The co-founder of MoviePass is moving on from the company’s dramatic downfall and is currently raising funds for a new venture studio aimed at developing and financing startups.
Hamet Watt, who established MoviePass in 2011 with the revolutionary concept of allowing moviegoers to pay a monthly fee for unlimited theater access, is now focused on Share Ventures. He shared with Business Insider that the new company has already secured nearly $20 million in funding, with notable backers including Alphabet and Amazon. Share Ventures is concentrating on startups operating in the fields of future work and longevity.
Watt believes that the current climate of the AI surge and elevated interest rates has made the venture capital landscape receptive to a distinctive model. As a result, Share Ventures plans to create its own software along with advanced language models to streamline its internal operations. “You don’t need as large of funds, and you can get signal on an opportunity much earlier with much less capital,” he explained. “For us, that’s beneficial since we’re building companies from the ground up and utilizing the most advanced tools proactively.”
He noted that many venture firms are investing in new technologies without fully incorporating and utilizing them in their operations. “Using novel data and automation in our process is something we think is uniquely special to us,” Watt remarked.
Watt’s interest in health and longevity emerged after he lost his mother at the young age of 25, when she was only 49 years old. Reflecting on this loss, he said, “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.”
His experience with the failure of MoviePass, which he recently discussed in the documentary “MoviePass, MovieCrash,” 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 asked.