Nihal Mehta, Eniac Ventures
For Nihal Mehta, running is, first and foremost, a way to decompress from the fast-paced lifestyle of building a startup.
The co-founder of Eniac Ventures — an early-stage generalist firm based out of New York that raised $220 million across two funds earlier this year — has managed to blend his passion for running with his day-to-day. His brainchild is Pitch and Run, a bona fide run club for founders, investors, and other members of the tech community to connect over their shared love of startups as well as running.
Today, Pitch and Run has grown to include thousands of runners of all speeds and abilities who attend meetups in nine cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin, and San Francisco.
Mehta first discovered running through middle school sports, and he was the captain of his high school track and field and cross country teams.
After leaving the sport behind in college, Mehta returned to running in the early 2000s as a form of stress relief while building multiple startups, including social media site LocalResponse, and eventually Eniac Ventures in 2009.
"I needed a way to decompress and just think and process my thoughts while running a startup and deal with the everyday highs and lows," he told BI. "The long runs really sorted me out from a mental and physical perspective, and kept me balanced. That was my exhaust valve, really."
By 2019, Mehta, who was living in New York's Chelsea neighborhood at the time, had recruited a handful of investor friends to join him for morning jogs along the West Side Highway, a popular route for runners in the city. The meetups were a hit, and Pitch and Run was born.
While the group reaped the benefits of exercise as a stress-relieving counterbalance to startup life, Mehta noticed something else: his friends were having an easier time opening up about the challenges they were facing professionally.
"Building is very lonely, and very few people know what it's like, but when you mix running and that element of decompression with community and other founders, it really becomes magic," he said.
In New York, there's now a Pitch and Run meetup every day of the week in either Brooklyn or Manhattan. Before each run, everyone circles up, introduces themselves, and says how many previous Pitch and Runs they've attended. At the beginning of the week, attendees are also prompted to share a goal or manifestation for the week, such as closing a funding round or signing a customer. At the end of the week, runners share what they're grateful for.
The introductions are followed by applause and support before everyone sets off on their run. In New York, the run is a five-mile, out-and-back route ending at a local coffee shop, where many attendees stay afterwards to continue visiting. Mehta said that the format was specifically designed to help newcomers break the ice and to create conversation topics for people to come up to each other during the run.
Mehta likens running to the popular YouTube show Hot Ones, where celebrities are interviewed while eating a plate of increasingly spicy chicken wings.
"When you're running, your heart rate also goes up, and similar types of conversations happen," he said. "Obviously people aren't going crazy from spice, but people are being really truthful and authentic. When people are showing up and being who they are, they end up getting the support that they need."
In addition to stress relief and enjoying a shared hobby, Pitch and Run has created an opportunity for multiple founders to build meaningful relationships with investors that have turned into funding for their startups.
For example, Mehta met Dee Murthy about three years ago at a Pitch and Run meetup. Murthy, in addition to co-founding the LA-based The Run Club, was building a B2B inventory marketplace startup, Ghost. After getting to know Murthy and Ghost on the run, Mehta co-led the company's seed round in 2021, and the startup has since become one of Eniac's fastest-growing portfolio companies. Ghost raised $40 million in Series C funding in October.
Eniac will also lead the pre-seed round for Pitch and Run co-founder Kevin Weatherman's latest startup, which is in stealth. Weatherman is an investor himself, having made more than 100 angel investments in early-stage startups, some of which he was introduced to through the Run Club.
And for Pitch and Run member Shahn Christian Andersen, his connections through the club regularly intersect with his work life. The founder and CEO of a stealth tech construction startup said that he's had Pitch and Run members pop up by surprise in due diligence calls from VCs. He also spent months running next to a woman who ended up being a member of the VC firm that was investing in his company.
Earlier this year, Mehta launched PNR Ventures, a syndicate for Pitch and Run members to combine their shared tech experience and capital into an investment vehicle. PNR's investment thesis includes backing early-stage founders who have the resiliency to "go the distance" of building a startup.
As a serial connector — Mehta and Eniac are well-known in the New York tech scene for hosting events and initiatives throughout the year and through programs like New York Tech Week – Mehta says that creating a running community has had the most impact on founders, who show up for a variety of fitness reasons — whether it be to finish a 5K, ruck, or train for an ultramarathon.
Mehta himself completed his fifth New York City marathon earlier this month, sharing the course with 25 other Pitch and Run members.
"Founder peer groups, dinners, and coffees are amazing and great, but there aren't nearly enough of these communities," he said. "Pitch and Run is an intense personal and professional support group that has really transformed a lot of lives."
