In this episode of SparkTank Edition 7, host Sunny Ray brings together a panel of venture capitalists, including Mike Fineman, Ken, Stefan Witwell, Ron Netta, and Amanda Colbert, to evaluate live pitches from early stage founders. Adam Good, co founder and CEO of Oric Technologies in Sydney, Australia, presents a scent intelligence platform that turns mood into a recurring revenue stream through connected diffusers, an RFID smart oil capping system, and a companion app. He shares traction numbers, an enterprise deal with Telstra, and plans to raise a $2.5 million seed round. Sridar, founder of Tensor Links AI, pitches an AI powered front desk system for dental clinics that reduces missed calls, automates scheduling and insurance work, and recovers lost revenue for practice owners. The panel presses both founders on valuation, differentiation, customer insights, and go to market strategy, offering candid feedback on messaging, pricing, and growth priorities. The episode captures the format's fast paced dynamic, five minute pitches followed by rapid fire questions from investors weighing whether each startup is truly investable.
Founders pitch VCs on SparkTank Edition 7, from AI powered dental front desks to a scent intelligence platform chasing recurring revenue.
Can you tell us more about your patent, and how could someone in the US get a unit to test it?
You can go to oric.au to get one, just email me so we can figure out how to get more units into the US. On the patent side, it covers the full platform, the software layer, the RFID smart capping system, and the scent research we use to configure scent when you need it most. It spans six layers across the whole ecosystem.
How do the different scents combine, similar to how colors combine to create millions of variations?
We have eight therapeutic oils, TGA approved in Australia which is equivalent to FDA approval, made from 100 percent botanicals with no solvents. Those eight oils create 26 different aromas across four states: calm, focus, energy, and sleep. Because we track usage, we learn which oils you love and which you do not, then upsell or downsell based on that preference over two or three refills.
You mentioned you're the only business that knows a customer's scent preferences. How does that shape your business model?
We're the only business in the world that knows what aromas you like, when you're using them, and when you'll run out. Oils last 45 to 60 days depending on usage, so that data drives our recurring consumables revenue. Enterprises even build a signature scent for their space, which makes this a data driven wellness engine, not just a diffuser.
Can you address your valuation? It seems potentially high for this stage.
That's fair. Our pre-seed was at a lower valuation, around $4 million US. We're opening our seed round in July because of the volume of units coming onto the platform, both enterprise and consumer, and we now have a dashboard showing repeatable purchase and activation. We're open to the right strategic partners coming in at that earlier valuation or doing a small bridge.
What did your 900 plus customers teach you that changed the product the most?
A good third of our customers came from a home renovation TV show, which skewed older than our core health conscious, biometric focused audience, so we adjusted for that. We also learned purist aromatherapy users love our 100 percent botanical formulation, and getting government therapeutic endorsement increased our price point and broadened appeal to people conscious about what they breathe in their homes and workplaces.
What are you raising, and how will it be used?
We're raising a $2.5 million seed round, opening in July. It will help us scale manufacturing, currently at a thousand units, grow our install base, and launch in the US later this year. We're not building a diffuser brand, we're building a scent intelligence layer for emotional wellbeing across consumer and enterprise spaces.
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