Jesse Morris

Jesse is a General Partner at Difference Partners, a venture fund that invests in companies improving the lives of those who learn and think differently. 

Outside of investing, Jesse is a co-founder and board advisor of Very, an engineering firm helping clients build out IoT hardware, software, and smart products.

On his morning routine.

I set an alarm on my phone as well as my Echo Show, but I’d say about half the time, my body wakes me up between 7:30 and 8 AM like clockwork, even on weekends. I’ll stretch in bed for a bit to work my back and hip before actually getting up. 

Then I immediately drink a glass of water and take my morning medication for Hashimoto's, which is a thyroid condition. To get the blood flowing, I might do some more stretches and a couple sets of push-ups, sit-ups, or pull-ups on my pull-up bar. 

While that’s happening, the water’s also boiling for coffee. At the peak of the pandemic, I was using a V60 Pour Over kit and got deep into coffee profiling. As of late, Cometeer has been awesome. It’s almost too easy — you just boil water. I usually add cashew milk as well. 

I’m also trying to mix more collagen into my routine, so half the time, I’ll also throw some Bulletproof collagen powder in there. I’m also on my phone, usually reading Morning Brew and checking high-priority emails. 

Afterward, I sit down at my desk with my coffee and start the day. I’ll turn on CNBC to tune into “Squawk on the Street” and “Squawk Box” for current events and financial news, so I’m typically home from 8:30 to 9:30.

That time at home is precious to me. 

My weekend mornings are essentially identical to the weekdays, except I’ll try to work in a morning fitness class around 8:30 every now and then. Of course, I’m also less work-focused then; I’ll let an email or two go.

On chasing your curiosities.

I’ve always been an innately curious person with varied interests.

That definitely blossomed for me through entrepreneurship.

You meet tons of people on the job — other founders, investors, operators — and you see there are countless ways to get involved in companies.

In an advisor role, you end up touching so many unique verticals.

Most of the time, I’ll have one main thing going on. Today, it's focusing on building Difference Partners and helping the founders in this neurodiversity category. To really appreciate this, I’ll always need other creative outlets. It’s a fine balance that’s always been there for me.

It definitely also manifests through the fact that I love the human aspect of my job. For the first couple years of Very, all I did was coffee meetings and boardrooms.

All I wanted to do was meet people and understand how I could be helpful, which means you end up learning a ton.

Again, curiosity is what’s key. It allows you to access people’s stories and discover what’s important to them — and that’s one of the reasons we’re human, right? By design, we are invested in community. So this has always been a very human piece of my makeup.

On the joy of missing out.

There’s a secret to knowing how to slow down, which is that during the day, I’m firing on all cylinders. But once the sun goes down, I’m much less productive, and I’ve always known this about myself. I’ll never be that guy you see up after midnight.

Even if I go to a nighttime event, I’m trying to head out and wind down before it gets too late. Of course, things were different when I was younger. I was running around the city all the time and constantly plugged in in ways that my peers and I just aren’t anymore.

So I know I need the time to recover, and I’ll take it at night and on most weekends.

The FOMO is there, but there’s also a strange joy to missing out on things.

As life settles around COVID, there are so many more things happening, but I was forced to take a beat and learn to slow down. And now I just prefer staying home to recharge the battery.

For instance, I love taking Friday nights off after a very long week. Some of my Fridays are spent in the city with my phone off at Shabbat dinners, which mean so much to me.

In terms of total alone time, yoga and running are the best. In a yoga class, you can’t talk. Or maybe you’re doing it at home so you’re just not speaking. If I’m running, I do it without music. I just breathe and go for a five-mile run, and that’s where some of my clearest thinking happens.

On juggling multiple interests.

The funny thing about being diversified: Most people assume it adds to stress, and maybe it does, depending on how you structure things. But I’d honestly be more stressed if I didn’t have a diversity of interests and, again, curiosity.

Also, I make sure to only agree to things I can definitely handle. I won’t set myself up for failure in that way or commit to something I can’t fully accomplish.

In that sense, I do love advising and feel there’s a leg up for those of us who might be solo service providers (outsourced CMOs, CFOs, growth people, etc). So many companies need so much help, and specialists are having their moment. I love helping these founders realize their speciality.

When you’ve done something for so long, it doesn’t take much time out of your life to utilize it to make a difference in other people’s lives.

On his evening routine.

I always start and end my day with a hot beverage, even in the summertime. I’ll drink a variety of herbal teas. I’m on a ginger kick right now. Then I run through my dental hygiene routine. 

Right before bed, I’ll sit down and unwind by watching something. I’m a YouTube addict, usually with interviews. I love the NBA and JJ Redick’s incredible podcast. Sometimes I’ll watch a TV show. “Yellowstone” with Kevin Costner is one I’ve been watching a lot. 

Overall, I’m pretty religious about making sure I’m in bed by 11:30 PM at the latest.