The news: Three months into BettingStartups Capital, Jesse Learmonth and Paris Smith took live questions from founders during a Defy the Odds Office Hours session—covering due diligence, AI, founder qualities, and where they think the market is getting ahead of itself. The fund writes $100K–$250K checks into early-stage companies across sports betting, iGaming, and B2B infrastructure. At the time of the session, they’d reviewed close to 100 deals and closed five.

Zoom in: At the earliest stage, the pair said they’re evaluating founders, not businesses—when there’s no revenue or KPIs to analyze. The framework they apply centers on four traits borrowed from Smith’s Pinnacle-era hiring philosophy: hungry, humble, smart, and passionate. On prediction markets specifically, Learmonth flagged two concerns: valuations he described as disconnected from market reality, and legal uncertainty around whether sport event contracts in the U.S. are here to stay—”it is not settled science,” he said.

Why it matters: BettingStartups Capital is an early-stage fund inside a small industry, which means the people writing the checks are often just a few calls away from the operators and partners founders are name-dropping in their decks. That dynamic gives the fund real reference leverage—and makes reputation matter more than it might elsewhere. The prediction market skepticism is also worth noting: when one of the more active early-stage funds in the space is flagging valuation bubbles and legal risk, founders in that category should be paying attention.

Like what you see? SUBSCRIBE to BettingStartups to access the full article!