Jesse Stein, a serial entrepreneur with multiple successful exits, discusses his journey from traditional businesses to AI agents for hospitality. His background includes selling a digital agency for $32M to Insight Partners, building and selling sports memorabilia.com to Fanatics, scaling a skincare company to $40M in under two years, and creating a robotic handwritten notes business.
Key Business Philosophy:
- Look for real-world pain points that feel “within reach” to solve
- Seek businesses with 70%+ gross margins
- Focus on clear sales and marketing motions (20% or less of revenue)
- Find underpriced media impressions for customer acquisition
Current Venture – Hermetic AI: Stein’s company has developed “Mia,” an AI agent specifically for hospitality businesses (restaurants, hotels, venues) that handles private event inquiries. The system:
- Responds to leads within 12 seconds via text message (95%+ response rate)
- Qualifies prospects, answers questions, and schedules meetings
- Integrates with CRMs like Triple Seat, Seven Rooms, and OpenTable
- Reactivates historical leads (65% response rate)
- Operates 24/7 without breaks
The Hospitality Focus: After testing multiple industries (roofers, pest control, software companies), Stein found hospitality had “palpable pain” – the need to respond first to win 80% of private event business. The AI agent handles the entire sales funnel while freeing up event coordinators for higher-value work.
Future Outlook: Stein believes companies with AI agents will replace those without, predicting that within five years, AI will handle most white-collar “pick and shovel work” while humans focus on face-to-face interactions and complex event execution.
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