitch, investors enter into a private debrief conversation where they debate the opportunity openly: without the founder present. The founder then enters the On-Call Room to discuss the pitch one-on-one from their perspective before final verdicts are delivered. Produced by Coeus Collective in partnership with the NYU Stern Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship, Capital Calling offers founders, operators, students, and investors an unfiltered look at how early-stage investment decisions actually happen, and what separates compelling ideas from fundable companies. Founders pitch live. Investors decide.

Gaian: The Bet on Human-Powered Energy, Step by Step

What if your body could generate power? But can a company built on turning everyday human movement into energy convince investors it belongs in the future of climate and infrastructure? In this episode of Capital Calling, Yasha Gruben, Founder and CEO of Gaian, pitches a hardware company building energy-generating wearables that convert human motion into clean, usable electricity. Gaian is developing human-scale energy infrastructure designed to reduce reliance on centralized grids, cables, and finite batteries by turning movement — walking, running, and everyday activity — into a source of power. The company sits at the intersection of climate technology, hardware, and wearable design, with a vision of making energy generation more distributed, personal, and embedded into daily life. Rather than relying solely on large-scale systems, Gaian is betting that micro-generation at the individual level can become a meaningful layer of future energy infrastructure. Before founding Gaian, Yasha worked across film, design, and technology, leading complex creative and technical projects from concept through execution. That interdisciplinary background shapes Gaian’s approach to building products that are not only functional, but culturally resonant and designed for real-world adoption. Across the table, investors Zac Geinzer of Commonweal Ventures, Ella Molony Cook of DFX, and Max Rivera of GHOST Angels engage with the pitch as it unfolds. They evaluate the feasibility of human-generated energy as a scalable solution, the technical constraints of wearable power generation, potential use cases, and whether Gaian can evolve from a compelling concept into a venture-backed infrastructure play. Capital Calling provides a behind-the-scenes look at a real pitch from both sides of the table. Each episode begins with a live founder pitch and product demo, followed by direct investor questioning. After the pitch, investors enter into a private debrief conversation where they debate the opportunity openly: without the founder present. The founder then enters the On-Call Room to discuss the pitch one-on-one from their perspective before final verdicts are delivered. Produced by Coeus Collective in partnership with the NYU Stern Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship, Capital Calling offers founders, operators, students, and investors an unfiltered look at how early-stage investment decisions actually happen — and what separates compelling ideas from fundable companies. Founders pitch live. Investors decide.

DEFI Snacks: 25g of Protein…in Chocolate?

Protein snacks are everywhere. But can a chocolate brand built on buckwheat, high protein, and indulgence convince investors it has what it takes to break through in a brutally crowded category? In this episode of Capital Calling, Tatyana Jones, Founder of DEFI Snacks, pitches a better-for-you snack brand built around what she calls “Delicious Energizing Fitness Indulgence.” DEFI makes chocolate-covered crispy superfood bites using sprouted buckwheat, whey, and casein protein, delivering 25g+ of protein per bag while remaining naturally gluten-free and grain-free. The company is betting that consumers no longer want to choose between indulgence and function — and that snacks can be both nutritionally dense and genuinely craveable. Rooted in Tatyana’s Ukrainian background, where buckwheat is a staple ingredient, DEFI is positioning itself at the intersection of functional nutrition, premium snacking, and cultural authenticity. With over 15 years of experience across companies like Mars Wrigley, Johnson & Johnson, and Bausch + Lomb, Tatyana brings a deep understanding of product innovation, brand building, and consumer behavior into a category dominated by legacy players. Across the table, investors Johnnie Yu of Listen Ventures, Christian McKenzie of Lofty Ventures, and Horace Madison of The Haven engage with the pitch as it unfolds. They assess DEFI’s differentiation in the crowded protein snack market, pricing power, consumer demand for indulgent functional foods, and whether a buckwheat-based product can scale into a venture-backed consumer brand. Capital Calling provides a behind-the-scenes look at a real pitch from both sides of the table. Each episode begins with a live founder pitch and product demo, followed by direct investor questioning. After the pitch, investors enter into a private debrief conversation where they debate the opportunity openly: without the founder present. The founder then enters the On-Call Room for a one-on-one conversation from their perspective before final verdicts are delivered. Produced by Coeus Collective in partnership with the NYU Stern Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship, Capital Calling offers founders, operators, students, and investors an unfiltered look at how early-stage investment decisions actually happen — and what separates compelling ideas from fundable companies. Founders pitch live. Investors decide.

Braintrance: The $5M Bet on a 3D Social Future

Photos and videos capture moments. But can a platform built to turn memories into immersive 3D experiences convince investors it belongs in the future of social media? In this episode of Capital Calling, William Yeh, Founder and CEO of Braintrance, pitches a spatial social platform built around sharing and experiencing 3D memories across devices. Braintrance enables users to capture their lives in three dimensions using point clouds, with or without LiDAR, and share those memories across mobile, desktop, VR headsets, and AR glasses. The company is building at the intersection of consumer social, spatial computing, and creator tools, with a product designed to make immersive content easier to create, easier to share, and more native to the next generation of devices. Through the American Frontier Fund accelerator and the viral Founders, Inc. studio cohort, Will has built Braintrance in public, gaining attention for technology that feels reminiscent of the immersive world imagined in Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One. What makes Braintrance different is its bet that 3D media can become a new social format, not just a niche capture tool. The app lets users create and upload spatial photos, generate point clouds with Depth AI even without LiDAR-enabled phones, and view content in the app, on the web, in VR headsets, in AR glasses, and on desktop. The product also leans into viral internet behavior, positioning point cloud capture as a way to create “interdimensional videos” that can be shared with friends or used to build a following through the Braintrance community. Across the table, investors Michelle Kwok of Draper Associates, Michael Nogen of Overton Venture Capital, and Vansh Langer of Pioneer Fund engage with the pitch as it unfolds. They assess whether 3D memories can become a mainstream consumer behavior, how Braintrance differentiates itself in the spatial computing and social media landscape, what distribution could look like for a new content format, and whether an early product with cross-device utility and viral potential can scale into a venture-backed platform. 0:00 Introduction 0:46 Investor Introductions 1:08 Founder Pitch 2:54 Live Demo 5:33 Investor Q&A 16:08 Investor Debrief 22:46 On-Call Room 37:18 Investor Verdict 43:15 Closing / End Capital Calling provides a behind-the-scenes look at a real pitch from both sides of the table. Each episode begins with a live founder pitch and product demo, followed by direct investor questioning. After the pitch, investors enter into a private debrief conversation where they debate the opportunity openly: without the founder present. The founder, on the other hand, enters the On-Call Room to discuss the pitch one-on-one from their perspective. Then, the investors give their verdicts, where feedback is delivered candidly and decisions are made. Produced by Coeus Collective in partnership with the NYU Stern Berkeley Center for Entrepreneurship, Capital Calling offers founders, operators, students, and investors an unfiltered look at how early-stage investment decisions actually happen, and what separates compelling ideas from fundable companies. Founders pitch live. Investors decide.