The co-founder of MoviePass is moving on from the company’s dramatic downfall and is now focused on raising funds for a new venture studio designed to support and develop startups.
Hamet Watt, who co-founded MoviePass in 2011 with the concept of allowing moviegoers to pay a monthly fee for unlimited access to theaters, revealed to Business Insider that he has been diligently working on Share Ventures. This new company has raised nearly $20 million, with investments from notable backers including Alphabet and Amazon. Watt mentioned that Share Ventures is concentrating on startups within the future of work and longevity sectors.
He believes that the current AI boom and elevated interest rates have created an opportunity for venture capital to explore a “differentiated model.” To this end, Share Ventures is developing proprietary software alongside complex language models to enhance internal operations, as reported by Business Insider.
Watt elaborated, stating, “You don’t need as large of funds, and you can get signal on an opportunity much earlier with much less capital. For us, that’s a great thing because we’re building companies from scratch and using all of the most advanced tools to do that proactively.”
He noted that many other venture firms are investing in new technologies but are not fully utilizing them. “Using novel data and automation in our process is something we think is uniquely special to us,” he added.
Watt’s interest in health and longevity was sparked by the early loss of his mother, who passed away at the age of 49 when he was just 25. “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.
His experiences with 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 concluded.