{"id":618171,"date":"2026-10-13T09:15:31","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T09:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.olympiajournal.com\/news\/story\/618171\/askit-wins-1752vcs-lightning-round-ix-pitch-competition.html"},"modified":"2026-10-13T09:15:31","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T09:15:31","slug":"askit-wins-1752vcs-lightning-round-ix-pitch-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pennsylvania-magazine.com\/news\/story\/618171\/askit-wins-1752vcs-lightning-round-ix-pitch-competition.html","title":{"rendered":"AskIt Wins 1752vc&#8217;s Lightning Round IX Pitch Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"float:right;width:250px;padding:8px 10px 10px 10px\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abnewswire.com\/upload\/2026\/10\/1791572239.jpg\" style=\"border:none !important\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-29\" title=\"AskIt Wins 1752vc&#039;s Lightning Round IX Pitch Competition\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abnewswire.com\/upload\/2026\/10\/1791572239.jpg\" alt=\"AskIt Wins 1752vc&#039;s Lightning Round IX Pitch Competition\" width=\"225\" height=\"126\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-style:italic;padding:8px 0px\">Founder Lotan Magal&#8217;s consumer behavior prediction startup fast-tracks to final diligence for 1752vc&#8217;s Accelerate, with a shot at $100K in direct investment<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>SANTA MONICA, Calif. &#8211; October 13, 2026 &#8211;<\/strong>&nbsp;<a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/askit.ai\/\">AskIt<\/a>, a startup that simulates how people think and decide in order to predict real-world consumer behavior, has won<a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.1752.vc\/lightning-round\"> Lightning Round IX<\/a>, the signature pitch competition from Southern California venture firm and accelerator<a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.1752.vc\"> 1752vc<\/a>. Founder and CEO Lotan Magal pitched live on Zoom on Thursday, October 8, to a panel of investors, with 563 people registered to watch.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">With the win, AskIt fast-tracks to the final round of diligence for 1752vc&#8217;s <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.1752.vc\/accelerate\" target=\"_blank\">Accelerate<\/a>, the firm&#8217;s execution-first accelerator, with a shot at $100,000 in direct investment. AskIt also receives a feature in 1752vc&#8217;s investor and LP newsletter and a spotlight across 1752vc&#8217;s media channels.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">AskIt blends behavioral science with predictive modeling so brands can see which ideas will land before they spend on them. Teams can A\/B test text and images in minutes, build custom panels that mirror their real target market by segment, context and behavior, and run live surveys to stress-test a product, with actionable insights in hours.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">&#8220;Lightning Round exists to find founders with a real technical edge who move fast, and AskIt stood out in a highly competitive lineup,&#8221; said Ben Kahan, Principal at 1752vc. &#8220;Lotan is taking on one of the most expensive guessing games in business: figuring out what customers will actually do before you commit the budget. We&#8217;re excited to take AskIt into final diligence for Accelerate.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The finalists pitched to a live investor panel:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"caps\">Keith Yoder, Director of Business Development and Sr. Associate, Innovent Capital Group<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Vinnie Shahzad, VP of Startup Banking, Silicon Valley Bank, and co-founder and Executive Director of the Bruin Angels Investor Network<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Avag Simonyan, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Triple S Ventures<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">AskIt was selected from five finalists, each of whom receives 1752vc&#8217;s $1.3M+ startup perks package:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify\">\n<li>\n<p>Wizium AI (Andrew Botnev): an agentic operating system that runs commerce for sellers, from sourcing to marketplace ops<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Tener.ai (Nick Nagatkin): an AI recruiter that hires on references and behavioral signals, end to end in 10 days<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Adomo (Sharmin Ali): a security platform for enterprise AI agents<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>AskIt (Lotan Magal): simulates human decisions to predict consumer behavior before you spend<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Neural Wave (Chayan Bhattacharyay): automates the doctor&#8217;s clinical workflow inside the EHR<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">1752vc thanks Lightning Round IX sponsors and partners Ramp, Stubbs Alderton &amp; Markiles, and Innovent Capital.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Lightning Round X is coming soon. Early-stage tech founders can learn more and apply on the<a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/1752.vc\/lightning-round\"> 1752vc Lightning Round page<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>About AskIt<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">AskIt predicts real-world consumer behavior by simulating how people think and decide. Combining behavioral science with predictive modeling, AskIt helps brands test creative, model their real audience, and validate products before launch.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>About 1752vc<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">1752vc is an AI-native venture firm and accelerator based in Southern California that backs founders at the inflection point, helping them achieve escape velocity. Its Accelerate program invests $100K in startups where founder-led growth is tipping into repeatable, scalable systems, then engages on the levers that compound momentum: tight go-to-market, operational cadence, and fundraising discipline.<\/p>\n<p><span style='font-size:18px !important'>Media Contact<\/span><br \/><strong>Company Name:<\/strong> <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abnewswire.com\/companyname\/venturevoicemedia.com_164226.html\">VentureVoice Media<\/a><br \/><strong>Contact Person:<\/strong> Mila Hart<br \/><strong>Email:<\/strong> <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abnewswire.com\/email_contact_us.php?pr=askit-wins-1752vcs-lightning-round-ix-pitch-competition\">Send Email<\/a><br \/><strong>Country:<\/strong> United States<br \/><strong>Website:<\/strong> <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/venturevoicemedia.com\" target=\"_blank\">venturevoicemedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abnewswire.com\/press_stat.php?pr=askit-wins-1752vcs-lightning-round-ix-pitch-competition\" alt=\"\" width=\"1px\" height=\"1px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Founder Lotan Magal&#8217;s consumer behavior prediction startup fast-tracks to final diligence for 1752vc&#8217;s Accelerate, with a shot at $100K in direct investment SANTA MONICA, Calif. &#8211; October 13, 2026 &#8211;&nbsp;AskIt,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pennsylvania-magazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618171"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pennsylvania-magazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pennsylvania-magazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pennsylvania-magazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pennsylvania-magazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pennsylvania-magazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618171\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pennsylvania-magazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pennsylvania-magazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pennsylvania-magazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}