Hamet Watt, co-founder of MoviePass, is moving on from the company’s notable decline and is now focused on raising funds for a new venture studio aimed at developing and financing startups.
Watt, who established MoviePass in 2011 with the vision of allowing movie enthusiasts to pay a monthly subscription for unlimited theater access, has been actively working on his new initiative, Share Ventures. In an interview with Business Insider, he revealed that the newly formed company has amassed nearly $20 million in funding, with prominent backers including Alphabet and Amazon. The focus of Share Ventures will be on startups related to the future of work and longevity.
Watt believes that the current landscape, characterized by an AI boom and elevated interest rates, presents a ripe environment for a “differentiated model.” As a result, Share Ventures plans to develop its own software and sophisticated language models to streamline its internal operations, as reported by Business Insider.
“You don’t need as large of funds, and you can get signal on an opportunity much earlier with much less capital,” he explained. “This is advantageous for us as we are building companies from scratch and utilizing advanced tools to do so in a proactive manner.”
Watt pointed out that while many venture firms are investing in new technologies, they often fail to fully integrate and utilize them. “Using novel data and automation in our process is something we think is uniquely special to us,” he emphasized.
His interest in health and longevity is deeply personal, stemming from the loss of his mother when he was just 25 years old, an event that has deeply influenced his outlook on life and mortality.
“When you lose your mom at a young age, it forces you to think about your own mortality, in a way that I don’t know that I was conscious of at the time,” Watt shared.
Watt’s experiences with the collapse of MoviePass, which he recently recounted in the documentary “MoviePass, MovieCrash,” have only fueled his desire to continue innovating. “What have I learned, and what do I have the guts to go out now and try — and maybe fail, but maybe succeed?” he reflected.