The pitch trick that helped an eSports startup raise $20M when VCs only wanted AI
Source: TechCrunch
Background
Earlier this year, Lucra Sports founder and CEO Dylan Robbins secured a lead investment from Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest Venture Fund in a $20 million Series B round. The round was announced last month, with participation from several other VCs — a notable win given ARK’s previous loss on a similar eSports company, Skillz, which it invested in heavily before divesting at a loss.
Lucra provides white‑label interactive gaming competitions as a novel loyalty program for consumer‑facing businesses. Instead of traditional points‑for‑coupons schemes, Lucra’s clients run online tournaments or friendly wagers for prizes. Its customers include Five Iron Golf, Dave & Buster’s, and Chess King.
Robbins attributes the success to two key tactics:
- Be friendly to everyone, anywhere – you never know when a casual conversation will turn into a major investor.
- Lead your pitch with AI – even if you aren’t building AI models yourself.
The First Secret: Be Friendly
Robbins’ fundraising journey began in a New York bar where he was playing darts. He struck up a conversation with another player, and six months later they met again at the same bar.
“Good to see you. How’s it going?” Robbins recalled. “I asked him what he did for work, and he told me he worked at ARK.”
Robbins mentioned Lucra, and the contact introduced him to ARK’s investment team, which wrote a small check in Lucra’s Series A round.
“You never know who you’re talking to. Just go around, be nice, meet people, have fun,” Robbins says. “Let that lead to good conversations, which will lead to introductions.”
The Second Secret: Lead with AI
By the end of 2025, AI had become the dominant theme in venture capital. Lucra was ready to raise a Series B to fund growth and new ideas, such as adding mini‑games to its platform. However, many investors rejected the pitch outright, stating they were “only investing in AI now.”
Robbins responded by reworking his pitch deck to foreground AI:
- Argument: If AI succeeds, people will have more free time to play games with friends, making Lucra’s service a winner. If AI fails, a non‑AI betting platform looks like smart diversification.
- Result: A small cohort of investors, including ARK, took the AI‑framed pitch seriously. Once ARK committed, it introduced Lucra to other VCs to fill out the round.
Lessons Learned
- Fundamentals Matter – Consistent year‑over‑year growth, not just a single spike, underpinned the investment.
- Think Bigger – Even with a TAM that spans “almost every American aged 18‑70,” some VCs dismissed it as “too small.” Robbins took the feedback as a reminder to “swing for the fences” when pitching venture capital.
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