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Ismail Salhi

Co-Founder and CEO, Wildgrain · 2 appearances on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderexecutivescientistwildgrain.com ↗

After co-founding Qleek—a hardware startup bridging digital music with physical media—Salhi and Johanna Hartzheim launched Wildgrain in 2020. Wildgrain is a direct-to-consumer subscription service providing bake-from-frozen sourdough bread, pasta, and pastries that scaled to over $30 million in revenue.

15statements → 8claims → 2claims resolved → 4/5average certainty → 1.67/5average debate potential → 4said about them ↓

1 supported 0 partly supported 1 contradicted 1 not yet assessed 5 not checkable as stated how the 8 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

8 assertions · 1 opinion · 1 insight · 4 disclosures · 1 what if · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 8 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 2 are resolved, 1 is not yet assessed, and 5 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Ismail argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Salhi: CDs remained the most gifted music format in 2016
“And 30%, the highest, the most gifted item today, in 2016, wait for it, is still the CD.”
Ismail Salhi Mar 3, 2025 ▶ 9:24 #16 Qleek

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
Bold Ventures invested $750,000 into Wildgrain
“Seven 50.”
Ismail Salhi Mar 4, 2025 ▶ 21:16 #108 Qleek Pt. III: A Postmortem and a Comeback

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Ismail Salhi on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Ismail Salhi said on the Pitch that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Assertion Supported
Salhi: CDs remained the most gifted music format in 2016
“And 30%, the highest, the most gifted item today, in 2016, wait for it, is still the CD.”
Ismail Salhi Mar 3, 2025 ▶ 9:24 #16 Qleek
What-if
Qleek founder claims they would have raised heavily during NFT boom
“Like, if we would have survived COVID, or if COVID didn't happen, the NFT thing would have happened, and then we would have raised so much money.”
Ismail Salhi Mar 4, 2025 ▶ 11:15 #108 Qleek Pt. III: A Postmortem and a Comeback
Insight
Salhi: Millennials buy vinyl because digital music lacks tangibility
“Millennials are buying vinyls like crazy. Why? Because they never see and touch the content they have and they love.”
Ismail Salhi Mar 3, 2025 ▶ 13:31 #16 Qleek
Disclosure
Salhi: Qleek's failure caused trauma, required new business to avoid VCs
“The trauma of clique made me think if I have to start a new business, it has to be completely or Very, very independent from VC funding, that we could try it, and if it fails, we'll know it quickly, but if it succeeds, it can fund itself without external, addi…”
Ismail Salhi Mar 4, 2025 ▶ 14:40 #108 Qleek Pt. III: A Postmortem and a Comeback
Disclosure
Wildgrain capped customer acquisition cost at $60 to break even quickly
“It was 60 dollars. So you, we spend 60 dollars to acquire a customer, and then we don't spend more than that. Even if spending more than that would bring in a lot more customers, we don't, because we want to make sure that we break even in box two.”
Ismail Salhi Mar 4, 2025 ▶ 27:29 #108 Qleek Pt. III: A Postmortem and a Comeback
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Wildgrain reached monthly net profitability at the time of recording
“We are actually turning into profit this month.”
Ismail Salhi Mar 4, 2025 ▶ 27:53 #108 Qleek Pt. III: A Postmortem and a Comeback
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Salhi: Gifting digital content today requires buying CDs or gift cards
“Today, if you want to gift something to someone any content, A podcast that you like a playlist that you love, an artist that you really like. There's no way to do it. You should, you can only buy a CD, or you can buy a gift card.”
Ismail Salhi Mar 3, 2025 ▶ 7:05 #16 Qleek
Disclosure
Salhi: Bose is leading Qleek's current funding round
“We did a lot of user research with Bose, who is an investor in the company. Jillian Manus: Oh, are they? Ismail Salhi: Yes. Jillian Manus: They're fantastic. Ismail Salhi: And they are leading this round.”
Ismail Salhi Mar 3, 2025 ▶ 18:16 #16 Qleek
Disclosure
Salhi: Bose invested $350,000 in Qleek on a $4M valuation cap
“So they put three 50 On a four million cap, a 20% discount a year ago.”
Ismail Salhi Mar 3, 2025 ▶ 18:25 #16 Qleek
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Salhi: Amazon, Audible, and Tidal bought Qleek's NFC products
“We got Amazon. Audible was buying our stuff. We got title to buy our stuff.”
Ismail Salhi Mar 4, 2025 ▶ 6:04 #108 Qleek Pt. III: A Postmortem and a Comeback
Assertion Contradicted
Bold Ventures invested $750,000 into Wildgrain
“Seven 50.”
Ismail Salhi Mar 4, 2025 ▶ 21:16 #108 Qleek Pt. III: A Postmortem and a Comeback
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Wildgrain retained 60% of members 12 months after its initial launch
“It was a year after we launched, so May, 2020, we had, like, 60% of the members still ordering boxes.”
Ismail Salhi Mar 4, 2025 ▶ 25:55 #108 Qleek Pt. III: A Postmortem and a Comeback
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Salhi: Qleek saw a 30% reorder rate on its first production run
“30% of our customers reordered the first time.”
Ismail Salhi Mar 3, 2025 ▶ 17:36 #16 Qleek
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Salhi: Qleek has completely sold out of its hardware players
“All I can say is we ran out of stock for the player, so we can't sell it anymore because we don't have any more units in stock.”
Ismail Salhi Mar 3, 2025 ▶ 29:50 #16 Qleek
Opinion
Salhi: Qleek failed because it lacked resources for proper marketing
“We had very enthusiastic customers. We just never marketed that product properly. Never. Because we never had the resources and the opportunity to do so.”
Ismail Salhi Mar 4, 2025 ▶ 30:10 #108 Qleek Pt. III: A Postmortem and a Comeback

The other half of the tape: Ismail Salhi's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 4 times in 1 episode on the Pitch. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Josh Muccio 4

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
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2025 4 mentions in 1 episode

Appearances (2)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
#108 Qleek Pt. III: A Postmortem and a Comeback Mar 4, 2025 18m
#16 Qleek Mar 3, 2025 8m
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