Zap's Wrap April 14th

hi friends,

Last week, I blocked my calendar to focus on getting tasks done and OHMYGOD it was the best thing I’ve ever done 😭 It’s crazy how I can spend my entire week in 30-40 zoom calls and not have any time to get meaningful work done.

I prepped for my anti-conference, Lightning, which sold out with 63 VCs coming to see Nashville startups! 🙈

• A couple months ago, Jake reached out to offer me a free night’s stay at The Hideout Hotel in exchange for sharing about it! I thought it was super exciting to get my first ‘brand deal’, but it didn’t feel like me to post about a free trip. Instead, I asked Jake if I could gift it to someone. The first person who came to mind was Joe with Send-It Healthcare!!! When being an entrepreneur gets tough, I think of Joe, who is not only building a business, but raising 4 children under the age of 10. He’s the only healthcare founder I’ve invested into because I love how he’s focused on the mission of staffing doctors for hospitals in a transparent, fair way.

  Him and his wife, Meesh, went to the Hideout for his birthday! If you’re in healthcare, check out Send-It. If you’re looking for a weekend getaway, check out the Hideout Hotel!

• I made my 17th angel investment!!!!! Honestly, starting to feel a bit anti-climactic now LOL. This is a stealth startup building their own LLM.

• I hired 2 software engineers for two different startups!!!

Startup stuff that’s cool

• I caught up with Daniel from Fifr. Fifr is actually my financial advisor now. I love it because instead of charging me 1% of AUM, they charge me $100/month, so I’ll save over 1M in fees over my lifetime being their client. It’s also way more tech-driven, which fits my workflow better. Oh, and they did my taxes!!!

• I had a white boarding session with Cooper about SoBet! They’re working on a new product. I am learning about being a board member…. (:

• Jimmy with Glasshouse hit half a million in ARR! I invested pre-product, pre-revenue, so it’s been so fun to see this startup working.

• We had technical cofounders come hangout at the Lighthouse! I often get the comment that there isn’t enough technical talent in Nashville for startups, but I think that’s totally false. With what it takes to build products nowadays, you only need a handful of solid engineers. We have incredible engineers like Julie, Randy, Ross, Mike, and more!

• Josh paid us a visit in his camper van!

Startup house

• Wednesday, 4/23 @ 6pm: Reverse Pitch Hear from VCs on what they are looking for! You can see participating investors at the link.

• Wednesday, 5/14 @ 9:30am-2pm: Investor Day at the EC. If you are an investor, this is an opportunity to meet 1×1 with the strongest companies.

Personal updates

I had a ton of help building and fixing things at the Lighthouse! Afterwards, I took some of my helpers to Mexican (:

Ask me questions about Nashville startups through my AI-self here.

Or, come visit me at in-person office hours.

to the moon,

zap