Hamet Watt, 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 aimed at developing and financing startups.
Watt, who co-founded MoviePass in 2011 with a revolutionary concept allowing moviegoers to pay a monthly fee for unlimited theater access, has been working hard at Share Ventures. The new company has already garnered nearly $20 million in funding from investors, including tech giants Alphabet and Amazon. Watt’s venture is concentrating on startups in the fields of the future of work and longevity.
He believes that the current landscape of high interest rates and the AI boom presents a ripe opportunity for a differentiated investment model. To capitalize on this, Share Ventures is developing its own software alongside complex language models to streamline its internal operations.
Watt explained that this approach allows them to operate with smaller funds while still identifying promising opportunities early on. “For us, that’s a great thing because we’re building companies from scratch and using all of the most advanced tools to proactively do that,” he stated.
He observed that many venture firms are investing in new technologies but failing to fully integrate and utilize them in their operations. “Using novel data and automation in our process is something we think is uniquely special to us,” Watt noted.
His interest in health and longevity was sparked by a personal tragedy, as he lost his mother at the age of 25, a loss that deeply impacted his perspective 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,” he shared.
Watt reflected on his experiences with MoviePass, which he recently discussed in the documentary “MoviePass, MovieCrash,” stating that the lessons he learned from that failure 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 said.