Hamet Watt, 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 aimed at developing and financing startups.
Watt, who established MoviePass in 2011 with the vision of offering moviegoers unlimited theater access for a monthly fee, shared with Business Insider that he has been deeply involved with Share Ventures. The new venture has raised nearly $20 million from backers including Alphabet and Amazon, with an emphasis on startups in the realms of future work and longevity.
He believes that the current AI boom and high interest rates have created an opportunity for a “differentiated model” in venture capital. Consequently, Share Ventures is working on its own software and sophisticated language models to streamline its internal processes.
Watt remarked, “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 leveraging the most advanced tools to do that proactively.”
He noted that while many venture firms are investing in new technologies, few are fully integrating and utilizing them. “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 was sparked by a personal tragedy, having lost his mother at the age of 25 when she was just 49. He reflected, “When you lose your mom at a young age, it forces you to think about your own mortality in a way that I wasn’t even conscious of at the time.”
Despite the challenges faced with MoviePass, which he recently addressed in the documentary “MoviePass, MovieCrash,” Watt remains determined to innovate. He expressed a mindset of resilience, questioning, “What have I learned, and what do I have the guts to go out now and try — and maybe fail, but maybe succeed?”