Mar 3, 2025 · 31m · the-pitch
#25 Rex
Amado Guloy · 11m spoken Josh Muccio · 7m spoken Phil Nadel · 2m spoken Jillian Manus · 2m spoken Daniel Gulati · 1m spoken Charles Hudson · 56s spoken
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
Scientist-entrepreneur Amado Galoi pitches Rex Animal Health—a big data analytics platform optimizing livestock health and biopharmaceutical research—to a venture capital panel, navigating both pitch room commitments and the complex realities of closing a seed round.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Josh holds 28.5% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Josh as informed peer 3.9 Guest teaching 4.4 Guest disagreement 1.4 Josh pushing back 2.9
speaking balance: gold is Josh, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 16:20 Amado challenges Phil's hesitation regarding industry expertise
When Phil expresses reservations about not knowing agriculture, Amado interrupts to reframe the premise, arguing he does not need ag experts but enterprise SaaS operators.
Hardest push from Josh ▶ 12:42 Phil challenges Amado over operational and billing blundersPhil refuses to brush past Amado's admission of uncollected accounts receivable, directly questioning who handles financial operations and invoicing.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 9:02 Amado reframes farm data collection realities for JillianAmado corrects Jillian's assumption that farmers and country vets reject digital data entry, explaining that farms routinely employ vet students specifically for paper-to-digital transcription.
Josh holds their own ▶ 15:09 Charles questions the feasibility of international market entryCharles leverages his VC expertise to challenge Amado's international roadmap, pointing out that foreign market entry strategies are notoriously expensive and slow for a two-million-dollar raise.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Josh as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Josh pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amado's Scientific Pitch and Livestock Data Overview | 2 | 5 | 1 | 2 | Amado introduces Rex using dense academic phrasing regarding genomics and disease resistance, prompting Josh to note that Amado is speaking like a scientist rather than communicating the tech value proposition clearly to investors. | |
| Framing Rex as Google Analytics for Livestock | 4 | 6 | 1 | 2 | Investors struggle to visualize the workflow until Amado explains barn vet tech scoring and details an antibiotic-resistant chicken lesion case study, allowing the panel to conceptualize the company as analytics for livestock. | |
| Addressing Farm Data Entry and Operational Realities | 4 | 7 | 2 | 4 | Jillian expresses skepticism that rural vets and farmers will handle data entry, but Amado directly educates the room that farms already employ veterinary students for manual logging, validating their data-capture strategy. | |
| Historical Revenue, Billing Stumbles, and Operational Leadership | 5 | 5 | 2 | 6 | Phil presses Amado on uncollected revenues and operational oversight, prompting Amado to explain the COO hire. Charles then questions whether two million dollars is sufficient to execute an ambitious Asia-Pacific market expansion. | |
| Investor Offers, Due Diligence, and Investment Commitments | 5 | 3 | 2 | 3 | Phil offers 250k after Amado clarifies he needs enterprise SaaS investors rather than ag specialists. Daniel reserves judgment pending scientific diligence, while Jillian and Charles contribute personal capital. | |
| Post-Pitch Investor Debrief and Commercial Viability | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | The investors praise the hiring of COO Eric in post-pitch discussions. In a follow-up interview with Josh months later, Amado reflects candidly on dropouts from Daniel and Jillian and regaining founder confidence. | |
| Collaborating with Lead Investors and Staying True to Science | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Amado discusses collaborating with Charles and Phil to polish his pitch materials and syndicate the round, emphasizing his dedication to scientific problem-solving over standard corporate pitch culture. |
Statements from this episode (20)
Rex Animal Health identifies disease-resistance genes in deer and cows
“We've actually found some genes after completing a few genomes in the white-tailed deer and looking at the cow, and so we're in the midst of publishing that in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.”
Rex Animal Health ingests farmer data to monitor livestock health trends
“Basically you have a vet tech or a farmer walk through their barn and there's hundreds if not thousands of animals. They're checking each and every stall and scoring every single animal On a respiratory score, and what's called a scour score, which is basicall…”
Amado Galoi says US livestock suffers annual epidemics impacting national GDP
“The United States is one of the most advanced agricultural economies in the world. We still have at least one endemic or epidemic in, in the herd every year, and that grossly affects things to the GDP.”
Livestock farms hire veterinary students to manually digitize paper health records
“So with respect to the data entry, that is part of their behavior. One of the things that a lot of these vertically integrated farms and even vets What the students who go to small farms do is they'll literally hire DVM students, veterinary students, to turn t…”
Rex Animal Health charges farmers only upfront server costs for their data
“So for a livestock producer that only wants to look at their data, they don't care about understanding anyone else's. We actually only charge them upfront costs on the server.”
Rex Animal Health contracts claim full ownership of derivative producer data
“The reason we do that, though, is because when we take in the raw data, our contract turns that raw data, any derivative product of that data is ours, and we can do whatever we want with it.”
Amado Galoi claims Rex Animal Health has generated $3M since inception
“So in terms of revenue generated to date about three million from when we started for this year.”
Rex Animal Health generates $85K to $95K in average monthly revenue
“We, we've had some stumbles in 2017 and late 20 16, so our average revenue per month is about 85 K to 95 K.”
Amado Galoi: USDA subsidies make US agriculture a bad market for agtech
“One of the things we've realized over the past two years is the United States is not a fertile market for agriculture tech. And that's primarily because the USDA gives so many subsidies that it's still cheaper for a farmer to cull their animals because they're…”
Rex Animal Health focuses seed fundraising on APAC expansion
“We're taking this raise to really focus on the APAC region, particularly Australia, New Zealand, and China.”
Amado Galoi claims New Zealand produces 35% of global dairy supply
“They produce 35% of dairy in the world, and they sell it a lot to China.”
Phil Nadel offers a $250K investment in Rex Animal Health
“You know, I, I'm really intrigued by what I've heard and the progress that you've made, and I'd like to invest 250,000.”
Daniel Gulati calls Rex's $2M on $8M valuation a great deal
“So by the way, I think it's actually a great deal in terms of the two on eight.”
Jillian Manus commits $100K of personal capital to Rex Animal Health
“I want to commit to this round. Okay. I'm going to say just of my personal money. All right. I'm going to commit a 100,000.”
Charles Hudson offers to invest under $100K in Rex Animal Health
“So I would like to invest a small amount in the company, which to me would be below a 100,000 dollars.”
Phil Nadel: I would not have invested without key hire Eric
“And I'll tell you, I would not have said yes if he hadn't hired Eric already.”
Amado Galoi: Daniel Gulati passed because Comcast Ventures is consumer-focused
“Daniel, Daniel just said, you know, I don't understand the market and it made sense for me. Cause it was like, Hey, Comcast Ventures is mostly a consumer focused fund.”
Amado Galoi says Jillian Manus dropped out of the Rex deal
“What was surprising was just a few weeks ago, you know, near the start of the year after, as I was kind of working on closing things with Charles and Phil. I'm like, Hey Jillian, you know, happy new year, blah, blah, blah. Like, you know, are you still interes…”
Phil Nadel and Charles Hudson actively assist Rex's subsequent fundraising efforts
“Phil has been introducing us to other investors, like, ag investors that he knows, and Charles has taken a look at my deck and, you know, we're about to sit together and be like, here's everything wrong with your deck and how you should frame it for investors,…”