Hamet Watt, co-founder of MoviePass, is moving beyond the company’s notable downfall to launch a new venture studio aimed at supporting and financing startups. Watt, who originated the concept of a subscription service for unlimited movie access in 2011 with MoviePass, has been actively developing his new project, Share Ventures.
The new venture has already attracted nearly $20 million in funding from prominent investors, including Alphabet and Amazon. Watt explained that Share Ventures will primarily target startups focused on the future of work and longevity.
He believes that the current landscape, characterized by the boom in artificial intelligence and high interest rates, presents a favorable opportunity for a distinctive venture capital model. To take advantage of this, Share Ventures is creating its own software and sophisticated 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,” Watt noted. “For us, that’s advantageous because we’re building companies from scratch using the most advanced tools available.”
Despite many venture firms investing in new technologies, Watt remarked that they often do not actively integrate and utilize these innovations within their processes. “Using novel data and automation in our process is something we think is uniquely special to us,” he stated.
Watt’s interest in health and longevity stems from personal experience; he lost his mother at the age of 25, which deeply impacted his perspective on 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,” he reflected.
He also stated that his experience with MoviePass, which he discussed in the documentary “MoviePass, MovieCrash,” has 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 pondered.