Everything Jesse Middleton said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Middleton projects CurieDx will make $500K annually, rejecting founder's $6M estimate
“The financial part, she needs to button up, because my math is she'll make 500,000 dollars a year in the next two years, not six million.”
Middleton: Never Accept an Advisor Who Could Be an Investor
“My rule of thumb is don't let anybody be an advisor who can otherwise be an investor.”
Middleton: Big Beer will demand exclusivity or engineer around ReCraft
“I think it's a hard business to imagine, A, it being a standalone business at scale, because he's not making the beer, the big beer company is big beer, would like, they would want this, right, or they're going to find a way to do it themselves, not infringing…”
Middleton: Latin American venture exits lose 20% to 30% to tax friction
“One of the challenges is this like tax and excite, like everything you do there is then effectively costs you 20 or 30% more when you get your money out. So whatever your like goal is, like a billion dollar company is really a seven hundred million dollar comp…”
Middleton: Hotel operators and executives are finicky and hard to sell to
“I worry what the process looks like in selling the operators of hotels. Like I've known many people who've owned and operated hotels. I've known people at the corporate side. They're all finicky.”
Middleton: Object detection on shaky mobile room video is technically difficult
“It's not easy to recognize in shaky video on a cell phone walking around a room if something is out of place.”
Middleton: Founders' biggest grant mistake is taking misaligned funding
“The biggest mistake we've seen founders do is Take grants that don't fit in their existing plan.”
Middleton invested in Vital Audio despite founder rejecting consumer product model
“I invested in Vital Audio because of the show, and I will tell you that he is dead set on going B to B, and I would love for him to offer a consumer version of this product, and he just really doesn't want to do it.”
Middleton: Flybridge commits $50K check to Jungle
“And that's a 50,000 dollar check we can commit into whatever the round is. And I'd like to start by saying, like, I'd like to commit to that.”
Middleton: Founders should never name the first number in negotiations
“I mean, if I'm advising anyone, like sales one-on-one, don't throw out the first number.”
Middleton: None of the four or five HR-selling startups he backed succeeded
“I have backed four or five companies that sell through HR and employee resource groups, and maybe this says more about me than them, but none of them have worked out.”
Middleton: Employers accept $350 annual pricing, but direct consumers will struggle
“I think the employer is comfortable with it, but the consumer probably struggles.”
Middleton: Men Lack Brand Affinity for Beauty Products
“I do have a worry that as men do want to take care of ourselves, like we don't have the same affinity to a beauty brand yet.”
Middleton: Future Money has the best onboarding flow among fintech products
“So your onboarding flow is better than any other fintech product I've ever signed up for.”
Middleton: Generative AI observability startups typically hope for only $9K ACV
“Most people in this space are hoping to get 9000.”
Middleton: Codecademy pivoted to consumers because selling to schools is hard
“Of all the ed tech stuff that we've invested in, you know, Codecademy was one of the larger ones and tried selling in education. It was mostly to consumer, but selling into educational systems is just so hard.”
Middleton: BridgeFi developer adoption is harder than just dropping an SDK
“The developer one seems harder than it would appear on the surface. That, that would be my takeaway on it. That's why I wasn't like an immediate yes, because I don't think it's as simple of a developer platform as like dropping the SDK and go.”
Middleton: Healthcare investments typically demand systemic behavior shifts
“A lot of healthcare investments require you to believe like a systemic change. Like they require a massive shift in behavior and how, what they pay for and infrastructure.”
Middleton: Vital Audio's patents will hold up legally
“I believe the patent will hold up. And so that's part of my, I mean, you have to believe that.”
Middleton: Phil Bearer is best positioned to win family wealth investing
“And so if there's somebody who's going to win in this space, I think it's you.”
Middleton: Founders with a 'reasonable win' return more prepared and driven
“So I think when you have that reasonable win and you're coming at it again, you come really prepared and you come with this feeling that like, I'm going to make a difference, an even bigger difference.”
Middleton: FutureMoney's onboarding is the best I've seen in fintech
“It is super impressive, the onboarding flow, that with only your phone number, it filled out the entire form with my current address and social security number, so your onboarding flow is better than any other fintech product I've ever signed up for, so I will…”
WeWork was conceived as a global entrepreneur network from its inception
“Adam Miguel's vision was always to build a company that was going to be this global professional network of entrepreneurs and small business owners”
Evaluating venture capital investor performance takes five to ten years
“Knowing if you're any good at venture takes, you know, five years, seven years, sometimes 10 years, so I can't really speak for if I'm”