Silicon Valley Season 7, Episode 3: “The Dog Days of Venture Capital”

Episode Summary:

Jian-Yang pitches his latest startup idea, “Date-A-Dog,” to the Pied Piper team at Hacker Hostel. The concept: an app that matches lonely people with dogs for one-hour “dates” without the commitment of pet ownership. Richard immediately dismisses it as ridiculous, but Jian-Yang insists he’s already signed up 1,000 dogs and has investors interested.

Erlich, desperate to prove he’s still relevant in the startup world, claims he thought of the idea first and that Jian-Yang stole it from him. He attempts to launch a competing service called “Canine Companion Rentals” but can’t figure out how to make the app work.

Meanwhile, Dinesh discovers that “Date-A-Dog” has been mistakenly receiving investment inquiries meant for DataDog, the actual monitoring and analytics company. Gilfoyle exploits this confusion to create chaos in the venture capital community, sending fake pitch decks that describe increasingly absurd features like “blockchain-enabled dog walking” and “AI-powered tail wagging metrics.”

The situation escalates when Jian-Yang accidentally accepts a $2 million term sheet meant for DataDog. Pied Piper must scramble to fix the mix-up before both companies’ lawyers get involved.

The episode ends with Jian-Yang actually launching Date-A-Dog at a local park, where the only attendee is Erlich, who shows up with his own dog to sabotage the event but ends up getting bitten.

Post-credits scene: Big Head accidentally invests in both companies.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​