Mike Salguero
Founder & CEO, ButcherBox. On 4 shows, 4 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutiveoperatorinvestor@mikesalguero ↗LinkedIn ↗butcherbox.com ↗
Mike Salguero founded ButcherBox in 2015, bootstrapping the subscription meat and seafood delivery service to over $600 million in annual revenue without outside venture capital. Before ButcherBox, he co-founded and served as CEO of CustomMade, an online venture-backed marketplace for custom artisans and makers.
4shows
4appearances
102statements
21resolved
17supported
0contradicted
81%fully supported
4said about them ↓ Everything Mike Salguero said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Salguero: Direct-to-consumer box subscription models are not VC-backable
“Yeah, I don't think so. I mean, the only way, so again, HelloFresh seems to be bolting on other services and going broader than just like, this is what we do. But I think it's a, I'm not sure it's a VC backable model.”
Startups should pair egoless industry veterans with gritty beginners, says Salguero
“What I found with older people is, like, there's really no ego. They're not, he's not trying to build his career. He's just, like, trying to do something meaningful and fun. And so to pair him with somebody with no experience and a lot of grit was like magical…”
ButcherBox would not have survived if it raised VC, says Mike Salguero
“And so I actually, I don't think I'd be around right now if I had raised money.”
Salguero: The claim that big companies require venture funding is a lie
“There are a few great lies of entrepreneurship, and one of them is that you can't grow a big company without raising a bunch of money. And it's perpetuated by an industry that, like, you know, venture capitalists make money when they give you money.”
Salguero: Early-stage startups cannot outperform century-old incumbents in distribution
“I think it takes a special kind of entrepreneur to think that you can get into distribution and do it better than somebody who's been in business for a 110 years, like right out of the gate. That's not gonna happen, right?”
Salguero: ButcherBox would be out of business if it raised venture capital
“Actually, I think we'd be out of business if we raised money because we would have raised money in 2015 when it was hot with big valuations, we probably would have raised again. And then when all the money like would not had had to build a profitable business …”
Salguero: The direct-to-consumer startup economy is falling apart
“And I do believe that the DTC economy is kind of falling apart right now. And Or already has, or is about to, and what we're seeing is more and more distressed companies that raised right after COVID, you know, had their 24 months of runway, are trying to tigh…”
Salguero: Greylock offered funding only if founders accepted a replacement CEO
“We went out to Greylock to convince them to invest in custom made, which they said they would if we moved out to California and worked for the CEO that they were going to place into the business.”
Salguero: Founders mistakenly assume venture capital is necessary for success
“I don't think most founders think before they start raising money. They think that they have to raise money in order to build a successful business. And I just wish they didn't.”
Mike Salguero believes ButcherBox would have failed if it raised venture capital
“If we had gone and raised money, we would not have a business right now, because if we had built a model that was like, oh, we're just going to, like, buy a bunch of customers and hope for the best, we would have, like, you know, it's a game of musical chairs,…”
VCs threaten to blackball founders who do not comply, says Mike Salguero
“So what they don't talk about is the, You know, the phone calls where if you guys don't do what we say, you probably gonna be blackballed. You probably won't be able to raise money again. You know, it's a, you're dealing with these powerful venture capitalists…”
Salguero: The US meat industry is broken and built on confusing labels
“The meat industry is pretty broken in this country. A lot of the labels are just confusing and people don't understand what they're eating. And really the industry has been built since the 19 fifties on cheap, food safe protein, and don't ask a lot of question…”
Salguero: Companies cannot do good while optimizing solely for shareholder profit
“I don't see how a company can be built, a company that wants to do the right thing can be built in the right way if you are just supposed to make decisions to make people more money.”
Founders only sell or IPO due to burnout or liquidity needs
“Generally, either you're sick of the business, like you're like, get me out of this thing or you need liquidity.”
Salguero: Building an iconic brand requires expanding into retail
“So if we want to be a brand, like an iconic, beloved brand we need to be in retail.”
Salguero: CustomMade Had Product-Market Fit With VCs, Not Real Customers
“And that then started the ride of really building something that Did not have product market fit, but it had product market fit with our venture capitalists.”
Salguero: Rejecting VCs is the best way to generate investor demand
“The best thing you can say to a VC is no. Yes. Like that's when they want you. I like to refer to them as like high school girls. It's like they, no one wants you until, like, somebody does, and then everybody wants you, and then, but, and then if you say no, …”
Salguero: As funding rounds grow, VCs scrutinize the business less
“The thing that I think people don't realize is the more money you raise, the less people actually look at your business.”
Salguero: Taking venture capital forces founders to prioritize investors over customers
“All you're doing there is you're diluting yourself. You own less of the company and you now have more people to answer to. You can't just answer to your customer and your employees anymore. You have this investor class that you have to like answer to and they …”
Salguero: Healthy DTC CPG businesses operate on 30% gross profit margins
“It's like a 30% gross profit. So if you sell a box of meat for a hundred bucks, you make 30 dollars on it after you've shipped it and credit card fees and all that. So 30% gross profit, basically 10% to operate the place. So salaries, technology, rent, et cete…”
Salguero: Blue Apron consistently spent over 20% of revenue on marketing
“The challenge with Blue Apron was they were constant and most, quite frankly, most of these box subscription companies is they were constantly spending well above 20% of marketing as a percentage of revenue through trial boxes and through, and it was always li…”
Salguero: Founders focus too much on business plans over lifestyle plans
“I think that founders generally focus too much on their business plan and not enough on their lifestyle plan.”
Salguero: Blanket Facebook ads and influencer marketing no longer work
“The old tactics, like we're just gonna blanket Facebook and do influencer. It doesn't work anymore.”
Salguero: ButcherBox outsources all farming, processing, shipping, and customer service
“We don't own our backbone. So we don't own the farms. We don't own the slaughterhouses. We don't own the cutting facilities. We don't own the distribution centers. We don't own last mile shipping. We don't own customer service.”
The other half of the tape: Mike Salguero's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 4 times in 1 episode across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 4
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
20VC 4
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Mike's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20VCLEDGER | Founder & CEO, ButcherBox | 1 | 36 | 100% 7/7 | full record on 20VC → |
 PRODUCT MARKET FITLEDGER | Founder & CEO, ButcherBox | 1 | 29 | 60% 3/5 | full record on A Product Market Fit Show → |
 HOW I BUILT THISLEDGER | Founder & CEO, ButcherBox | 1 | 19 | 100% 4/4 | full record on How I Built This → |
 MASTERS OF SCALELEDGER | Founder & CEO, ButcherBox | 1 | 18 | 60% 3/5 | full record on Masters of Scale → |