Zap's Wrap April 7th

hi friends,

Whoa, last week was a big week!

I finally announced startup house aka The Lighthouse. It’s been 3 months in the making, but I felt ready enough to tell the world. We have over 20 founders circulating in and out, but every day I am focused on how we can better help Nashville startups win!

I joined the board of SoBet! Cooper is the first founder I helped get capital into, so this feels like a full circle moment. I am excited about where the product is headed- to allow people to compete in betting games, without having to spend the $ to place the bets.

We hosted our first public-facing event, a panel on term sheets with Derrick from Frost Brown Todd, Sean from Citizens Bank, and Larry with Thnks.

It was a great learning experience for me. Even though the focus was term sheets, we spent the majority of time on legal building blocks 101. I am thinking more about how I can help the members of the Lighthouse (which is focused on founders past idea stage) while still finding ways to help all startups, even the idea stage folks.

Startup stuff that’s cool

• I caught up with Matan from Spinach. He came to Nashville when he sold his last startup, Drippler, the ai-tech support assistant to Asurion. He’s now building a product anyone who takes meetings can use and try (for free)!

• My friend Chris with Heard Music is hiring! They are creating the moneyball for the music industry. You can see the listings for a full-stack engineer, ad operations manager, and paid media specialist here. Feel free to ping me about these too.

• HeroWear announces their 5M Series A! I knew this was happening, but I sure did get a kick out of it when I saw a photoshopped Mark Harris head on my Instagram feed this morning (: Huge congrats to the team!

• I met Brook with PreferCare. He previously was the founder and CEO of Spiras Health, that went through Series B. My folks who love seed stage healthcare, hmu for an intro because I truthfully do not understand what they do 😹

• I caught up with the team from Folx Table. They are pivoting their product to offer the community-building experience to already existing communities that want to strengthen the bond. They are doing their first pilot with a fitness studio. I am thinking of piloting it for the Lighthouse myself! If you run a community, this could be a cool thing to try.

• If you’re an early stage founder looking for capital, Startup NWA is offering Nashville founders a bus trip to Bentonville Arkansas for their VC Immersions event. They have over 30 VCs going. More info here!

Startup house

• Sunday 4/13 @ 12pm: Fix stuff!!! Come to the Lighthouse and help for a few hours with hanging, fixing, painting, building, decorating, etc!!!

• Wednesday, 4/23 @ 6pm: Reverse Pitch Hear from VCs on what they are looking for! The funds sharing will be announced next week!

• 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. We have a few more spots open.

Personal updates

Me and Mr. Zap braved the rain and checked out Sinatra’s! I’m not a big steakhouse person, but this spot was great. Although I have to say, I prefer their sister restaurants, House of Cards and Skull’s Rainbow Room!

Also, we got to see Mark Normand at the Ryman!! This was so cool! Thanks to our friends Dan and Joie for the tickets!

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

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

to the moon,

zap